Remember When These Used to Be Here in NYC

[mack]

Stickball:






Stoopball:




Street games:

What happened to New York’s storied street games?

Where have all the street games gone? The strategic sliding of bottle caps across a city street known as Skelly, the heroic dodging and weaving of Ringoleavio, the fast-moving batting of Boxball — …

nypost.com

 

[mack]

Neighborhood butcher shops down the block - sawdust on floor, pickle barrel, slice of baloney for kids

Trunz - http://www.griswoldandwagner.com/yabbfiles/Attachments/Trunz.pdf

 

[mack]

Neighborhood A&Ps:

A&P - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

 

[mack]

Wetson's 15 cent hamburgers:

Wetson's - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

 

[mack]

Subway vending machines:

https://www.citylab.com/transportation/2014/12/new-york-subway-platform-vending-machines-a-history/384127/

I remember the subway soda machines.  You put a dime in and sometimes a paper cup would drop down, sometimes not.  The soda filled the cup or splashed out the front.  Soda was never really cold.  Sometimes flat.  Sometimes all syrup.  But you were always thirsty in the subway.  No one paid for water bottles.  Water used to be - free.

 

[mack]

Green NYPD police cars and buses:

 

[raybrag]

Red lights? I don't need no flippin' red lights! I've got a lighted sign that says "POLICE".

 

[mack]

Trolleys - the last NYC trolleys ran in the 1950s but there were still trolley tracks in many streets for many years.

One Hundred Twenty Five Years of NYC Streetcars Started in the Village - Village Preservation

New York City Trolley or Streetcar service ended in New York City on April 6th, 1957 on Welfare (now Roosevelt) Island. But it began one hundred twenty five years earlier on November 14, 1832…

gvshp.org

TROLLEY STATIONS - Forgotten New York

New York City began phasing out trolley operations in the 1930s. For better or worse (mostly worse) New York cast its lot with the internal combustion engine. Mass transit has…

forgotten-ny.com

 

[mack]

69th Street Ferry - Brooklyn to SI:





Gone after VN bridge opened.  Used to be FDNY route to relocate to SI.  About a 15 minute ride.  Mainly vehicles but passengers could ride.  Often long lines waiting for the next ferry to or from SI.

 

[mack]

Gimbels Department Store

   

    http://daytoninmanhattan.blogspot.com/2014/12/gimbels-dept-store-6th-avenue-and-33rd.html


EJ Korvettes department stores - and did "E J Korvettes" stand for something?

   


Time Square Department stores

 

[mack]

"5 and 10's" - Woolworths, Kresge's, WT Grants





You could get a soda or a hamburger at their soda fountains or food counters:




They actually "made" you a soda in a cone-shaped paper cup.




Gone: Local candy stores with soda fountains and local drug stores with soda fountains

Egg creams - were made for 15 cents in soda fountains.

https://www.artofmanliness.com/2014...-to-make-one-in-the-authentic-brooklyn-style/

 

[raybrag]

Trolley busses . . .

 

[mack]

Gone - old NYC amusement parks

https://ny.curbed.com/2013/7/10/10222636/65-photos-of-new-york-citys-long-lost-amusement-parks



Freedomland in the Bronx was planned to be the East Coast Disneyland. It was the world's biggest amusement park when opened in 1960. It even had a "Chicago Fire" exhibit with park customers assisting in putting out the fire with park firefighters. Unfortunately the park only until 1965. It only cost $1 to enter for all day entertainment and the park ran at a loss. The 1964-65 NYC Worlds Fair was too much competition.

https://www.atlasobscura.com/articles/the-rise-and-suspiciously-rapid-fall-of-freedomland-u-s-a

 

[mack]

Gone - Active military forts, navy yards, airfields, hospitals, supply terminals and merchant marine facilites which historically protected NYC and also were important for national defense during wars.


Closures in the 1960s, 1970s, 1980s included Fort Jay (Governor's Island), Brooklyn Navy Yard, Ft Wadsworth, Ft Totten, Brooklyn Army Terminal, Miller Field, Ft Tilden, Floyd Bennett Naval Air Station, Manhattan Beach, Rockaway. Most of these facilities had full time fire departments funded by the military.

Former NYC military airfields:

http://www.airfields-freeman.com/NY/Airfields_NY.htm


Some former military sites became locations of FDNY marine units or training centers.

 

[fdce54]

Neighborhood A&Ps:






https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Great_Atlantic_%26_Pacific_Tea_Company

My first paying job was in the A&P in 1969. They were good days.

 

[memory master]

Gimbels Department Store

   

    http://daytoninmanhattan.blogspot.com/2014/12/gimbels-dept-store-6th-avenue-and-33rd.html


EJ Korvettes department stores - and did "E J Korvettes" stand for something?

   


Time Square Department stores

E.J. Korvettes was an acronym for "8 Jewish Korean Veterans" who founded the chain of stores.

 

[memory master]

"5 and 10's"  - Woolworths, Kresge's,  WT Grants


   


You could get a soda or a hamburger at their soda fountains or food counters:

   


They actually "made" you a soda in a cone-shaped paper cup.

   


Gone:  Local candy stores with soda fountains and local drug stores with soda fountains

    Egg creams - were made for 15 cents in soda fountains.

    https://www.artofmanliness.com/2014/07/08/the-history-of-the-egg-cream-and-how-to-make-one-in-the-authentic-brooklyn-style/

Don't Forget "Fisher-Beers" which was a Woolworth or W.T. Grant type store. There was one at Main Street & Roosevelt Avenue in Flushing, Queens. Or how about "Masters" same type of store. One was located at Main Street & 39th Avenue, diagonally across from "Grant's" in Flushing.

 

[manhattan]

And Lamston's.

 

[mack]

Gone FAO Schwartz toy store.

 

[raybrag]

My first paying job was in the A&P in 1969. They were good days.

Me too, Frank.  The A&P paid for my college education.  I worked there for 6 years, from 1958 thru 1963, in stores 811, 812 and 816 (Long Beach, Rockville Centre, and the new [in 1960] Long Beach store). 

Also, for Long Islanders . . . the Bee Line Bus Co. (not the one that runs to Westchester now).  I took it from Lynbrook to Jamaica all the time I was in High School and college (to switch to the E train).  Mostly they ran GMC "Old Look" busses, but early in my riding career, they also ran some stick shift 1941 White Motors rigs during the rush hours, and also a few big Macks.  Then in 1959 they began to buy the "new" GMC Fishbowl bus.  All of their busses were red and white (with no ads n them).

GMC "Old Look"

1941 White

It was sometimes gut-wrenching to hear (and feel) the gears grinding as the driver of one of these hulks tried to upshift (I'm guessing they didn't know how to double clutch)

Mid-50s Mack

GMC "Fishbowl"