I recall the Two Guys store on Sunrise Highway in Massapequa, a crummy discount place near where the Frank Buck zoo used to be. Pep Boys didn't exist in New York back then but might now. My old man would not have welcomed the competition as he and his brother in law ran a car parts store in Copaigue. The Pep Boys are the only car parts chain ever mentioned in a song, namely Spike Jones and the City Slicker's version of "My Old Flame."
Just for the record, for non-New Yorkers, he was talking about E.J.Korvette's.
And yes, there were two guys who started the first location of the chain with that name.
New Yorker legacy test: fill in the blank: "Shows and dance, singer free, so's the parking ______________.
Yesiree!
Palisades amusement park,
swings all day and after dark!
ride the coaster, get cool
in the waves in the pool
you'll have fun!
so come on over!
world's largest outdoor saltwater pool!
54light15Yesiree!
Nope!
(You have the right song all right, but not the rhyming words. And finding the song on YouTube will not help you with the answer ... at least, not much.)
HINT: When I was a boy I thought he was saying 'so cheap' about the parking...
Should we start another thread about nostalgia before we get 'rudely interrupted'?
54light15 Yesiree! Palisades amusement park, swings all day and after dark! ride the coaster, get cool in the waves in the pool you'll have fun! so come on over! world's largest outdoor saltwater pool!
Don't forget this part:
It's no trouble, it's no fuss, ( CLAP! CLAP!)
Take a PUBLIC SERVICE BUS!
Public Service is really great, they drop you right off at the gate!
Well, I've just got to post some answers and observations, so I'll so so "seriatim"...
Overmod, I see you spent some time growing up inTenafly. Small world! My father's from Tenafly, grew up on Gordon Street right off Jefferson Avenue. It's ironic, the house Dad grew up in is still there and pretty much as it was, although the last time I drove past it looked a lot smaller than I remembered. Ah, Grandma's and Grandpa's, lot's of good memories in that house! The house I grew up in was bulldozed and replaced with a McMansion. Whenever Lady Firestorm and I are back in Paramus she asks "do you want to go see your old neighborhood?" I say no, it's unrecognizeable now and the house I grew up in is gone. What's the point?
Castro convertibles? Sure, I remember them! Don't remember Dormans Cheese though, the cheese we had said "Shop-Rite" on the wrapper. Sweet Wilhelmina never made it to Paramus, never "met" her. I certainly remember "Choo-Choo Charlie!" Ever blow through the "Good and Plenty" box to make the train whistle sound? It only lasted until the box got soggy with spit!
Oltmannd and 54light15, I guess the "stupid kid" didn't live on "The Gyland", or you guys would have caught him by now. Maybe he was from Staten Island?
Oh, and "E.J. Korvette's" didn't stand for "Eight Jewish Korea Veterans." That's an urban legend that took hold because in a way, with us kids anyway, it made sense. "Yeah, eight Jewish guys fought in Korea, came home, got together and started a business, and more power to 'em!" The reality's a bit more prosaic. The store was started by Eugene Ferkauf and his friend Joe Zwillenberg. The "E" and the "J" come from Eugene and Joe's first intials. The "Korvette" was inspired by the "corvette", an anti-sub warfare ship from World War Two. Don't know how they picked up on that one, Eugene was in the US Army Signal Corps during the war. Maybe he heard the word corvette somewhere and thought it sounded cool. It doesn't refer to the Chevy car, the store was founded before the 'Vette came out. It was started before the Korean War, for that matter. The Korvette's in Paramus was on Route 4 right across from the old Bergen Mall. They had a great record department, got my "Patton" soundtrack album there. Still have it, as a matter of fact.
Anyone remember Brookdale Beverages? Man, that was good soda!
And who cares if "someone" doesn't like the nostalgia trip we're on? Sometimes it just feels good to shoot the breeze with others of your background and who are on the same wavelength, so to speak. If the proverbial "something happens" we'll just start another thread!
Amen!
