Growing up in Newark I guess many of us
really didn't appreciate what the city meant to us. Now when I look
back - and thanks to many of your pictures - I can somehow relive
the days of my childhood and the memories flood back. We learned
to explore Newark and spent many days tentatively going further
and further form our home base on Baldwin St. The Museum was almost
a second home and the guard always called the sweaty kids by name,
We also knew all the movie theaters on Broad and Market and Springfield
to Court. Renting row boats in Branch brook and Weequahic for 35
cent an hour was the big treat and Biking to South Mountain reservation
for an over night stay.
Newark has its problems and people coped and learned to be self
sufficient and able to protect each other. That's a quality I still
proudly carry with me today and am so grateful that I had the experience
My family didn't have much but I remember vividly the street scene
when in the summer evening people sat on front stoops, radios blaring
and kids playing in the street. Chipping in to buy a watermelon
and sharing it with 20-30 people. Then as it got darker the radios
were tuned to war news, followed by Bob Hope or Jack Benny. We had
a stable past West street and the Horses occasionally dropped their
Manure. During our football games we used the manure when calling
a pass play and the manure was our Post pattern. Go to the left
of the pile and the defender has to go through it.
Newark was and is an important city and I am very proud to say
I was raised there and that was a formative experience for me
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