Welcome To Brooklyn Stickers

In 1976, I was a teenager with what I thought was a good idea. That year, "Welcome Back Kotter” was a top rated sitcom with John Travolta in his first starring role. The opening segment showed the iconic "Welcome to Brooklyn" sign located on the side of the Belt Parkway, just off the Verrazano Bridge exit.

Being from the neighborhood, one spring day I took a step ladder and my Polaroid Land camera and took a picture of that sign. In turn, I took the picture of that sign to a sticker maker to turn the image of the Brooklyn sign into stickers.

Here a problem arose. The sticker maker told me I had to get permission from the Brooklyn Borough President. Who knew? Luckily, the sticker maker did campaign work for the Borough President, Sebastian Leone, and within days I was standing in his office at Borough Hall. Behind him on a wall, was one of my stickers. I was so proud of myself that day. He chatted with me for a while and with a backslap and some glad-handing, permission was given. A business was born. 1976 was also the year of the great bicentennial celebration to commemorate the 200th anniversary of the Declaration of Independence and the creation of the United States as an independent republic. Large crowds gathered in Bay Ridge to watch these tall, massive ships coming into New York as part of the celebration from around the world. I saw a golden opportunity to sell my stickers. However, being young and easily bored, I soon got tired of selling and I went back to being a kid.

Now, years later, I discovered a stash of these stickers in my closet. My mother may have thrown out my baseball cards, but my stickers survived. Now I’m offering them to you all these years later to celebrate "The 4th Largest City in America" Brooklyn, U.S.A.

ENJOY!

Joseph Alessi.