PENNY PINSKEY. This or something close to this was the brand name of the substitute ball of choice when the candy store was out of Spaldings. It wasn’t as firm or live as a Spalding, but it beat nothing–and heaven forbid we’d use a tennis ball, so heavy and dead compared to a pink ball.
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.
Out on LI, just off Hempstead Turnpike in W. Hempstead, there was a long red brick supermarket wall, and concrete paving all the way to the street. This became known as “The Office.” Games of ‘Chinese’ Handball went on all day long in the late 50s and early 60s. Chinese handball was played in a ‘court’ usually two pavers square and was distinguished by one rule: You had to bounce the ball once before it hit the wall. “The Office” was well equipped: Across the street was “Three Finger Jack” McGinn’s candy store, and there was a staircase next to the handball wall where you could climb down and have more ‘private’ conversation, or hide if your mom came looking for you and your cigarette-smoking hooligan friends.
Candy Dots on a long white piece of paper. Wax lips. Candy cigarettes. Little bottles of wax that contained some sweet liquid that now would probably decay the enamel off of a bathtub. My telephone number started with Canal 6 – I still remember the entire number. How about black telephones. The big clunky kind. I sprayed mine gold and got into big trouble with the telephone company after it stopped working. And in my neighborhood…Kerosene stoves to keep you warm in the winter, before my building when to steam heat. And making wine in the basement – grosses me out now when I think of all the rodents that probably crawled over that barrel. And you forgot the best…YooHoo Chocolate Drink. You had to shake it to get the chocolate at the bottom to mix with the soda on top. One day I forgot I had opened it up and sprayed the grocery store with all this soda. I was thrown out of that store and told never to come back. It was on Mott Street on the Lower East Side of Manhattan.
Good Ole New York. Had the privilege of returning to NY last month and all these memories came back. I even ate a Charlotte Russe. Yummy! But it had a little bit of cake at the bottom. Not as much as I remember it had years ago. I never did get a chance to eat a knish…they don’t have such an animal in this part of the USA…most people here don’t even know what a knish is. I remember that The Enterman Bakery Truck used to come around selling those cupcakes that were listed above. Who remembers the penny pickles on the lower east side…and the lemonade man that came around each summer? You could get a Italian Lemon Ice for 5 cents. Gee, I’m dating myself.
OK New Yorkers of ole. How about a Charlotte Russe with the false bottom. Then there were the sweet potato venders and the soft pretzle guys and don’t forget the Hot dog vendors. Does anybody remember a deli on 42nd Street near B’way where a nickle bought you a hot dog, a hamburger or a knish with a free root beer. And then further down athe block were the spaghetti stores with the huge boiling pot in the window. All you can eat spaghetti for 25 cents. Where have the “real” Nathan’s hot dogs gone?