Originally Posted by frank754
I live in North Carolina now, at 53, but I was born in Paterson (Paterson General Hospital, July 1954) and lived in Prospect Park until I was 15 (1969). I always liked it, and my mom & I often went downtown on the 54 bus to go shopping and walk around. There was a nice character to the city even back in the late 50's-late 60's but it was quite seedy even then in some areas. From Prospect Park, coming down Haledon Ave., it was always a ghetto near the river & Bridge St., the bus went west and then over over the Arch St. bridge. We did our banking at the Prospect Park National Bank on Haledon Ave., and my dad got his haircuts at Foster's barber shop a few doors away. Down near the river, between Haledon Ave and Arch St., in that ghetto section, I remember one time there were posters all over that neighborhood saying "Muhammed is coming to Harlem", which was referring to the fighter Ali, shortly after he changed his name from Cassius Clay. That area then seemed like it was a bunch of old plywood pastel colored ramshackle shacks, before it was all torn down for urban renewal. My mom worked in downtown Paterson for Victor Comptometer on Market St., and later on when we moved to Waldwick ('69-'73), she would still take the train down to Paterson for work the next few years. I attended all my 8 grade school years at Prospect Park Public School (which had a bell on top), the "borough" was probably 90% Dutch, virtually all white, but my parents had moved there from Queens (we're of German ancestry) just before I was born. Later I attended Manchester Regional HS for 2 years before we moved. When I was 10-12 or so, my parents sent me to "day camp" each summer at the Paterson YMCA. The kids there were probably at least 60% black, and it was co-ed too, but we all got along fine, and we usually spent a good part of the day on Garrett Mtn., or else in the YMCA pool or "kids area" of the 4 story big old building watching movies, etc. I remember that the other half of the YMCA was sort of cordoned off, with transient men living there, but back in those days the ones me & my couple of buddies met seemed to have some air of distinction, not the "bum" vibes at all. I remember the great multi-story department stores of Paterson too, Meyer Brothers being the top, and Quackenbush (later called Jacobs) with its spiral brass art-deco staircase. Then there were the four 5 & 10's: Grant's, Woolworths, Kresges & Whelans (& later Ace Drug, which originally but briefly tried to be a 4 story dept. store), and my mom used to take me to Woolworths quite a bit for lunch as a young kid during a day of shopping. They called their cafe "The Skillet", and later they also has a soft-serve custard stand along the opposite side of the store, where you could get a soft custard fudge or strawberry swirl in a tall glass sundae cup for only around 15 cents. Everything was served on real ceramic dishes, coffee cups, and with metal utensils, and for coffee creamer they'd put some milk in a tiny ceramic shot-sized mini-pitcher. For soda they used paper conical "Lily" cups, but they'd snatch those up from a pile using a metal hour-glass shaped base, and that's what you'd be picking up, the metal rather than the paper. The 45 RPM records, once they were no longer top hits, sold as "cut outs" for around 69 cents. My mom also occasionally got a few of these for free from owners of the candy stores in Prospect Park, once they were taken out of their jukeboxes. The cafe at the back of Meyer Brothers in Paterson prided itself on their freshly squeezed orange juice, and they were later bought out by Stern Brothers, who had a store in Bergen Mall. Meyer Brothers had elevators on both sides of the store, the newer ones at the right were automated, but the old ones at the left were manually attended, with the friendly black ladies taking you up or down at your request, closing first the main door then the inner pantograph-style gate. Above each elevator door on the outside, was a large split glass art-deco globe, which lit green at the top or red at the bottom, to alert you which direction the next one would be going. On one side street off of Main St. was a butcher shop with a golden boar's head, they had the best tasting bulk cut bologna, one of the guys there would always cut me a free slice when I walked in with my mom. There was even a live wooden Mr. Peanut on Main St. in front of the Planters store (he must have really been sweating wearing that in summer). There were plenty of small womens' clothing boutiques on Main St. (Nadeen, etc.), and also specialty shops for nurses, maternity, etc. , candy shops (Fanny Farmer, etc.), and