To get to the Lemon Ice King of Corona, especially on a day when the 7 train is running express, you walk from Junction Boulevard in Queens. The walk is half the pleasure.
Under the elevated tracks, you go past the botanicas and tarot card readers, the driving schools and tortillerias, the women at sidewalk stands blending fruit into juice. You walk past the giant, flashing signs for Corona Oral Surgery–the ones that inexplicably advertise OB-GYN! OB-GYN!–and turn right onto 104th Street, through the land of barber shops...
...It’s Indian summer, or more Global Warming. The locust trees along the sidewalk are turning gold. The Mets have just one game left to play. At the Lemon Ice King, the candy apples have appeared, another sign of the changing season. A new crowd arrives, taking vivid colors into their hands—pistachio green, cherry red, blueberry blue. No one buys a candy apple. They’re not quite ready to give up the ice.
Read the whole essay at Metro NY
The Ice King of Corona is an institution, always stopped there after Yankee ball games. The immediate neighborhood is a unique time capsule of old NY with men playing Bocce ball in the well maintained park across the street, locales enjoying late night strolls and shopping while dinners spill out of Park Side restaurant to sample some dessert at the Ice King.
ReplyDelete"The Ice King of Corona is an institution, always stopped there after Yankee ball games"
ReplyDeleteI guess this person is not a baseball fan...
He could have been watching the Yankees. Yankee Stadium was being renovated in the 70s . That where they played. The King was there but most of Corona was dead.
ReplyDeleteI grew up in Corona (went to PS 13 and on to IS 61), and yes, the Lemon Ice King has been a fixture for a very long time. The little bocce park has long been called "Spaghetti Park."
ReplyDeleteYes, indeed, Corona was one of the city's most dangerous, crime and drug-ridden neighborhoods. It has mellowed a bit, in recent years.
The Yankees played at Shea Stadium in 1975.