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From: Fred Mockler
Date: 02 Jan 1999
Hey, remember Dave Cornfields store on Gerritson Ave, by Cyrus. Old fat Dave, we used to go in there and get our penny candy, and a coke, hang out there when it was raining. His place was by the school buss stop. He was a guy who always treated you as if you were stealing his store. He had a cold-cut case that had balogna, ham & cheese that looked like it came over on the Mayflower. but Mom Whittman, now there was a warm lady. not only did she treat you like a person, she gave you credit. If you were short a nickle, you paid her next time. And Fickens grocery on the corner of Seba Ave. Nice, clean, and always the smell of fresh apple pie just baked. Now,.,.. I can't recall the name of "Doc's", on the Cyrus Ave. Jerry Seigal was his helper, and then finally took over. I hear he eventually bought out Irving Weiner. Remember Mr. Barbiari,.. the shoe-Maker,..had a very attractive daughter named Lorretta. He turned his store into a Pizza Parlor, or some kind of soda shop. You could get a pizza, while he was putting new soles on your shoes. Remember that green crap all the barbers gave you when you got a hair-cut?? It was some kind of wave-set. Came in little jars,..stunk like cats -piss. You would use it, and your hair felt like you had Elmers Glue on it. Then they came out with "Wildroot Cream Oil",..now there was a wallpaper paste if there ever was one. It made you feel like you could withstand a typhoon, and your hair would stay "slick"! Then you had Weiners Drug Store,... where you could get a great "Egg-Cream",..and Sam Leibman made the greatest "Egg Creams", (he lives in New Paltz) vanilla or chocolate. Little by little, this stuff is dribbling back. How many of you remember the military emergency housing, we called them the Barracks. The greatest thing was the "Garbage houses" Every few blocks was a garbage shed. Maybe 8x8 in size, with a bunch of cans. We used to go "picking", in the garbage houses. No differant than today,... only today they call it a garage sale!!!!! Remember Cyrus and Ceba Avenues?? They were dirt roads,.. and two or thgree times a year the road grader came to level them out. Hey, how about "HITCHING", in a snow storm??? Now, Cyrus ave, and Ceba Ave's wer great for hitching. Up and down,..it was snowing like the devil, and there were dozens of kids, with their sleds,.. some new as Christmas presents, just waiting for the next car to come along to belly-flop and grab the bumper, sometimes, you had 6 or 8 guys, hanging onto each others legs. If you got behind the exhaust, you were not there long. There were a few people out there who just drove around dragging a half dozen kids behind their cars, just for fun. Jsut don't hit a patch of road with out snow,..your hanging on, your sled is way behind you. If we didn't have a sled, we used a garbage can cover. Anything that would hold us. I used to use my school bag. Thn there was the TAMAQUA,..for $2.00 you could get a pitcher of beer. Back in those days, you had to be 18. And got carded very seldom. We would play shuffle board, and get bombed. We got thrown out once,...we made a dough out of shuffle board wax and beer. We started to fling the stuff around,..like gobs of wallpaper paste, "OUT",..was the commasnd,.. and nobody was ever thrown out of the TAMAQUA!!! I guess I'll hang up for now,..hope you enjoyed my reminisce,... I'll be back,...
Fred Mockler,...
