I want a charlotte russe! A real charlotte russe with the scallop edged carboard holder,that perfect little round piece of cake and all of the luscious REAL whipped cream. And the cherry. It has to have a cherry; not a stupid strawberry like they have on the ersatz thingies that are sold at our local bakery. I want a charlotte russe now!!
I started taking ballet lessons. I lived in downtown Manhattan and I took my lessons on the upper East side of Manhattan. I got into the number 6 train on Canal Street and got out into a completely different world on 77 th Street. I walked the few blocks to 79th and 3rd and went into my classes and ate pizza on 76th and 3rd with my friend Luisa after class and before descending the stairs.
Ballet lessons …. Every Saturday morning, my mother would take me to the “ballet studio” where we’d darn our little pink ballet outfits, and try our best to dance to the drone of the ballet teachers voice … “and one, and two, and pirouet”…I never could stand on my toes … After the lesson was over, a group of us would go to the nearest White Castle … ; )
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!