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Looking at Living from Brown stone BrooklynBY NINO PANTANOThanksgiving, midway between Halloween and Christmas, is a comfortable holiday. If Halloween is Bela Lugosi and Christmas, Santa Gaus, then Thanksgiving is as comfortable as one%u2019s favorite chair. It is a day for family and feasting with none of the rush that makes Christmas so frantic. It is the launching of a leisurely cruise to a big pert.No need to exchange gifts or undergo a spiritual catharsis, no sense of %u201c let down%u201d or sadness when it is over. It is rather just the beginning, the lull before the Christmas and New Year storm . It is a celebration with equal billing for all faiths. One of the late Norman Rockwell%u2019s mostfamous creations shnwc th%u00bb Americas family celebrating Thanksgiving.So it is an easy holiday and one that all can enjoy! I, too, will go back in time to my childhood in Bensonhurst.At 18th Ave. and 86th St. there was a chicken market. I remember chickens andturseys straining their necks out of their crates. Grandma would choose the bird with the desired plumpness and his fate would be sealed!I never had the courage to watch how their necks would be wrung or their heads chopped off. The smells of the chicken market were pretty abominable and I would try to hold my breath. Grandma lived in Mrs. Garafolo%u2019s house then and my folks lived right across the street. The Bath Ave. trolley ran right through the back yard. It was reddish in color and looked like the old %u201c Toonerville%u201d trolley. Mrs. Garafoio had twin sons, Jimmy and Joey. They were called the %u201c twin boys%u201d and were drafted to fight in World War II.----: - L %u00ab -------%u00ab- < %u2022.......%u00ab**e v iu v i uviguuuuiuviu uuysdrafted was a scrawny kid named Leo. The twin boys%u2019 grandmother was past 90 when they left. Her only wish was to live to see them return and share a true Thanksgiving dinner with them. Well, she lived to see them return. She lived to be 97. GoodSicilian stock!Thanksgiving 1945 was unforgettable and there were many block parties to welcome our boys back. Some did not return and their names were enshrined on a wall next to the Madonna in front of St. Finbar%u2019s Church. As for %u201c skinny%u201d Leo, who resembled young Frank Sinatra, he became one of the greatest heroes of the war. He saved his men by single-handedly defying the Nazis who shot at him until they ran out of ammunition and then ran over him with a tank. He lived, and his saga wasi Ripley%u2019s %u201c Believe It or Not.%u201d He came back on crutches. My mother wrote many songs for the boys. She wrote land played the piano.%u201c But as I reach fur you, find it s aii untrue%u2014it%u2019s just another one of those dreams%u201d was one of the lyrics my mother wrote that haunts my memory. Peace in the world was the Thanksgiving gift in 1945. After dinner my grandfather's brothers came and the happy sounds of guitar andmandolins filled the air.I attended P.S. 200 and we learned such songs as %u201c We gather Together to Ask the Lord%u2019s B lessing%u201d and %u201c The Pumpkin Song.%u201d And like the children today, we would draw and cut out paper turkeys and take them home to paste on the wall.Grandma mo\\ H to a large house across the street from the church and my parents and family moved a few blocks away.One Ihanksei/ing, Dad was determined tc drive i\- ! :v York and see the Macy%u2019s farade. %u00bbre naiked into his brand new 1947 Hudson rnd speeded off%u2014only to discover that we kept missing it. %u201c It%u201d was always just around the bend. We missed the parade.Otner years, we made it. 1 remember seeing Milton Berle when he was %u201c Mr. Television.%u201d Another year Jimmy Durante was the Grand Master. He kept saying (in Italian) an expression complaining on how cold it was. The large balloons and floats were marvelous and I especially enjoyed aNovember 23,1978, THE PHOENIX, Page 11