Reunion brings 'em back to old sod of Kingsbridge

Kathleen Maloney grinned from ear to ear as she tried to talk among hundreds of people squeezed into the Gaelic Park bar. The Kingsbridge native, who now lives in Hastings, New York, put her arm around elementary school classmate John McNally, who moved to Long Beach, New York.

As they stood in close quarters, the two recalled childhood memories from sleighing down the steps of Bailey Avenue to going swimming in Van Cortlandt Park’s pool.

Nostalgia was in the air at a neighborhood reunion for some 600 Kingsbridge residents past and present on Saturday.

“We wished this could go on until about four in the morning and then have breakfast and start again,” Ms. Maloney said. “Really, we could use an overnighter.” 

Like most others at the bar, Ms. Maloney and Mr. McNally had not seen each other since the last Kingsbridge reunion, in 2003. According to organizers, that gathering drew even more people than Saturday’s event — 1,000. 

Still, the response to this year’s invitations was so overwhelming, owners of the bar had to add a tent outside their West 240th Street establishment to accommodate all the native sons and daughters of the neighborhood. There were people originally from Riverdale and Marble Hill along with Kingsbridge.

Some of the revelers came from as far away as Japan, France, Alaska, California, Florida and Colorado. They wore lanyards indicating their names and former residences, with some sporting T-shirts saying, “You’re always from the Bronx.”

The atmosphere of former residents enjoying food, drinks and live music brought back memories for co-organizer Roger O’Sullivan.

“Me and my mother used to run block parties on 236th and Broadway,” he recalled. “[It was] 20 bucks to get in and the money went to the Little League, CYO camps. We’d have 300 to 400 people on a block with a stage and a band and stuff like that. Every time I say we’re going to have a party, people came. Every single time.”

Lance Wald, who lived on West 232nd Street and Broadway for 33 years, was talking outside when he ran into former Little League teammate Jim McDarby.