some bakeries, including Cushmans just across from the bus stop on the back side of city hall. I remember my dad used to go to a larger size mens' store on Market St. (Howard's ?) and get measured for a new Stetson Hat every few years. There were also at least 4 movie theaters, including a real spooky abandoned one on the lower part of Main St. (but above Broadway) with a gothic facade and purple spiral columns on the facade. The Majestic, even back then had films in Spanish, and the Garden on Market St., just a few blocks from the Erie Station eventually became porn until those entire blocks were later torn down in the name of urban renewal. Early on, there was even a downtown Sears on Market St., but that closed in the early 60's and we had to then go to the big one in Hackensack. There was also a Pep Boys, Tree Tavern Pizza factory, and a bunch of other goodies. There was a second newspaper too (besides the Paterson Evening News) called "The Morning Call". The offices of that paper, and the then-classy Alexander Hamilton Hotel were on the same block or so, as was the terminal stop for the Inter-City Bus lines, which went to NYC. There was also the Red & Tan Lines (I think) that went to NYC, but the train was always the best way. In the real early 60's there was also a second train line, the Susquehanna (which left from the more eastern part of town (Straight St. I think), and I remember riding that with my mom a few times too, to go see our relatives in Queens. The pay phones stayed antique for quite some time, I remember the booths around the city being wooden with a fan and a light, always smelling like cigarette smoke, and the earpieces were the big long horn type, and the separate cone-shaped mouthpieces would swivel up & down. My dad had to go for jury duty a few times over the years, and always ate at the famous "Fat Man" restaurant, just a few blocks from the courthouse. On several of the streets you could still see the trolley tracks poking through. My mom never drove back then, so for us it was buses to go anywhere during the week when my dad was working, besides the 54 we often rode the 14 Haledon, the 1 Hudson River to Garden State Plaza (Mall), and also the 94 to Bergen Mall (both in the Paramus/Hackensack/Maywood area). On the 4th of July, we'd often go to see the demolition Derby and Fireworks at Hinchcliff Stadium, near the falls and near where JFK High is now. On weekends we'd often head out in my dad's car to Totowa & Route 46, for shopping at Great Eastern Mills and Two Guys, long before the mall in Wayne was built. I remember the last day for train service on Main St. in Passaic in 1963, we just happened to be driving through there and there was a big celebration. My dad used to like to shop for clothes at Botany 500 Mills in the northern part of Passaic, and he worked at the Dumont TV plant in East Paterson, which was almost next to the Marcal Factory. Around that time I remember when the Marshall St. train station was also still open, and I've actually been inside when it was open. Going up to Garrett Mtn. with the YMCA day camp bus, the trackbed and bridges were still there on New St., as well as an old coal & coke plant (Dowling ?), before they started building I-80, and the big black "high bridge" on McLean Blvd (Totowa) where the tracks crossed the river, which was torn down for I-80. Later on when I was 12 or so, I remember riding my bicycle from Prospect Park to Totowa and exploring the old abandoned roadbed from the river all the way out to Wayne. But the main thing back then, even though Paterson was aging and past its prime, it still had a certain sense of class. The bus islands on both the front & back of City Hall and the Statues (in front) of Alexander Hamilton and Garrett Avgvstvs Hobart on horses (spelled that way on the statue in Roman fashion) still remain in my memory, as we spent a lot of time there waiting. They had big ornate concrete benches there too, and plenty of pigeons. The city always had a certain sense of hustle & bustle about it that made a nice impression as a child. I drove through there very quickly about 4 1/2 years ago (my first time since the 80's), and didn't have any time to see anything, but noticed two things, more immigrants and also the entire mill are west of town seemed to have been fixed up more as an historical district for tourists, where it was aging & run-down before (up near the Lou Costello pool area & falls). Anyway, this is my first post here, and I just registered because I wanted to share some of this, and Paterson brings back fond memories.
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04-25-2008, 10:32 PM