My neighborhood was Joyce Rd. north of Tenafly Road (and the old Northern branch -- although, incredibly, I didn't cross Tenafly Road traffic to watch my beloved RS units and Stilwells. (Mom has said it wasn't safe...) Neighborhood is EXACTLY as it was. Just as my father's neighborhood (Gershom Place in Kingston, PA) is just the same, flood and all. (A few blocks east the situation is nowhere near as sanguine, though!)
"Give yourself a package of nat-u-ral goodness, Dorman's Endeco Cheese" (as I used to think it was spelled, only having heard it on the radio) -- the cheese with the paper between the slices.
"Sweet Wilhelmina eats her Farina..." (I knew a girl named Lenore who acted JUST that way when I was at EMS before 1st grade ... we were all scared spitless of her...
I confess that I would never have gone into a Shop-Rite or Pathmark growing up -- we were a Grand Union family (and I still have a soft spot for the memory after lo! these many years).
Later nostalgia: hanging out at the next-to-last of the really old, classic McDonalds, in River Edge, for the entire rush-hour show with U34CHs. Honorary steam locomotives in almost every respect. Helped me not miss the amazing other power ... E8s and ATSF stainless cars, passenger Geeps, a few RSes ... and, for one brief shining moment, PAs ... that EL used in the last few years of commuter service.
Missed the Bergen Builder, and all that fascinating stuff on Long Island after Amtrak, completely. (And this after reading the story about the Cannon Ball in an early-60s issue of Trains!) But always, always watched the Hell Gate when going over the Triborough -- for some reason I was expecting EPs or EFs on trains, but didn't realize I was only a couple of years too late...
But was NOT too late for lightning-striped joy when heading downhill from the Flash across Macomb's *** Bridge (as my father called it, tongue-in-cheek) to watch the Yankees before Stoneburner did his Roone Arledge transformation of a team into a bunch of prima donnas. That was the era where I thought the 20th Century Limited would go on forever, the most famous train in the world....
RME
Dorman's ENDECO Cheese! NOW I remember! The radio commercials anyway. And it's THAT "Sweet Wilhelmina", OK, now I remember her too.
Remember this radio commercial? "Merkel meats are good, good good. Taste just like they should, should should! You hear it all over the neighborhood, a great big "MMMMMMM!" for Merkel!"
Remember what happened to THEM?
Yeah, it's amazing how little some of the neighborhoods in Tenafly have changed, and you know, that's a good thing. As DAD says, "some things shouldn't change!" And I remember that McDonalds in River Edge as well, one of the last of the Golden Arches, although I think the one in Fair Lawn lasted a bit longer. McDonalds was fine, but couldn't hold a candle to Hirams Roadstand in Fort Lee, also still there, thank God! Another great place for burgers was (and still is) the State Line Lookout Inn in Palisades State Park, try it if you're in the area.
Ah, memories...
Ah, goodness, Hiram's with the fly races on the tabletops. What was the other hot-dog/burger place up there, close to where the old interurban route (Rt. 5) went down the Palisades?
Did you ever get to patronize the Stewart's Root Beer places? I remember driving into one in the Thunderbird, with the Black Russians rolled up in the T-shirt sleeve and all, thinking that was pretty cool. I look over and see two girls with that red, red '50s lipstick and typical makeup looking over. Then in come a couple of honest-to-goodness greasers, in a yellow Vette, combing their 'do. We all started laughing. For one brief shining moment, it was still the early '60s...
My father told me stories about going to Bill Miller's Riviera when he was in med school in the late '40s. Rockefellers made him take it out when the Palisades Interstate Park was established... there were some pretty funny things that happened there.
The other hot dog place in Fort Lee was Callahans, right across the street from Hirams as a matter of fact. Callahans is gone now, replaced by a CVS drugstore I believe. As you know, we just CAN'T have too many CVS's, now can we?
The owner of Hirams refuses to sell, even though he's had some big offers for the property. Being the owner of a local legend means more to him than the "big bucks", God bless his noble soul!
Never went to a Stewarts, honestly I don't remember too many of them being around, anyway I was a Coca-Cola fanatic, never cared for root beer. I like a good root beer now, but given the choice...
