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.
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?
'
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
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!
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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!
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.
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...
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
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!
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!
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!
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'?
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 ______________.
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."
And then there's this http://youtu.be/k0TsOAhn8IY from Bill Cosby.
-Don (Random stuff, mostly about trains - what else? http://blerfblog.blogspot.com/)
54light15..were the stores really named after Eight Jewish Korean Veterans?
No, I don't think so, although I bought a transistor radio there. There is some stuff about in on SNOPES and also in Halberstam's book, "The Fifties". But there were Two Guys from Harrison...I bought a lot of slide film and mailers there.
There also was Manny, Moe and Jack, the Pep Boys, but they were from West Philly.
Times Square was a source of fun. Good, sleazy fun. But, regarding Soupy and the Three Stooges, I think I speak for a lot of people when I say that the reason most modern movies suck is that there are no pie fights anymore. No singing cowboys either but that's another story. Also, my fellow New Yorkers past and present I have to ask, were the stores really named after Eight Jewish Korean Veterans?
Firelock76 Well said Overmod! The song was intended to be a spoof, that's all it was intended to be, and remember, for something to be funny it has to have a grain of truth to it, doesn't it? I first heard the song as a kid in the 60's watching the Soupy Sales show weekdays on Channel 5, the old WNEW. Even as a kid living in the Jersey 'burbs I got it, and so did all of my friends. Remember, this was in the time when NYC was on the downhill slide, the old John Lindsay days. Take it easy Dave, it's all in fun. By the way, my great-grandfather lost a leg building the subway, so I've kind of got a "proprietary" interest.
Well said Overmod! The song was intended to be a spoof, that's all it was intended to be, and remember, for something to be funny it has to have a grain of truth to it, doesn't it?
I first heard the song as a kid in the 60's watching the Soupy Sales show weekdays on Channel 5, the old WNEW. Even as a kid living in the Jersey 'burbs I got it, and so did all of my friends. Remember, this was in the time when NYC was on the downhill slide, the old John Lindsay days.
Take it easy Dave, it's all in fun.
By the way, my great-grandfather lost a leg building the subway, so I've kind of got a "proprietary" interest.
I grew up - at least half way, to age 9 (some people are still waiting on the second half...) on Long Island and remember WNEW, Soupy Sales (my mother was not impressed...), etc.
My kids look at my funny when I tell them Times Square didn't used to be a "fun" place. (maybe a different kind of "fun"?)
Me, I'm from Amityville, Long Island and born in 1955. Ah yes, the Oscar Meyer song... heheh.
Firelock76PS: I just KNOW you've got to be from the New York area to remember all this. We're curious, whereabouts? Lady Firestorm and I are from Paramus, NJ.
Manhattan, then Tenafly (where ste Soupy Sales show was my favorite ... while it was on ... then Englewood.
Funny how bits and pieces come back -- the Castro Convertible song (where else but New York would a commercial say "incontrovertible:?, Dorman's cheese, Sweet Wilhelmina ... Choo Choo Charlie [mandatory 'train' content]. (I realixed early on how i was going to be when I sympathized with the kid who went the other way with sarcastic lyrics -- SENSIBLE sarcastic lyrics -- in the Oscar Mayer Wiener commercial.
54light15 ...and give him a Stooges-style poke in the eye! (Soitanly!) Nyuk, nyuk, nyuk!
...and give him a Stooges-style poke in the eye! (Soitanly!) Nyuk, nyuk, nyuk!
YEAH! And Lady Firestorm says "YES, YES, YES! Gonna find him for Soupy!" Lady Firestorm's been waiting all these years to belt that kid herself.
PS: I just KNOW you've got to be from the New York area to remember all this. We're curious, whereabouts? Lady Firestorm and I are from Paramus, NJ. Grew up on opposite sides of town and didn't meet until we were in a college over 100 miles away from home. Ironic, huh?
Yes, I miss Soupy too. Even though his show on Channel 5 in the 60's was a kids show, he never talked down to his audience and gave us credit for having a bit of sophistication that maybe our parents didn't suspect we had. And what a thrill it was to have him on WNBC radio in the 80's! Old home week!
His obituary in "Time" magazine hit the nail on the head when it called him "a sweet man." Always funny, never mean, just an American Classic.
And one of these days we're gonna find that "stupid kid"!
I miss Soupy and the gang and I also miss his radio show on WNBC where they covered the St Patrick's day parade on 5th avenue by sitting in Hurley's pub on 6th! Thanks to Soupy, whenever I went to Manhattan, I would have a drink in Hurley's. The last time I went to New York, Hurley's had moved to West 48th st. and the location is now a bakery.
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