The legend of Trapper Abe: A true story from 1950s Brooklyn
“This was a real execution, and we were the executioners.”
There must be millions of squirrels in Brooklyn. They were everywhere, including inside the walls of the house on occasion. This is the story of the “now you see them and now you see them again” squirrels who were residents of our backyard in Flatbush.
An encounter with a squirrel in our backyard the other day brought memories of “Trapper Abe.”
In the backyard of my childhood, squirrels were the nemesis of my mother’s green thumb. She liked to plant things that grew from bulbs: crocuses, tulips, and the like. Bulbs are to squirrels what carrots are to rabbits. In would go the bulbs, out would come the squirrels, gone would be my mother’s hope of neat rows of flowers.