DEAR EDITOR:

This is an issue concerning WKBN’s report on the Monkey’s Nest neighborhood. I’m probably the last living person who roamed the streets on West Rayen Avenue. The gentleman’s report did get into very early times with his newspaper issue, but showing the homes that looked like junk was further from the truth.

My grandparents lived at the end of the street right next to the large lumber yard. The home was where nine of my uncles and one aunt grew up. The area was populated with some prominent folks and yes, as time moved on homes did fall apart and yes, the black community did come in, and I enjoyed many lunches with them. Behind her was the hill that my grandfather walked everyday to Delmont’s Bar on the corner and next to the Teamsters building, off 422.

Yes on Bridge Street it took you to another bar on a corner on another hill — this one going down to the silver, one-lane bridge to US Steel Gate 1.

Heading down Rayen Avenue, the small grocery store that was the headquarters at the time was called the BUG. Three numbers that folks bet on, yes it illegal, I counted many number sheets before we burned them every night.

Yes, it was a fun time growing up there; no I did not live there but every Sunday I was there plus when school was out, I spent weeks there — all good.

STEVE TERLECKI

Austintown