Tag Archives: 1950’s

Homage to Hammer’s Dairy Restaurant

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    So many of our memories involve food and this one is no different. This is Steven Hammer, my classmate, a sweet little second grader with red hair. His dad was Bill Hammer, and the Hammer family owned Hammer’s, the dairy restaurant at 243 East 14th Street, off Second Avenue. I don’t think we were in any other classes together, having consulted my stack of class photos, but for some reason, I remember his face so clearly, a seven year old. It was 1955-1956. The class was taught by a wonderful teacher, Mrs. Marion Oppenheimer, who later left to … Continue reading →

How One Store Can Bring Back Your Childhood

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  I am the admin for a 1200+ member group on Facebook; we are a group of reminiscers of the place where we grew up. Stuyvesant Town. A development, a community, built by The Metropolitan Life Insurance Company in the late 1940s, built for the WWII veterans who came home to a housing shortage. So, I am one of 1200+ kids who were lucky enough to have grown up there, despite its faults, and I could name a few, (you might just have to read my book), but for now  I will only share the magic of remembrance, the goodness … Continue reading →

Another Trip Around The Sun

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  In the day, when mother’s of children were the mothers. When children of mothers were the children. When children of mothers weren’t their mothers; when the world hadn’t been flipped on its head. In the simple organization of days, time never passed. All it takes to be that child again is thought.    

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NYC History: Avery Corman: “My Old Neighborhood”

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Author, Avery Corman’s video is a touching look at growing up in the Bronx. Although I grew up in Lower Manhattan, I did live in the Bronx for about seven years. The denizens of each borough have borough-specific memories, yet somehow, the memories are the same. The food, the smells, the buildings, the sounds all echo from place to place. They will forever be different and forever the same. I am drawn to this video even though is is “before my time” and slightly out of phase with my life, but I know the Bronx. I remember the grand movie … Continue reading →

A Slice of Life …

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The Lower East Side of Manhattan Stuyvesant Town and Peter Cooper Village Are Highlighted     The following video is a segment of a PBS broadcast about Robert Moses and the post-war re-building of New York City. Mid-way, it features the development in which I grew up, Stuyvesant Town and how it replaced hundreds of tenement buildings and displaced thousands of people. It is interesting to note that the original purpose of the building of Stuyvesant Town was to provide affordable housing to the World War II veterans and their families. At this time the management has changed hands several … Continue reading →

A Wonderful, Nostalgic New York City Video

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  My friend, K., brought this video to my attention and I sat there for almost a half hour glued to it: I had a bad case of nostalgia. I miss the old simple New York City of my childhood, the young ladies in white gloves and dresses, the young men in suits and ties, the Mamie Eisenhower outfits on mothers. This is one of the kitschiest “tours” of New York City I’ve seen. Of course the young man in the horse drawn carriage on a date was smoking–it seems so passeé. The streets that are now so impossible to … Continue reading →

209. Friday Fluff: 4/18/08: Growing up in the ’50’s

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              Some great nostalgia! Growing up in the 50’s   15 CommentsChronological   Reverse   Threaded reply ppiccola wrote on Apr 17, ’08 aww love the music, hmmm…the candy oand chocolates, I’ve seen those key for rollerskates…thank you Sue. reply sanssouciblogs wrote on Apr 17, ’08 ppiccola said aww love the music, hmmm…the candy oand chocolates, I’ve seen those key for rollerskates…thank you Sue. I had one of those keys!! reply stillybee wrote on Apr 17, ’08 Very kewl;… Im glad others are also remembering the old days!!! lol you got Fluff.. I got Fab… Fabby … Continue reading →

190. Friday Fluff: The Rootie Kazootie Club

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You’re a Baby Boomer if you remember Rootie, Poison Sumac, and Polka Dottie… Rootie Kazootie was a 1954 children’s television show. Somehow my mother got tickets to the live show, enough for me and my neighbor, a fellow first grader.  We seemed to be pressed for time; I remember piling into a taxi with my friend and our mothers. It was a rainy evening, but nobody wanted to miss Rootie. We were seated with a bunch of kids and given a box of cereal–good advertising by the show’s sponsor.  A clown came on and scared  the hell out of me;I … Continue reading →

