New York City memories (Chinatown, town, lodge)

[zonababe]

Originally Posted by lamontnow

Don't know if anybody has mentioned this yet, but I remember a truck coming around once in a while with a ride like the whip or the half-moon. I think they disappeared many, many years ago. Those were the days when kids used to play in the streets.

Yes the ride would come every afternoon in the summer. In addition to the whip and the half moon, we had a ferris wheel. I grew up in Bay Ridge Brooklyn.

[nygeek]

I grew up in Bay Ridge and remember the ferris wheel ride and those others as well.

I also remember the Good Humor man used to come around on a bike and give us pieces of dry ice.

[zonababe]

Originally Posted by nygeek

I grew up in Bay Ridge and remember the ferris wheel ride and those others as well.

I also remember the Good Humor man used to come around on a bike and give us pieces of dry ice.

Small world. I lived on 93rd between Ridge and 3rd. We had Marty the Good Humor man. The man on the bike was along Shore Road.

[Fred314X]

I was born in Brownsville, and that truck with the "whip" used to come around all the time. Also Bungalow Bar ice cream!

[hummmmm]

Loved these posts! They brought back memories I had forgotten, like the little fold-up seats in the checkered cabs that my brother and I used to fight over. I still have an old token with the "Y" cut out, still love egg creams and bagels that only taste good in NY and I miss the cream on the milk that was delivered everyday. Anybody remember White Castle? Are they still around?

I remember...

Tribeca - when there were still lots of trucks and depots mixed in with very few art galleries and that restaurant with the statue of liberty on top of it...what was that called...and there was a weird smell in the air that entered your nostrils the minute you exited the #1 train at Franklin St. There was a bakery on Hudson north of Franklin and across from a natural foods market where they had the BEST brownies in the world and I could eat one everyday and not get fat because I walked everywhere.

Spanish Harlem - Where there was an animated Nedick's sign with a cartoon guy that drank orange drink just above my cousin's building. I was fascinated by the way the orange would disappear and reappear. It was a beautiful old building that had marble stoops that were so worn in the middle they sloped from all the feet that had passed over them. Black and white small octangular tiles in the foyer that smelled of urine, garlic, tostones and chicken. Meringue and salsa music in the street.

Midtown - Sophisticated and stylish, the smell of Ralph Lauren perfume, Gray Flannel and everyone wore black.

SoHo - "SAMO" marking the buildings, all the galleries on West Broadway, Keith Haring drawings in the subways on the empty billboards, art welded to the street signs.

The Village - My first punk hair cut at Astor Barber where the barbers massaged your head.

East Village - the Rivington Street school corner with all the welded sculpture, ABCnoRIO with junkies on the front stoop, squatters and artists. Wondering what the **** graffiti was doing inside a gallery. The late seventies early eighties when everyone looked like Madonna before Madonna looked like Madonna.

Andy Warhol sightings - where didn't you see that famous white head?

Macy's and Gimbel's Christmas displays that were nothing short of magic to seven-year-old eyes. The smell of chestnuts by the "angels" at Rockefeller Center.

[hummmmm]

Originally Posted by nyctc7

I remember when pizza shops were run by Italian immigrants who spun the pizza dough over their heads.

I remember before the pooper-scooper law when a person could expect to step in dog crap a couple of times a year, no matter how careful one looked out.

I remember when it was affordable to attend a professional sports game.

I remember Chiller Theater (the hand) and Million Dollar Movie.

I remember TelePrompTer and Ticketron.

I remember when there was no such thing as Battery Park City.

I remember Palisades Amusment Park...Palisades has the rides…Palisades has the fun…Come on Over

I remember when the TV stations signed off at night with the National Anthem.

I remember when the children of channel 9 employees gave Christmas greetings on the air.

I remember Officer Joe Bolton and Captain Jack McCarthy.

I remember Roger Grimsby "Here Now The News."

I remember when Saturday Night Live was funny and something special.

I remember when mothers could stay at home with their kids instead of having to work.

I remember the Times Square Fascination Parlor.

I remember many more movie theaters in those pre-VCR days. I remember a smoking section.

I remember when Woody Allen made funny movies.

I remember when there were no Sushi restaurants and virtually no Mexican restaurants.

I remember a shoe store on the Upper West Side that was famous because the owner looked like Telly Savalas.

I remember Wonderama and Sonny Fox.

I remember the 11-day Subway Strike of 1980.

I was very young but do remember the Blackout of 1965.

I was very young but remember the World's Fair in Queens in 1964. All I really remember is the monorail.

Great Post!!! Touches on a lot of memories...

[nyctc7]

Originally Posted by hummmmm

Great Post!!! Touches on a lot of memories...

Thanks. The post above that mentions Gimbels makes me remember back when those huge department stores had those bells that went DING-DING, and it was something of a mystery what they were. A quick search tells me that they were pages--different managers would have a different sequence of "dings." However I prefer one comedian's (I think Gallagher) explanation--the dings were there as some kind of psychological instrument to turn women into shopping automatons.

Also nygeek thanks for the reminder of Buitoni Toaster Pizza!

[Fred314X]

How about seltzer in bottles? (The green ones were always special, weren't they?)

[nygeek]

Blackout cake from Ebinger's.

Sprinkler caps on the fire hydrants.

May's Department Store on Fulton Street.

Actually playing board games with friends.

Elderly women throwing pans of water down on us if we were making noise under her window.

[zonababe]

In Arizona, we can't get Drakes Cakes or Wise Potato Chips.