A Me Grows in Brooklyn - Memories of an Irish Childhood

At fourteen, I was too homesick to stay at summer camp. But Buck and Beaver eventually gave me something I hadn’t known I needed: a glimpse of life beyond my familiar Brooklyn streets.Three years later, I was cycling across Canada, discovering freedom through new friendships, awkward encounters with girls, and adventures that sometimes veered dangerously off course. From camp cabins to Canadian roads, there were wrong turns, close calls, and extraordinary kindness from strangers.“Leaving Home” follows the summers that helped turn a sheltered boy into a more confident young man. It’s also a tribute to my parents, whose willingness to let me go made that growth possible—a gift I understood more fully when my own children left home.

On the 25th anniversary of September 11, Twin Towers is a tribute to two towering figures in my life: my brother Frank Connelly and my uncle Artie Connelly. Both devoted their lives to the FDNY, and both found themselves at Ground Zero on 9/11—Frank as an active firefighter and Artie, already retired, returning to help the department he had served for four decades. Their intertwined stories are about courage, grit, family, and an extraordinary devotion to duty that endured long after the Twin Towers themselves were gone.

Life on 83rd Street in Bensonhurst revolves around stickball games, neighborhood friendships, and the unwritten rules of the block. But when Victor—a feared kid from outside the neighborhood—arrives with a reputation for violence and a habit of shaking down the kids on the street, the easy rhythms of childhood are disrupted. As Victor's influence grows, twelve-year-old Jerry is drawn toward an unavoidable confrontation that will test his courage and change the way he sees himself. Funny, suspenseful, and deeply personal, Street Fight captures a time when a Brooklyn block could feel like an entire world—and one afternoon could feel like a lifetime.

In this next installment of Jerry Connelly’s autobiography, he spends a summer at a cottage in the Hamptons with his family, where the days are filled with beaches, rituals, and memories of his relatives, especially his Uncle Tom. But beneath the surface of the vacation runs a darker current, one that leaves him with a memory that will stay with him for life.

In this story, we return to 1970s Brooklyn for a funny, sharply observed portrait of family life, where the arrival of a new pet sets off a chain of domestic chaos. With warmth, wit, and vivid detail, the piece captures the unpredictable nature of childhood and the small, unforgettable moments that shape a household’s history.