Remember When These Used to Be Here in NYC

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Yes, the west side of 5th Avenue around 32nd Street.  You could spend hours, if not days, going from floor to floor (I think there were three floors) looking at everything they had to offer.
 

mack

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Gone - All the video rental stores that appeared in the 1980s and then disappeared by 2000.
 

mack

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Remember appliance repair shops?  When people used to repair their TVs and appliances instead of throwing them out and buying new ones? 

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mack

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Gone - NYC newspapers, news stands - when people used to read - when newspapers printed news

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Gone - papers like:

New York Daily Mirror
New York Dramatic Mirror
New York Enquirer
New York Evening Express
New York Evening Mail
New York Evening Telegram
The New York Globe
New York Graphic
New York Guardian
New York Herald
New York Herald Tribune
New York Journal-American
New York Ledger
New York Native
New York Press
The New York Sporting Whip
New York Sports Express
The New York Sun
New York Sunday News
New York Weekly
The New York Weekly Journal
New York World
New York World Journal Tribune
New York World-Telegram
New-York Mirror
New-York Tribune
Il Progresso Italo-Americano
Staten Island Register


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mack said:
I also want to remember some FDNY memories here -

Gone:  the Superpumper and Supertender; water towers; rubber coats and boots; canvas coats; company second sections; many hard working fire companies; many firehouses; boro communication offices; fireboats; company matrons; telegraph system (bells); voice alarm; open doors at firehouses when companies responded; classic helmet front pieces; auxiliaries; Model Cities Program (salvage units); Red Caps (arson); all red fire apparatus; green engine companies; Mack/Ward LaFrance/Ahren Fox/ALF fire apparatus; searchlight units; bells on apparatus; and fire alarm boxes that always worked. 

No: computers; bunker gear; SOC squads; CIDS; FAST truck; safety chiefs; HAZMAT units; EMS runs; shorts - firefighters wore pants; company t-shirts; company patches; cell phones.


Don't forget the Fire Patrol.  :'(
 

mack

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NYC famous DJs and music stations





Scott Muni, Herb Oscar Anderson, Cousin Bruce Morrow, Harry Harrison, Murray the K, Dan Ingram, Ron Lundy, Chuck Leonard, Charlie Greer......


Having a ball, with Cousin Bruce -

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Aurora plastic models and their big competitor Revell; airplane glue (gone by the wayside for obvious and good reasons) and PLA paints that came in small glass bottles for use on the models (and were guaranteed to spill if you used them on a table without several layers of newspapers to soak up the spill).

Also balsa wood airplanes that really could fly good distances under the right conditions and Flexible Flyer sleds that could also really fly.  I'm sure there are at least some folks out there who'd remember losing teeth or having broken bones as a result of those sled flights.

And let's not forget the side-wheeler "Alexander Hamilton" and later the "Dayliner" which ran during late spring and summer from 41st Street and the Hudson stopping at Bear Mountain and West Point with a turn-around at Poughkeepsie.  They had the same ownership as the Circle Line when both were affordable for a full-day excursion or several hours on the water.

There were also Landmark Books, Golden Books (for the younger crowd) and Classics Illustrated (which I learned from bitter experience weren't worth the paper they were printed on if you wanted to do a book report based on that rather than actually reading the book as you were supposed to), which, of course, leads us to the sometimes reliable Cliff Notes which had, not infrequently, the same results as the Classics Illustrated.

Speaking of books, there was the Young Adults section at the local public library and a very large selection at the Donnell Branch on 52nd(?) Street in Manhattan.  (I love reading, but just not necessarily where the scholastic types thought I should be burying my nose back then.)

Thinking of the photos of buses earlier in this thread, how about bus and subway passes?  And schoolbags which would probably cause shoulder and wrist problems 50 years later, just as today's backpacks will probably cause back, shoulder and hip pain in the year 2068?

And, of course, your first crush when you were too embarrassed/afraid/uncertain to try to kiss her.  And then the "Thrill of it All" when you finally did!

 

mack

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raybrag said:
mack said:
I also want to remember some FDNY memories here -

Gone: the Superpumper and Supertender; water towers; rubber coats and boots; canvas coats; company second sections; many hard working fire companies; many firehouses; boro communication offices; fireboats; company matrons; telegraph system (bells); voice alarm; open doors at firehouses when companies responded; classic helmet front pieces; auxiliaries; Model Cities Program (salvage units); Red Caps (arson); all red fire apparatus; green engine companies; Mack/Ward LaFrance/Ahren Fox/ALF fire apparatus; searchlight units; bells on apparatus; and fire alarm boxes that always worked.