Now, Bill Millers Riviera on the Palisades. "Weird New Jersey" magazine had an article about them several issues ago. It was supposed to been a very classy place to go, even if some mobsters were included in the clientele. (Gangsters? In New Jersey? Really?) Sinatra performed there in his early years, and as a matter of fact the last on-site barber at the Riviera still cuts hair at a Fort Lee barber shop, or he did when that "WNJ" magazine came out a few years ago. I'll have to go into the archives here at the Festung Firelock to check, but I think the site of the present Fort Lee Historic Park is where the old Riviera used to be. FLHP is a neat place to visit in it's own right, spectacular views of the Hudson River and the GWB.
I don't know if they do this anymore, but a cop friend of mine back in the 80s who built hot rods as a hobby used to gather with other builders at the "White Manna" in Hackensack once a month. If you wanted a 50s flashback, that was the place to be!
OK, just did a bit of checking, and if you want the story about the "Riviera", check this website: www.njpalisades.org It's the website for the NJ section of the Palisades Interstate Park. On the left-hand side of the homepage look for "Cliff Notes" in the menu and select same. Scroll down to the story "Remembering Americas Showplace" and click on same, it's there.
There's an awful lot of good stories there as well!
One thing I remember was taking the LIRR into the city and seeing the massive coach yards at Sunnyside, all the different railroads colour schemes, it was fascinating! Also, GG1s cruising around in the area. The yards were reduced around the time of Amtrak but that may have happened earlier.
Gangsters in New Jersey? Speaking of that, the last time I was in Manhattan there was a Sopranos tour of most of the sites in the show, the muffler man, Big ***'s body shop and so forth. Satriale's pork store has been demolished and there was a sign about the new condos to be built there. The name of the new condo? "The Soprano." Life imitates art once again.
Speaking of "The Sopranos", if you're a fan AND into toy trains "Trainland" at 293 Sunrise Highway in Lynnbrook (Long Island) NY is where Bobby Baccala got "whacked". Yes, they filmed it in an actual train store.
The Bobby Baccala O Gauge layouts survived him. They're to be seen at the New Jersey High Railers club site in Paterson NJ. The High Railers place is a sight to see, the biggest O Gauge layout in the country, well worth a visit on open house days.
I was wondering where that scene was filmed, it was a classic! in 1967 I bought an N scale Arnold Rapido set at Trainland but it was called "House of Mulraney" back then if I recall. Also, in One when Tom Hagen is picked up by Virgil Sollozo, that was filmed in front of Polk's on Fifth Avenue at 32nd street.
Polk's Hobbies in New York! I was there twice in the 60's, some place! As I remember, four floors, one for trains, one for cars, one for airplanes, and the last I'm not sure, maybe categories not covered by the other floors.
The place I used to frequent regularly was Hiway Hobby House in Ramsey, NJ, sadly no longer with us. I tell people it's where I used to spend all my money before I met Lady Firestorm. Well, we all know how that goes...
The "Bobby" layouts were built by the craftsmen at a place called "The Train Station" in Mountain Lakes, NJ, a great place to go for all things Lionel. It's probably as close as you'll get to the old Madison Hardware Lionel store that was in New York City. I never got to Madison Hardware but I've seen photos.
www.train-station.com if you want to have a look.
Thanks for that- I'm going to have to visit "The Train Station" one of these days. I used to borrow my uncle's LIRR commuter pass and hit all the train stores in Manhattan. Madison Hardware was quite a place; if it was Lionel they had it. Also, America's Hobby Center on West 22nd? st. My father told me that back in the 40s you went in, ordered what you wanted from catalogs sitting on the counter. The guy would call up to the upstairs where everything was kept and what you wanted was lowered through a hole in the ceiling in a bucket. I was there quite often in the 70s and the bucket system was gone, but there was very little on display and you still ordered through a catalog.
