we use to have some steel bars on the corner of w. 174th street and nelson avenue. we use to sit on the bars at night. About 10 feet from the bars was a rather large triangle shaped intersection where during the day on weekends and in the summer we played “off the curb.” Bring back any memories for anyone? E-mail me at FOlshan [at] Tribune [dot] com
Forget about lemonade stands – we had a penny stand. We’d take a very large glass jar — like the gallon pickle jars from the deli — and cut a slit in the lid large enough to put a penny through. We’d fill the jar with water. On the bottom of the jar, we’d center a shot glass. Kids would come by and send a penny through the slot, trying to get the penny to end up in the shot glass. Which of course, almost no one ever could do. The lucky winner would get a nickel. Now that I think back on it, we were underage gamblers!! No wonder some many of my generation love Atlantic City.
That flat taffy wrapped in waxed paper that sold for a nickel. It was colored on the sides with a white stripe down the middle. How about watermelon slices. Thin flat coconut-flavored candy that looked & was shaped like a slice of watermelon. Sold for a penny. Remember flying saucers. Two wafers sealed together will small round hard non-pariels within. It looked just like a flying saucer. Wax lips & fingernails. Long tubes of wax filled with very sweet liquid in it — as well as those shaped like soda bottles. Candy dots on paper — liquorice in chocolate and grape. And chocolate cow soda — just like yoo hoo! Kids today don’t know what they’re missing.
I went to college in Baltimore (pronounced Ball- mer) they had carts that would go around selling flavored shaved ice in a cup. The vendor had a big block of ice and a large sharp scraper. he would put the shavings in a paper cone then add the syrup flavorings you wanted. They aslo had lemons sliced in half and would use a hollow peppermint stick as a straw and you would suck the tart lemon juice through the pepermnt stick straw and it would taste real good on a hot sticky day-never saw that in Brooklyn
Kool-Aid stands were big in my neighborhood (upstate New York in the 60’s). But one day my friend and I tried a new angle… We got a hold of a refrigerator box, which we placed upright and decorated (with crayons? markers?) as a “Kool-Aid Machine”, just like a Coke vending machine. We cut a hole for the customers to insert their coins, and an opening from which the Kool-Aid could be dispensed. Then we got inside the box and waited for our customers. When they inserted their coins, we would pour the Kool-Aid (from inside the box), and a little hand emerged from the opening with a glass of Kool-Aid. What a “blast” we had!
We called it mother may I? But to me this is real little kid stuff and the real hanging out came later on when you sat there or stood there thinking you looked oh so cool. Maybe some running around, like tag. Or maybe taking each other to the really dark parts of the block, and having someone already there to spook the person you brought there. Different kinds of dares to each other. I bet you won’t go down there and bring back whatever to prove that you actually did it. I never smoked, but that was part of what a lot of my friends did in those truely hanging – hanging out evenings. Oh you had your spot and you just knew if you passed by whatever spot after a certain time your buddies would be there.
No neighborhood night game was started until “The Light” went out. The streetlight on the corner was mounted on a wooden telephone pole. A well-place karate kick (or what passed for karate)would rattle the pole and put out the light. It lasted for 30-45 minutes and then everyone would fight for the honor of being the next lamp unlighter. Neighborhood parents would yell at us to leave the light alone, which would last for about 5 minutes. For many years, long after we stopped playing street games, veterans would drive up, hop out of their cars and kick out the light, for old time’s sake.
I still rue the day that Good Humor discontinued my favorite bar: It was called “Chocolate Cake” — it had chocolate ice cream inside, and the outside was…well, it was sort of like dark chocolate cake! This was also in the “old days”, before they had that “candy in the middle.” Good Humor also made a seasonal special: A red white & blue icecream bar for the 4th of July — it had raspberry, vanilla and blueberry, and it was good! I never heard of Mr. Frostee, but of course we had Mister Softee… and we STILL have Mister Softee: In my current neighborhood, Chelsea/Flatiron, they’re all over, as well as on every other corner in midtown. Hmm… think I’ll run downstairs and get a chocolate shake. Wasn’t there also an icecream truck called “Pied Piper”? This would have been in Long Island, circa 1957-1963. For WEBDIVA: You mentioned the selter bottles, in blue. They also came in green. There was a company a few years ago called “GIMME SELTZER,” and yes, as in days gone by, they delivered seltzer by the case, in those wonderful original blue or green syphon bottles. I just looked in the Manhattan phone book and there is NO listing… uh-oh, did they go out of business?? I will investigate further and see if I can find them.