Ellen Abrams

Memories of growing up on West 29th Street and meeting her lifeguard husband on Coney Island Beach

Ellen Abrams' earliest memory is sitting in a wicker carriage and being taken for a stroll on the boardwalk by her mother and grandmother. Growing up in Coney Island in the 1940s and '50s, Ellen enjoyed birthday parties every July on the beach and going to Steeplechase Park. Her family lived in a 3-room apartment  at 3001 West 29th Street next door to the Half Moon Hotel. Playing outdoors and going to the beach were a daily routine. In 1958 she met her future husband, Martin Abrams, on Bay 21, where he was working as a lifeguard. Ellen shares the story of how they met, dated, and ended up getting married in her apartment because of the blizzard of 1961. In February 2021, the couple celebrated their 60th wedding anniversary.