Jackson Heights Life

"Nicely done.  Zero out of 400.  Wow! There was a bakery next to Meyer's correct?  My Dad would bring home an assortment of sweet buns on Saturday mornings from there (although Nellie Spears was his favorite)"

The Bakery was Shelley's, which made great rye bread among other things. 

I thought some of you old time JH folks would appreciate the recent post from my photography blog:

http://citylightsphotos.tumblr.com/

Enjoy

Tarbender- what years are you referencing?  I vividly remember the Army Navy Store  and Lido. The bakery on Roosevelt between 82nd and 83rd I remember as Shelly's?  Is the ice cream parlor you are trying to remember- Meyers? It was an old place with a long counter and booths.   

Anyone remember a hotel on 80th Street between Roosevelt and 37th?  Maybe called the Sunset? It might have been a long term residency hotel?

Hey Fdthird:

My father owned Giglio's Liquors next door to The Drum. I think it  became El Tambor or a similar Spanish name. And across the street was one of the first Latin restaurants in JH- El Inca.

I'm about 7 years younger but I had two of those teachers.  Dollinger was a belittling bullying pain- horrible. Heyman was a wonderful teacher. Pushed us and we learned a lot.

 My years at PS 69 were great and I had wonderful teachers - with the exception of 3rd Grade when I had Mrs. D (I will not use her name here out of a sense of decency).  Three incidents stand out: During a penmanship lesson (yes that was a subject back then) we were leaning script and the first letter we learned was e. This was followed by i and then t. The assignment was to write an entire page of these three letters. I did that and then showed some initiative by linking the three and spelling "tie."  I was so proud of myself. Mrs. D walked up and down the rows inspecting our work and when I pointed out how I linked the letters and spelled a word she yelled at the top of her lungs” WHO TOLD YOU TO LNK THE LETTERS" and promptly ripped up my paper.  Good encouragement for learning.

On an afternoon in late November, I went to the bathroom and some of the older kids were standing around talking in a shocked manner -- President Kennedy was shot.  I went back to class and told Mrs. D, who then proceeded to ream me out in front of the class about how foolish I was to listen to rumors. A few minutes later the news was shared with the school. She never apologized or even acknowledged her mistake.

Finally, it was the last week in June – you remember, when school was basically over and they didn’t know what to do with us, so they invented activities and filled the time with nonsense.  At 2PM we were marched down to the cafeteria to find, the tables filled with books -- mostly discarded textbooks and library books. We were told that we could take any book we wanted.  My friend and I walked around and around looking for a "cool" book on something like sports, rocks, planes...  Mrs. D came over and us what was taking so long? We told her we were looking for a really cool book. She yelled at us to "find a book and get the hell out of here!”

My friend and I looked at each other, grabbed a book and left the building. We had had a few early dismissals over the previous two weeks so this made sense. The next day we arrived at school and our classmates told us we were in major trouble for leaving school.  We had to go to the principal’s office and were interrogated by him individually.  He then called Mrs. D down and we told our story in front of her. She denied it and we both emphatically jumped all over it.  She hemmed and hawed a bit and clearly the principal believed us. We were dismissed and she had to stay behind. She returned to the classroom a bit shaken.  I’ve kept these stores to myself for 47 years. Thanks for allowing me to vent.

I certainly remember Shelby's -- and the Toddle House.  Was Wexler's there in 1954? SW corner of 76th and 34th --an appetizing store - lox, smoked white fish, pickles and shoestring licorice.