Then there was the Model Railroad Equipment store (I think it was called) on 45th st, just west of Fifth avenue. What a collection of brass they had! it was clean and well organised. It's now called The Red Caboose and I think the owner is out of his mind. The place is now a total garbage dump with stuff piled everywhere in no kind of order. There were no prices on anything, you had to get his attention to get the price and that often took 30 minutes as he would be on the phone with 3 people at once, dealing with employees and customers (very slowly in that case) and once he took a guys wristwatch as partial payment on something.
Every time there would be a price increase from Germany, his prices would go up even though the item had been sitting in a case for the last 30 years and was a little "shop soiled" by means of so much dust the thing had fur! I was in there during the 90s and the owner was yelling at one of his employees. Two other workers were at another part of the store and one said, "If I kill him, would I get a medal?" I said, "I'd give you one." I was in New York two years ago and visited the store. If anything, it was even filthier than the last time I visited back in 1994 and I don't think he showered in all that time.
Yikes! The Red Caboose sounds like a place I'd go to once, and once only, but now after your description I wouldn't go there at all. NOT how you run a business when you need those "walk-in" customers. I worked in a Jersey gunshop back in the 80's and we ALWAYS treated people right. you want them to come back, don't you?
I don't know if NJ's got any gun shops anymore. Last I looked EVERTHING was illegal in Jersey. They just haven't gotten to toy trains yet. The Health Fascists haven't gotten the bakeries, pizza parlors, diners, and hot dog and burger places yet either. Good thing, otherwise everyone left in Jersey would move out!
One more thing, if you're visiting the North Jersey area looking for train shops try "The Old and Weary Car Shop" on Route 303 in Tappan NY, right over the NY/NJ border. Good selection of model railroad stuff and railroad artifacts like lanterns, locks, and such. He used to have a website but it doesn't seem to be working now. If you do a web search for him you'll find a local listing and directions. A great guy runs it too.
it's before my time but people here in Toronto still remember back in the 50s when on Sunday where absolutely everything was closed. No movies, no ball games, no shopping of any kind. This you may find hard to believe but I have seen pictures. On Sundays, city employees would put a chain around the swings in city parks so they could not be used and put chains across the slides so they couldn't be used either. That's the absolute truth! Toronto used to be called "The Belfast of North America," A stern, dour place. It's sure not like that now but It's still semi-illegal to bring alcohol to a picnic. There's all kinds of bars and restaurants of any ethnicity you can name, but it's still not New Orleans!
When I lived in Poughkeepsie my job took me all over southern New York, Ulster, Sullivan and Orange counties and you can spot the remnants of the Old and Weary if you know where to look, not to mention the remnants of the Lackawanna in Port Jervis. Also the Putnam division of the NYC in Putnam county. I was in London last year at a huge model train show and there was a group who built an amazing layout of the Putnam division. Oh those Brits!
getting back on topic, subway songs, and seeing that this thread's already mentioned Philadelphia's Pep Boy's and Bill Cosby, I just want to say
You can't get to heaven on the Frankford El, cause the Frankford El goes straight to Frankford.
Patrick Boylan
Free yacht rides, 27' sailboat, zip code 19114 Delaware River, get great Delair bridge photos from the river. Send me a private message
Reminds me of a song Naval Aviators sang in World War Two:
"Oh you'll never get to Heaven, on a PBY,
'Cause the God D*** thing, won't fly that high!"
PBY= The Consolidated Aircraft "Catalina" flying boat, otherwise known as "Dumbo"! A fine, fine aircraft just the same.
As a Jersey Boy I'm not sure about the Frankford El, that in the Philly area?
'
54Light, your description of Toronto in the old days reminds me of Bergen County NJ's "Blue Laws", that effectively shut down retail operations on Sundays. Understandable when you consider the town of Paramus has four major shopping malls and the residents need relief from the traffic, at least one day a week. It certainly doesn't sound like the current Toronto that Sandy Rinomato showcases on her "Property Virgins" TV show.
A British group modeling the Putnam Division? Well, I guess stranger things have happened. An O Gauge magazine showcased a British O Gauger who modeled American western roads a few years ago. And of course there's American modelers who do European 'roads. A bit easier for the O Gauge guys since Mike's Train House has started producing European locos, both steam and diesel.
