Category Archives: Food & Drink

I grew up in Queens Village….

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I grew up in Queens Village. We played “pinkball” variety of handball at Alley Pond Park just inside the Union Tpke entrance (you went under the old Vanderbilt MotorPkway bridge). This was in the late ’60’s and early ’70’s. Our courts were “one wall.” There was some alternation between Spauldeens and Pennsy Pinkies, but we finally pretty much settled on the Pennsies. It seemed the Spauldeens were being made smaller and the rubber thicker. They didn’t move as well. Now the Pennsies had a bit too much bounce to them, so we’d “pin” them. I carried a safety pin attached to my belt loop. When we got a new ball we’d simply push the pin through the skin and it then would bounce just right. We usually got our balls from Michael’s Candy Store on Hillside Avenue where Bell Park Manor and Terrace Apartments were (and are). The owners of Michael’s back in the day had a sign on the box holding the balls: “If you bounce it you bought it.” Oh, and yes sir, those were the days!

WHITE CASTLE BURGERS WERE…

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WHITE CASTLE BURGERS WERE .10 SLICE OF PIZZA, .15 CIGARETTES, .30 MY FAVORITE TY SHOW” AMOS & ANDY” I STILL WATCH IT ONLINE. WENT TO P.S. 112 JOHN PHILIP SOUZA JR.HS 142 AND GRACE DODGE HS IF ANYONE INVENTS A TIME MACHINE, YOU KNOW, LIKE ‘BACK IN THE FUTURE’ LET ME KNOW. LOL NO JOKE BEST LOOKING CAR ’57 CHERRY RED CHEVY [MISS THAT CAR] I COULD GO ON AND ON.,MY BEST FRIEND IN EDENWALD PROJECTS WAS/IS ANA VIENTOS. ANA, WHERE ARE YOU?MISS YOU. I ALSO MISS LEONA LEWIS, ARNETHA BATTS., NORMA ROSARIO,MIRIAM VEGA,WE CALLED ‘MIMI MYRNA,LILY,YVONNE AND MARIA,FOUR SISTERS , THERE FATHER’S NAME IS LUIS.,THEY LIVED ON THE FIRST FLOOR OF ONE OF THE BIG BUILDINGS,ACROSS THE STREE FROM ME.

I played stickball on 61…

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I played stickball on 61 street between 6th and 7th ave in Brooklyn in the late 50’s. Home plate was either the sewer near the Gooch’s house, or up by the lot near sixth ave. The latter was better because the outfield spread out at sixth ave. The leaders on the apartment house were the foul posts. The outfielders had to dodge traffic on the ave. Spaldeens were better. They didn’t egg as easy as the pennsy pinky. Max’s candy store on seventh ave would let us test bounce the balls to get the best one. Spaldeen 25 cents. Pennsy pinky 15 cents. Remember when they started to sell stickball bats with the black tape for grip. No more broom handles.

During the thirties we bought…

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During the thirties we bought our candy in Jakies on Brooklyn Avenue between Herkimer Street and Atlantic Avenue. In the evening our Fathers used to hang out in front waiting for the bulldog editions of the newspapers to be delivered so they could check on the race track results. In those days a store like Jakies carried many newspapers and the Daily Mirror and the Daily News were the ones with the most complete horse racing results. If a kid managed to come up with a penny, he or she had a great many choices to make in front of Jakes candy case. . . a Hootens bar, jaw breakers, sugar dots on a strip of paper, Mary Janes, Fleers bubble gum, etc. If you took too long to make a choice Jake would say, “Come on kid, I ain’t got all day.” You tried to choose a piece of candy which would last a long time. Those were the days!

I don’t have much to add,…

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I don’t have much to add, so forgive me for repeating anything: Spaldeens cost about 25 cents in the 1960’s in my neighborhood in The Bronx near Morris Avenue and 164th Street. Occasionally Harry’s candy store sold “seconds” for about 15 cents or twenty cents. The Five and Ten on Morris Avenue sold P Pensie Pinkies, which I remember as softer and inferior balls — they were for girls’ games. They were not the ball of choice for the boys. And new Spaldeens had some kind of powder on them — and had a distinctive smell. And some were harder than other — those are the ones you wanted, because they bounced better. We didn’t play stick ball on my block but we played Slug — also known as King Queen Jack on some blocks — who remembers that game? It was played in the boxes on the sidewalk, against the apartment house wall — WHO REMEMBERS SLUG?

