Dennis, as you can tell in talking to him, was a transplant from Brooklyn to Kendall and arrived about the time I did in the late 40's. He lived in a home in the (then) village that belonged to the Dice family. The Dice's were the local gambling kings at the time. Soon after I arrived, I was being given the grand tour by some of the kids and we happened to stop by the Dice's store. They took me upstairs to a large room which contained only a long table and about 8 or 10 telephones. I remember remarking "boy these people sure make a lot of calls". The kids laughed their heads off, told me how stupid I was and finally explained that Mr. Dice was a bookie.

Dennis, who was Italian, was very dark and could spend all day at the beach without burning which made him the envy of the rest of us. I do recall he being knicknamed Brookly, but we used to also call him the mouse. I think because he refused to fight any of us other kids. That all changed when he enlisted in the Marine Corps after school and to the amazement of us all breezed through Paris Island which we all considered to be his greatest accomplishment.

Submitted by Doug Walker (Chinks '55)

His early years

One evening at MYF (Methodist  Youth Fellowship) we were playing a game of passing the match box (small) from nose to nose under the watchful eye of Old Pastor Cadwell when Dennis and Barbara were down on their knees trying to pass the box.  Hey,  this was the kind of things we teenagers did at that time.  So different now.

Submitted by Joan Walker

Another thing that just came to mind was I remember Dennis's mother being so upset with us for nick naming him Brooklyn as soon as he landed in Kendall ( you know the NY accent and manners).  Back in those days Kendall-lites had very little regard for Yankees.  I don't know how many I sent out the Tamiami Trail toward Naples when asked directions to the courthouse.

Submitted by Doug Walker (Chinks '55)