Dr. Ina Bendis

Dr. Ina Bendis's  father, Charles Bendis, owned a pharmacy on Mermaid Avenue at West 23rd Street in Coney Island. B&B Drug Company, operated on the Avenue until 1969. Dr Bendis grew up in Coney Island and Sea Gate and tells a loving story about working with her father at the store when she was a child. Although most of Mermaid Avenue was demolished for urban renewal her father’s building somehow survived and is once again housing a pharmacy. She tells her story of growing up in a tight-knit community.