No: computers; bunker gear; SOC squads; CIDS; FAST truck; safety chiefs; HAZMAT units; EMS runs; shorts - firefighters wore pants; company t-shirts; company patches; cell phones.


Don't forget the Fire Patrol. :'(


 
Last edited:

mack

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manhattan said:
Aurora plastic models and their big competitor Revell; airplane glue (gone by the wayside for obvious and good reasons) and PLA paints that came in small glass bottles for use on the models (and were guaranteed to spill if you used them on a table without several layers of newspapers to soak up the spill).

Also balsa wood airplanes that really could fly good distances under the right conditions and Flexible Flyer sleds that could also really fly.  I'm sure there are at least some folks out there who'd remember losing teeth or having broken bones as a result of those sled flights.

And let's not forget the side-wheeler "Alexander Hamilton" and later the "Dayliner" which ran during late spring and summer from 41st Street and the Hudson stopping at Bear Mountain and West Point with a turn-around at Poughkeepsie.  They had the same ownership as the Circle Line when both were affordable for a full-day excursion or several hours on the water.

There were also Landmark Books, Golden Books (for the younger crowd) and Classics Illustrated (which I learned from bitter experience weren't worth the paper they were printed on if you wanted to do a book report based on that rather than actually reading the book as you were supposed to), which, of course, leads us to the sometimes reliable Cliff Notes which had, not infrequently, the same results as the Classics Illustrated.

Speaking of books, there was the Young Adults section at the local public library and a very large selection at the Donnell Branch on 52nd(?) Street in Manhattan.  (I love reading, but just not necessarily where the scholastic types thought I should be burying my nose back then.)

Thinking of the photos of buses earlier in this thread, how about bus and subway passes?  And schoolbags which would probably cause shoulder and wrist problems 50 years later, just as today's backpacks will probably cause back, shoulder and hip pain in the year 2068?

And subway tokens - gone.

tokens-token2.jpg
 
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Another Brooklyn landmark downtown: Abraham & Strauss Department Store.

Mack:  thanks for the video of Ebinger's Blackout Cake.  Man were they good; a regular staple on the table at E 248.  In my family, we used to call it Fallout Cake, but in the day everyone was concerned about nuclear fallout.
 
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This is a great thread. I still have some unmade Monogram models, remember the orange tube of Testors glue and .19 bottles of paint. You could buy a set of "flat" colors with a small brush and a bottle of thinner. On a small scale I could do Boston, the newspaper Record-American, complete with the "number". Several department store chains either gone or down-sized, transfer on the "T", driver giving you change for a quarter with his change machine. Red Sox double-headers on almost every Sunday. I could go on and on, but you get the idea.
 

mack

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Grump is right - much of what has changed in NYC also were changes in every other American city. 
 
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What I miss most is "the neighborhood". A close knit community made up of several groups with a common thread....this is where we live, shop, go to school and hang out.
I miss the small "mom and pop" shops,the small supermarkets (A & J on Washington and Lincoln and Fisher's on Washington between St. John's & Sterling Place), the butcher shops (good meat and the butchers gave kids a slice of bologna as a treat), Sinclair's and Ebingers bakeries, the Pizza shop on Washington between St John's & Lincoln, the diner on the corner of Sterling & Washington, Greenpoint Savings Bank on Washington Avenue (where you actually did face to face banking and every teller was your "personal banker") and so much more.
You could walk anywhere, at any time, or take the bus or subway if it was a"long trip"
As Paul Simon said "...Preserve your memories..."
 

mack

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NYC subways change robbers - usually had no cups and our soda splashed out.  Many times we stuck our hands where the missing cup would be to at least get a few hands full of soda.

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mack

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You had to shake these candy machines when your candy bar got stuck.  You had to eat your melted candy bar when it was hot - and it still tasted good.

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mack

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And anyone could buy a pack of Lucky Strikes at any gas station or bowling alley.

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mack

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1261Truckie said:
What I miss most is "the neighborhood". A close knit community made up of several groups with a common thread....this is where we live, shop, go to school and hang out.
I miss the small "mom and pop" shops,the small supermarkets (A & J on Washington and Lincoln and Fisher's on Washington between St. John's & Sterling Place), the butcher shops (good meat and the butchers gave kids a slice of bologna as a treat), Sinclair's and Ebingers bakeries, the Pizza shop on Washington between St John's & Lincoln, the diner on the corner of Sterling & Washington, Greenpoint Savings Bank on Washington Avenue (where you actually did face to face banking and every teller was your "personal banker") and so much more.
You could walk anywhere, at any time, or take the bus or subway if it was a"long trip"
As Paul Simon said "...Preserve your memories..."

So right 1261 Truckie!  I miss the old neighborhood and the people who made it special for me.
     
 
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