More Facts from Poppi

I spoke with my father today and he said that the Interboro Parkway was completed in the Spring of 1937 and the reason he knows the date so well is because he was doing work for his college graduation (Brooklyn College - Class of 1937) and he heard the constant construction work on the Parkway in front of his house.
He also told me that the street was initially named North Vermont Street before it was changed to 8 Vermont Avenue which by the way was the address he placed on his school papers during his years at St. Michael's Elementary School (East NY Brooklyn) and Bushwich High School.  Poppi said that although he was born in the house at 8 Vermont Ave (later 62 Interboro Pkwy now Jackie Robinson Pkwy) he was technically born in Queens because the border between Queens and Brooklyn was eventually changed - the border line between Brooklyn and Queens ran right down the middle of the Street in front of our home.  If, when there was an accident on the Interboro Parkway, we called the Brooklyn Police, they would direct us to call the Queens Police since the Highway was in Queens.  When Poppi was a little boy he would see herds of cows and other animals parading/herded down the middle of his street (he thinks that they might have been on the way to the slaughterhouse).   It is hard for me to imagine that area being so much "in the country|".  Poppi's father, Joseph Fries, taught Poppi how to drive in Highland Park (up the street from our home) because at the time you were able to drive on the walking paths.  Poppi also remembers that there was a type of house/bandstand in the middle of the park where people would sit in chairs and listen to bands playing.  The band would be one story up so they could be more easily seen.  There was also a special Memorial site honoring World War I veterans (He is not sure if this is still there).