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.
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. :'(
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?
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..."