If there's a stoop sale going on, you must be in Brooklyn. There are tons of them. Every weekend people roll out racks of clothing and set out tables of trinkets (junk), mountains of Tyko and Playskool toys and an occasional piece of furniture for sale. There are even a couple of entrepreneurial kids who set up a corner Panini business to feed the stoop sale goers. (They were
featured in the New York Times, though, according to the article, they rely on heavy backing from their father to keep the stand running.) The stoop sales are advertised on sheets stapled to telephone poles, chalked on sidewalks, and generally impossible not to stumble on if you're out for a weekend stroll. I don't have an opinion on stoop sales, though any urge to make a day of them harkens me back to my college boyfriend, a yard sale and thrift store addict and the one responsible for my vintage AC/DC necklace and silk jewelry box.
If there are men with babies strapped to their chests holding hands with pregnant women, you know you're in Park Slope, a particularly fertile area of Brooklyn. This area is home to the Food Co-Op and necessary to cross through if you're walking to Prospect Park. In this area, if you listen closely, you'll be able to pick up tips on making homemade baby food, recommended attachments for the Buggaboo and area coffee shops that welcome crying babies.
If there are a lot of hip people and a great movie theater called BAM, you're in Fort Greene. I sometimes think I should have kept looking and settled in Fort Greene.
If there's a lot of overhead noise because a kid is running around on the floor above you, you're in my apartment an you're not getting a lot of writing done.