I am from Flushing Queens,…

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I am from Flushing Queens, where we would usually buy Pensie Pinkies and Spaldeens from Joe’s, which was the nearest candy store. Sometimes when I had no money, I ‘d swipe a Pensie from my sister, who, along with her friends, used them mostly in an activity that involved keeping the ball in bounce while reciting different rhymes that were punctuated by passing their legs over the ball before it would bounce back up. I lived on a hill where many of these balls ended up in the sewer at the end of the block. You could retrieve them using a garden rake, but if they remained in the water too long, they almost certainly went dead. We used to play stick ball, box ball, Chinese handball, catch a fly and you’re up, and many, many more games using them. As I recall, the favored brand for stickball at least, was Spalding, but I never observed too much difference between the two.

Oh, the memories. Spaldeens…

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Oh, the memories. Spaldeens ruled, anything else was second rate. I keep one in my car to this day. In the Dyker Heights section we used the Spaldeen for everything,slap ball, punch ball , handball, cather-flyers-up, stoop ball, box ball, stickball. Didn’t know pensies existed till we moved to Nassau County. We would use them if local candy store was out of spaldeens or we couldn’t put together the 25 cents for the real deal.

Anyone remember Louie’s on…

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Anyone remember Louie’s on Nostrand Avenue,near Glenwood Road, close to the Junction? The library was nearby and a fur place … what the hell was it’s name — Mitchell’s??? Louie and his wife, Bea, worked their butts off in a hard business, literally working for pennies and putting up with bratty kids like us. Thanks to Milky Ways,Three Musketeers and too many egg creams, I put on mucho weight. Best wishes to the crowd from Vanderveer Estates.

un dos tres i said an…

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un dos tres i said an east an west I met my boyfriend at the candy store. He bought me ice cream, he bought me cake. He bought me home with a bellyache! I said Mama, mama, I feel sick! Call the doctor, quick-quick-quick! Doctor, doctor, if i die? close your eyes and count to five. One, two, three, four, five. I’m alive! on channe 5 see that house on top of the hill thats where me and my boyfriend live

I grew up in the projects…

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I grew up in the projects on Staten Island, South Beach Houses to be exact and we had games for every season especially spring when the weather was warming up. First it would be kite flying time and we’d go to the corner store known as Ma’s or Pa’s or Boff’s for the “second store” and buy our 10-25 cent kite, put it together with rags for a tail and go fly it at the “big park’s” field. Every kid did this, the sky was filled with all different color and shapes of kites! It was awesome. Then came yo-yo season right on the heels of kite flying. We got our Duncan’s out and could do all the tricks; cats cradle, around the world, you name it; we could do it with a little practice. Next came summer and bee catching, yes, bee catching. We would get a glass jar or a coffee can, put some holes in the top for air and go out to the bushes and catch as many bees as we could, there was a hierarchy to the bees too; workers (lowest), queenies (bumble bees) and Shiny hineys (largest bumble bees and the highest) we all kept clear of wasps, those suckers hurt if you got strung…I never got strung, not until I was an adult camping in California by a yellow jacket (damn wasps!). This was followed by the long days and as soon as dusk came we were playing “ringalerio” or “caw, caw”…this can be looked up on this site so you get the rules and the fun! During the day we played skully (also on this site), assball, softball, rode our bikes for 100’s of miles (without helmets and all day with no adults); skated (remember skate keys) played with our spaldeens…one, two, three aleary…”three feet over Germany” (whomever knows about this game please answer, I want to know the history)…Fall arrived and we gathered all the fallen leaves and jumped into the biggest piles of leaves you’ve ever seen, we got cardboard boxes and jumped on the bushes and fell off in heaps…Winter brought sleigh riding near the park and at the cemeteries (we were bordered on 2 sides)…ice skating at Cameron’s pond (watch the thin ice…someone always fell thru)…snow ball fights…oops I forgot about Halloween and egging, shaving cream, and flour socks…little did we know that our hair styles after this would eventually become stylish in the 90’s and 2000’s!!!! Who knew! sorry to go on and on but growing up in the 70’s in New York City projects was the BEST! What about you? Mary