Toronto is a pretty nice place, people get along pretty well. The Portuguese neighbourhood has a Jamaican restaurant, the Polish war veterans hall is there and no one thinks to much about it. Live and let live is the way. The Brits make some amazing layouts. I have a large N-scale European layout. It looks nice but is crap compared to what they do over there. Not only did they have that NYC layout, but there was a nice one set in Oregon, narrow gauge logging, hills and tall trees. the most astonishing one was a long, linear setup about 30 feet long. Evenly spaced were four men, each at a control panel. One would pull a lever, a bell would ring at the next man (each was operating his own "tower") and a light would light up at the appropriate lever. He would pull the lever and an acknowledging bell would ring at the first guy. The train would move all to the sound of these four guys pulling levers and the ringing bells. They were duplicating British operating practice of 1905. The train would move, cars would be picked up and dropped off, moving from main line to siding tracks. It was hypnotic and all the while, these men never spoke! If you're ever in London, the show is at Alexandra Palace in late March. Worth seeing even if you're not into model trains.
There was another song set to the tune of the "Field Artillery Song"--the "Roadway Song" in Robert Heinlein's short story "The Roads Must Roll" (written about 1943)
"Hear them hum! Watch them run! Oh, our job is never done, For our roadways go rolling along! While you ride, While you glide, We are watching down inside, So your roadways keep rolling along!
Oh it's Hie! Hie! Hee! The rotormen are we-- Check off the sectors loud and strong! ONE! TWO! THREE! Anywhere you go You are bound to know That your roadways are rolling along! KEEP THEM ROLLING! KEEP THEM ROLLING! That your roadways are rolling along!"
The Roadways was an underground system for pedestrian traffic that linked cities with belts that ran at speeds from 5 mph to 100 mph (the traveler would carefully move from one strip to another).
Firelock, you mentioned visiting home towns. When my wife and I traveled, she always enjoyed seeing the various houses her family had lived in in Evanston, Ill., and in Memphis, Tenn., when we could. They were all still there when we traveled three years ago. Even the hospital she was born in, in Evanston, in 1929 is still there--though much changed since, I am sure. Her father grew up in Dayton, Ohio, but we could not find any trace of his homes (one has been replaced by an interstate onramp) or any other trace of his family (his father had owned a grocery establishment next to the famous bicycle shop; I think the visitors' center is in its location).
When her father was transferred to Memphis, the family--except for her--moved down by train, and stayed at the Peabody until they found a place to live. She was at a boarding school in Beaver Dam, Wis., and could not go down with them because of a measles epidemic at the school. When her father was able to come up and get her, they, horror of horrors, flew to Memphis. She long regretted flying to Memphis (she had fallen in love with train travel a few years earlier) and not staying at the best hotel in town. The two of us spent a night at the Peabody five years ago (we went to Memphis just for that; the previous year we had a reservation which could not be honored because a group had decided to spend another night there; the Peabody put us up at another hotel, refunded what we had already paid, and gave us a certificate good for a night's stay within two years).
Johnny
Johnny, this is one old Marine that has to admit the "Field Artillery Song" is one of the classic pieces of American music, it's over a century old and still sounds as good as the day it was written. Very adapatable too, considering all the verses, spoof or otherwise, that people have come up with. I have to let out a dirty little secret, the melody of "The Marine's Hymn" was lifted from a Jacques Offenbach operetta from the 19th Century. But hey, that's what Marines do, we'll grab anything that's not nailed down figuring maybe we can use it, one way or another. Even if we don't know what the hell it is!
That was a nice thing the Peabody did for you. Reminds me of a time Lady Firestorm and I missed a connecting flight due to an airline foul-up so they up-graded us to First Class on the next available flight. "Wayne, look!" she says, "We're in First Class!" "Great", I said, "does this mean we have first crack at the lifeboats?"
