I have gone through the message board and
can’t find anyone from my old neighborhood of Orange Street
and Roseville Avenue. I hope someone out there sees this message
and responds. It was such a great place to grow up in the 50’s,
but by the time that we left the old place it was slowly going down
and when I went back after being away for a time, most store keepers
had bars on the front of their stores. How sad to see this happen
to a place that you loved so much and was such a large part of your
life.
Orange Street was a pathway of so many great places. The Magic
Cottage Toy Store, Ratners, Bodholts Diner, the Tivoli Laundry where
all the men wanted their white shirts done, the White Meat Market
where Pat the Butcher would fill your order with a note and you
could pick it up later, Katz’s cleaners, Harry and Benny’s
Grocery Store, the Food Fair where the kids would line up with their
wagons and take your groceries home for you for a quarter of fifty
cents, the A&P who sold the greatest coffee beans in the world,
Tompkins Ice Cream where you stopped for that Saturday shopping
day treat, Woolworth's where all of us girls bought our scarves
to go with our sweater sets and wear around our necks with our collars
folded up, Zemans where our parents bought all of our practical
clothes till we were old enough to buy them ourselves and go to
the Terry Shops for the latest fashions, and Riches the huge house
wares store where our mothers splurged for a new set of curtains
or a new chenille bedspread, and of course there was Grunning’s
where anyone who was in the in crowd went and you knew everyone
in the place. I remember shouts from one table to another. A table
full of girls and someone from a table full of guys would run over
and sit with you because he wanted to make out with one of the girls.
It was a different day and age and I am so glad that I grew up then.
I see my grandchildren with all of this peer pressure and I know
that I had the better world. Everyone living on a street knew everyone
else. Today you can live on a street and never even see the people
who live around you and when something happens you are so surprised
to find that they actually lived there. It is sad to realize how
much the world has changed, but it is something that I have come
to accept. I am sure that all of you out there also feel the changes.
I had quite a few friends who lived on Myrtle Avenue. The Bradbury
twins for one. The alley that you are referring to was named Pig
Tails Alley. It butted up to the back of our garage. All of the
guys in the neighborhood would come to our barrage, swing open the
doors to the alley and fix up their cars. We had a three car garage
so there was plenty of room. Sometimes they would get a little to
rowdy and my father would have to go out there to play policeman.
I grew up with four brothers so you can see that our house was loud
and lively. And yes, I am younger. We moved into 66 Roseville Avenue
in 1941 when I was just a year old, our house used to be the old
Oxley Funeral Home, hence the three car garage. Latter, my aunt
and grandmother moved across the street from us in a six family
house owned by a Mrs. Rosamelia. I know the Clipper Ship and have
been there many times and the Wonder Bar was just down the corner
from my house. The cook used to make french fries for me whenever
I came by. I cannot count the times that my mother sent me to the
store and I would be in deep trouble because I took so long. But
it was unavoidable in a neighborhood like we lived in. Every few
feet you would meet someone that you knew and it would be rude not
to talk to them. Moy Bings was also one of my favorite places to
eat. On Fridays my friend Doris Dill and I would to there and order
all the things that we liked. The Roseville Bakery on Orange Street
was a definite landmark. No one who tasted a cake that was made
by Mrs. Chessner could resist eating a second and sometimes third
piece. I do remember the Hobby Store, but the Pet Shop I do not.
Oh, for the old days.
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