202. Friday Fluff : Nostalgia

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More nostalgia. Have fun! Do you remember these?        CommentsChronological   Reverse   Threaded editdeletereply lauritasita wrote on Apr 11, ’08, edited on Apr 11, ’08 How’s this for synchronicity: http://lauritasita.multiply.com/journal/item/586/Friday_Fluff_The_Dummy_ reply vickieann wrote on Apr 11, ’08 I remember some….thanks for this! reply twicem wrote on Apr 11, ’08 Eeks….yes I do remember these… reply philsgal7759 wrote on Apr 12, ’08 ooooooooo now I feel younger since most of this is before my time reply sanssouciblogs wrote on Apr 12, ’08 philsgal7759 said ooooooooo now I feel younger since most of this is before my time Quiet, you, you, … Continue reading →

78. Let’s Exchange Names

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I conceived this blog while on Astra Navigo’s site; his blog was about his home state, Oregon. I have never lived in Oregon, but I will always remember my first phone number: ORegon-3-9833.Before all digit dialing, before we lost our phone and geographical identities, before we got lost in digits and binary codes, we had telephone exchanges; they put you on the map, they gave you a reference point in the huge communication universe, which then consisted of… the telephone. It was sometime after “Upstairs, Downstairs,” when Hudson, the butler, would answer the ringing wall phone with ‘Halllooooo? May I … Continue reading →

30. It’s Automatic: NY Phenomenon: Fun Fast Food

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One of my fondest memories of growing up on East 14th Street in Manhattan was the Horn & Hardart, Automat, near Union Square. My mother would take me on the Avenue B bus for a 10 minute ride, and the excitement would build. We’d often go shopping first at S. Klein on the Square, where one could find bargains galore; great stuff and everything at low prices. After some heavy shopping, we’d round the corner and pop into the Automat. It was a chain that started in Philadelphia by Joseph Horn and Frank Hardart, and became most popular in New … Continue reading →

21. Back to the Future: Winky Dink:The First Video Game

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The best kids’ television was in the 1950’s, in my biased, humble opinion. Winky Dink and You premiered on Saturday, October 10, 1953, at 10 in the morning on CBS. Our parents rushed to the 5 & 10 to buy the famous Winky Dink Kit, for 50 cents, which contained a plastic screen that when placed over the television screen–glass, not plasma, created a guiding drawing board. We traced dutifully, getting Winky out of trouble, providing him with ropes and bridges. He wasn’t 007, but he was surely cute. As I mentioned somewhere previously about my childhood, I grew up … Continue reading →

20. In Labor with Lassie

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It feels like I have been running and spinning since May; a full 4 months since picking the prodigal son up from college with his truck load of boxes and dirty laundry, until this weekend when we returned him to school his last year with a truckload of boxes and soon to be dirty laundry.It’s Labor Day, a day of rest for the worker who resumes his or her life of stress tomorrow, behind a desk, in an office, at a hospital, in front of a computer or a classroom, washing floors in an airport, slinging hash at a diner, … Continue reading →

213. Poetry: On Butterflies

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art by Sans Souci   I came across a link to a blog by someone who I am not affiliated with, and was moved by the request to make a yellow paper butterfly to remember Pavel Friedman.  It was said on the blog that he wrote the following poem while in the Warsaw Ghetto, but he was actually in the Ghetto of the Terezin Concentration Camp Terezin was the “model” camp, the sham, the lie, projected to the world to cover up the disgrace of the Nazis. It was billed to the elderly as a “retirement home,” when in fact … Continue reading →

11. Poetry: 1959

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A retreat back to the late ’50’s where life was simple and safe. original post 4/20/07 I wrote a large collection of poetry after 9/11 while on a teaching sabbatical. This is one of them. When the world gets to be a little too much, I retreat to happy, innocent years. Enjoy the music; it is not all from 1959, but thereabout. I should write a poem about Richard Panik; in 6th grade he was the first boy I ever danced with. The song was Richie Valens’ “Oh Donna.”  The place was the school gym.  I was giddy.  It was … Continue reading →