Wayne
Wayne, that is interesting about the melody of the Marine Hymn. Back in 1941 (I was in the first grade when we went to war), that, the songs of the Air Corps, the Navy, and the Field Artillery were quite popular, and I think every school child learned them. Also popular was Irving Berlin's "God Bless America," complete with the introduction--which few people today even know of.
One of my brothers was in the Air Corps, and he spent much time as a control tower operator in British Guiana. Two others were in the Navy; one, because he had expressed a desire to be a doctor, was sent to college (where he met his wife), and the other was a radarman on a mine sweep. My Air Corps brother never talked about why he was in B.G. except that he was a control tower operator; I realized many years later that he was helping get the planes going to North Africa on their way across the Atlantic. My radarman brother never, in my hearing, spoke of his ship's actually sweeping for mines; it was only recently that I learned that the Raven did sweep in the Mediterranean after he joined her.
As to the Marine Corps, two of my best friends in college had spent three years, most of it in Korea, in the Corps. One was the son of the college president, and the other was a nephew of the president's wife.
Upgrading by a hotel: in 1997, my wife and I arrived at the Royal York, in Toronto, after riding the Canadian from Vancouver--and were told that we had canceled our reservation. A room was available for us. The next day, when we arrived at the Chateau Laurier in Ottawa, we found a note that had been pushed under the door, telling us that the hotel chain's (Canadian Pacific Hotels) reservation system had hiccupped (or something like that). We spent another night at the Royal York the following week--and were upgraded to a much more luxurious accomodation. Sad to say, we were not able to take full advantage of the upgrade because we were leaving at an early hour on the train to Chicago the next morning. We could have better used the upgrade at the Chateau Laurier or at the Queen Elizabeth, in Montreal. When we were next in Toronto, in 2003, we were put up at the higher level by the new owner, Fairmont (we were supposed to be impressed by Fairmont)--and we did enjoy some of the advantages of the upgrade (breakfast and free internet). We were not favorably impressed by the din in the dining room when we ate dinner after arriving.
Toronto: My first visit was in 1959 on business, and I fell in love with the place immediately. I was there on a Sunday, and the Blue Laws mentioned were done and over with, and there seemed like there were many happy people doing what ever one would do in a typical cosmopolitan USA City. Of course the real reason I immediately loved the place was the streetcar system, with PCC cars available to take you just about anywhere that the subway system did not. Toronto was the only North American city that kept streetcars as a modern streetcar system, not because they had subways and tunnels (San Francisco, Boston, and Philadelphia), not as an operating Landmarked museum (New Orleans), and not because of an irreplaceable dedicated right-of way (Shaker Heights and Pittsburgh). Streetcars as streetcars. The only one. And well maintained and smoothly and efficiently operated. And the ethnic restaurants and the friendliness of the people seemed to complement the excellent surface transportation. Will always be one of my favorite cities.
Deggesty, the next time you stay at the Royal York in Toronto, try the Library bar downstairs. Quiet and elegant, like a trip back in time. Living in "Toronna" as I do, it's a rare day that I don't ride the streetcar. The TTC still has one or two PCCs that they use for excursions in the summer. We're to get new streetcars this year and they are building a new yard for them east of downtown.
It's a good system we have but it's sure under-built for today. When the Yonge st subway opened in 1954 they never anticipated the phenomonal growth in ridership. The trains are packed at almost all hours of the day. It's not like the lines August Belmont built to the northern tip of Manhattan all those years ago, but there growth was anticipated what with the ships full of emigrants arriving at Ellis Island. Toronto is crowded but not like like the Tube in London. I was riding on the Northern line going to Euston station and it was so packed that an attractive young lady had her behind jammed into my... let's just say that nature kind of took it's course. What could I do? Apologize for not being gay?
Look on the bright side. The thing still works as advertised.
The other girl facing me, bent over in a low cut top didn't help matters either. Wait, she did.
54light15they never anticipated the phenomonal growth in ridership
I think, from what you later wrote, that you meant 'pheromonal' ;-O
Looks like we need to have some input (ahem!) on a new song: "Well, I guess that's why they call it my Tube..."
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