John Knox Village Life magazine recently asked residents to share stories of commonalities and shared histories they share with other residents. Residents Marianne Berkes, Edith Buttner, and Elaine Kornspan all grew up in City Island, New York. They discovered the coincidence after moving to JKV.
By Marianne Berkes
Edith Buttner, Elaine Kornspan and I all grew up in City Island, New York, a part of the Bronx that is more like a small New England town. Settled by the English in 1685, it has a rich nautical history. With a population of around 4,000, the island is just half a mile wide and one can walk the length of it in a short time.
On this island is a small public elementary school, P.S. 17, that we all attended, but at different times. The eighth-grade graduating class usually had about 30 students. When it was time to go to high school, we could choose
one across the bridge somewhere in the Bronx, since City Island didn’t have one. Edith went to Christopher Columbus High School and I went to Walton High School. Elaine’s family were turn-of-the century settlers in City Island who eventually became Florida snowbirds, so Elaine graduated from elementary school in Daytona Beach.
But who would have ever thought so many years later the three of us, living on a small island in New York in our youth and having never met, would all be living in Florida having lunch together at John Knox Village? Incredible!