Category Archives: Street Lifestyle
Speaking about vendors,…
Candy Dots on a long white…
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…
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.
Yeah … I know it sounds…
Yeah … I know it sounds deranged, but this is actually a pastime we spent numerous hours playing in the fall. Two player game.Possibly a local thing in East Flatbush in Bklyn. We had a nearby cemetery (Holy Cross) where Chestnuts were plentiful …. Basically you’d string Chestnuts on a lace from your pair of Chuck Connors Allstars (a.k.a. Converse)You’d then take turns whacking the other person’s Chestnut with yours & vice versa until one player’s Chestnut cracked and came off the shoelace. The surviving Chestnut was thereby a “1 Killer”. Each subsequent battle that you won with that Chestnut added a Kill to it’s lore. Nail polish was ferquently applied to the Chestnuts to toughen the outer shell. Sheesh. maybe the kids are right and we were deranged !
we had a similar gun in…
we had a similar gun in the 70’s in northern nj but we used many rubberbands(the more the deadlier the sting) and we nailed a spring clothing pin to hold the rubberbands and projectile. we even fashioned them to look like machineguns. at times we even had double barrel guns by using two or even 3 pins. after a few years of this during the summer, the weapons were becoming to powerful and the projectile of choice became the round part that soda and beer cans had when you open them. they would be all over the ground in those days since they detached when a can was opened. soon after our parents banned our weapons. we destroyed most and hid some–never to be used again.
Jack, the good humor man,…
OK New Yorkers of ole. How…
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?
On a hot summer’s day, a…
On a hot summer’s day, a friend and I decided to go into business. We took one of our Mom’s glass pitchers and filled it with icecubes and lemonade. We set up a folding table in front of a neighborhood park bench, placed the pitcher and some paper cups on top, and waited … Soon, wide eyed thirsty kids appeared. We charged 10 cents a cup, and at the end of the day, we had a total of 50 cents. We split the profits and gave it all away to Jack the icecream man! ; )
You all sound like youngsters…
You all sound like youngsters compared to me. My first and only bike came at age 13 in 1939. It was the Rolls Royce of bicycles; a Rollfast with a tank and a horn on the tank, a headlight on the front fender, a streight bar accross the chrome handlebr. It also had a carrier on the back fender and a chain guard. There was also a speedometer/odometer which registered to 50 mph.The crowning glory was the Fisk whitewall Air Flight inflatable tires. At that time, (still into the depression) the retail cost of this “machine” was $47.50. My Dad got it wholesale for $29.00. That bike was transported to North Carolina where I attended collage and then was transported accross the country to Los Angeles. I equiped it with a $50.00 Whizzer motor that I rode through the canyons between N. Hollywood and Van Nuys to Los Angeles and Westwood. I eventually hit a car that ran a red light. I flipped over the front of the car. The bike ended up a lot worse than I did.