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Italian Ices and Sicilian Pizza
Growing up in Jackson Heights
I grew up in Jackson Heights. It’s a neighborhood in Queens, which is one of the five boroughs that make up New York City.
This was an ethnic neighborhood. Now, it has become “Little India” or it was the last time I visited the old neighborhood a few years before the pandemic. There were street signs in both English and Hindi, and you could hear a variety of Indian dialects from crowds of sari-clad ladies and men in business shirts and sandals.
When I was growing up, it was an ethnically diverse place. At one end of the street was a Chinese grocer that had chicken feet hanging on display in the window. At the other end was a diner that served slices of pizza and Italian ices. It only had three stools at the counter.
There was a Greek bakery, a Colombian cafe, a used book store, an American-style dress shop, and a Sam & Raj. The Sam & Raj was where you could buy or rent Indian movies, as well as buy electronics and saris. If you talked to the sales people in Hindi, you got a discount. (This was similar to taking a Chinese friend with you when you went to Chinatown — if they talked to the clerk in…
