The following readers sent their reflections of the JCC

These letters were received by May-Ronny Zeidman after her column of May 25.

Posted

I

 remember playing basketball on the third floor of the JCC at the corner of Potters Avenue and (I think) Hamilton Street in South Providence.

The ceiling was about 9 feet tall. Indeed, it had been a police station. I also taught target shooting with BB guns. I had to join the NRA to qualify as an instructor.

My first paying musical gig when I was 14 was at the old JCC on Sessions Street. We were a quartet and earned $5 each. Larry Perlman played the trombone, Everet Schiffman played the drums, Bob (I forget) played the piano and I played the clarinet and saxophone. 

Good times!

Stan Freedman

Providence, R.I.

 

I

 go back to even an earlier day when the JCC was on Benefit Street near Halsey Street. I can remember my dad, Norman Feinberg, taking me in the late 40s every Sunday morning to the Gym at the JCC on Benefit Street. There was a basketball league that included JCCs from around New England, and the games were played on Sunday mornings. (Some of the players besides my dad were George Katz, Harry Platt, Maxwell [Muddy] Waldman, two dentists who were  brothers-in-law, Dr. Chester and Dr. Nelson and others who this old mind cannot remember!)

Regarding the JCC on Sessions Street, my father’s brother Saul Feinberg was very much involved in securing the site and arranging for the move from Benefit Street to Sessions. Like you, I remember “hanging out” there weekends and evenings after school.

Do you remember the old TOPPS DINER across from the Old RI Auditorium?

 Keep up the good work. Hope you don’t mind me putting in my two cents!

 Joel Feinberg

 Cranston, R.I.