People felt safe growing up in Paterson NJ in the 40s, 50s, and 60s. There was pride not only living in your neighborhood but also living on your street too. You wouldnt see graffiti or defacing of buildings anywhere. And people took pride in how the inside of their homes looked too. My mother would make Felix Ungers house from the Odd Couple TV show look kind of sloppy. I used to think she made her bed before she even woke up(and I can still hear her yelling at me DONT SIT ON THE BEDSPREAD! - she made it sound like a bomb would go off if I even came close to that bedspread!) Every single day she would do light dusting(as she called it) and then vacuum(we had this big heavy clunker of a vacuum cleaner - nothing was light weight back then.) The dishes would be washed by hand with a wash cloth - very aptly named a wash cloth(we had no dishwasher), and then the dishes were dried(I was the dish dryer), and finally neatly put away after every meal. People could visit our house at any time of the day and everything was spic and span and neat as a pin(that was one of my mothers very favorite expressions - neat as a pin.) Many people commented the inside of our house looked kind of like a museum. But as Ron Popeil used to say wait theres even more! Every couple of weeks we had a cleaning lady named Tessie(not Tess but Tessie) who came to our house to do the heavy cleaning(as my mother called it.) Tessie was quite an old Polish lady(I know youre thinking to yourself Polish cleaning ladies are the best at cleaning in the entire world and youre right!) Tessie would take the bus to our house and arrive early in the morning at 8am and work until about 3pm. My mother would make her lunch at around 12pm(usually a tuna fish sandwich with potato chips and lots of coffee to keep her awake.) Tessie would clean all the windows in our house, the bathroom, the kitchen floor, the inside of the refrigerator, and whatever else my mother asked her to do(my mother would be like a drill sergeant nicely telling Tessie what to do - she never ran out of things to tell her to do either.) And each week my mother would also come up with a special cleaning project for Tessie to finish. Tessie would be happy to do any extra cleaning she was asked to do. It wasnt like today where you hire a cleaning service and they stay for only about 2 hours. And then they quickly advise you no sorry we dont do that or no that will be an extra charge. Tessie became a fixture in our family every 2 weeks and everyone liked this very sweet old lady. I remember through the years the only problem we ever had with Tessie was my mother always thought she was taking a nip or two from the couple of liquor bottles we had in the liquor cabinet(what a BIG problem right?) Anyway one day my mother got a bright idea and drew a little line on each bottle where the liquor came up to in order to see if Tessie was actually taking a drink or not. But my mother never caught her because Tessie outfoxed her. She was actually filling up the bottle with water to make up for the liquor that she drank. It was a game that went on for years with us and Tessie. We loved Tessie who was like an old aunt you loved more and more as she got older and older. We really enjoyed living in our home on 33rd street in Paterson. But this wasnt the horse and buggy era any longer. We used to venture out on weekends in our car to nearby surrounding areas to shop(my mother would go anywhere for a bargain.) So we would start out early and leave Paterson and take S 3(remember back then it wasnt Route 3 it was S 3) and go through the Lincoln Tunnel(which was only 50 cents back then - now its $13.00!) Every time we were in the tunnel my mother would remind me that the walls could burst at any moment and we could all be drowned in a second. To this day I speed through the Lincoln Tunnel as fast as I can and hope I dont get stuck in traffic there(and I constantly check around for any crashing water coming through the walls.) If a cop ever stops me for speeding in the tunnel, Im going to tell him what my mother said about the bursting walls. We would often go to the lower eastside in Manhattan to the linen district to buy sheets, pillow cases, and all other sorts of furnishings for the house. We would usually go on a Sunday so we could park on the street for free in Manhattan(no way my mother would pay to park in a parking lot.) Around lunchtime we would often head over to Katzs Delicatessen on East Houston street for a corned beef sandwich on rye with mustard(my father would always go for the hot pastrami cut thin instead.) I used to love seeing all those salamis hanging from the ceiling(but we never did send one to a boy in the army.) After lunch sometimes we would walk over to the lighting district by the Bowery. In those days there was one fixture place after another and they went on for several blocks(sadly today most of these lighting stores are gone.) Every store would have these exquisite one of a kind fixtures hand made in Europe. There would be these huge ceiling to floor spiral chandeliers with real crystals(not Lucite like today.) I always wondered how they could afford their electric bills with all those lights being left on all day(I thought to myself this must psychologically be killing my mother who was always telling me to shut off all the lights in our house.) Maybe she was right after all because so many of these lighting stores did actually go out of business. Everyone in those days would have their own favorite store that they bought from(however they all looked exactly the same and sold the same lights so it was always hard to find your store.) One of our favorite stores was a place where these identical twins worked(you would be working with one twin and then he would disappear and the other twin would suddenly appear(it was like watching an episode of Candid Camera.) My mother would finally see a chandelier she liked and then the fun would really start. How much is it? One twin would say Its $200 just for you! Thats way too much no way! Its the last one I have in the store so Ill give you a good deal on it(every fixture in the store was the last one they had.) Ill make it $175 if you pay me cash! Make it $150 and no sales tax! Then the twin would say Ill be right back. Suddenly he would come back but we didnt know if he was the same twin or not. So my mother would start all over again. Mr Twin do you like this fixture Im thinking of buying? He would say ITS GORGEOUS! After another lengthy back and forth my mother would finally make the deal!) Then all of a sudden she said the magic words to my father YOU DONT THINK ITS TOO UNGAPATCHKA DO YOU??? By the way UNGAPATCHKA is my all time favorite singular word - its just the BEST word ever! Say it to me at any time and I will always burst out laughing. My father was getting hungry and so he said No its just GORGEOUS and finally the deal was struck. Manny was summoned to take down the fixture from the ceiling and wrap it up in brown paper(they always took down the one they had on display whether they had more in the back or not.) But my mother wasnt even close to being done yet(she was never quite done - like Ron Popeil said indeed there was always more.) How about throwing in some extra bulbs and some extra crystal pieces too? Now it was time to go eat. My mother would drive us to Chinatown. She drove instead of my father because we knew this was going to require a good city driver to find a parking space and then parallel park in one of those tight spaces on Mott Street. My mother was an expert parallel parker from all her years driving around Paterson(she actually won an award for being a one shot parallel parker.) Finally we found a spot after my mother blocked traffic for several minutes(she had no fear) while she followed someone slowly walking about half a mile to their car. I love Chinatown - its like I was transported to a foreign country. I loved seeing all the ducks hanging in the windows and all the Chinese shops selling all their souvenirs. Finally it was time to look for our favorite Chinese joint(everyone had their own go to place in Chinatown) We walked down Mott Street, made a right turn, and saw the big line of people down the block. We knew we had found WO-HOP at 17 Mott Street our favorite Chinatown spot. We stood on this very long line for about 45 minutes when we knew were getting close because we had reached the steps going down into Wo-Hop. There is another street level restaurant called Wo-Hop right next to our Wo-Hop and sometimes people go there because you can get right in without ever having to wait. Dont be fooled its not nearly as good as the down the steps Wo-Hop(and thats why there is never a line to get in the other Wo-Hop.) As we were waiting on the narrow steps freezing in the cold, people were knocking into us coming up the steps after they had just finished eating. People on line would ask them was it good? what did you eat? I would always think why would people be waiting on this long line for an hour in the freezing cold if the food wasnt any good? We kept going further down step by step as someone from the restaurant would start to call out any parties of 2 here? Parties of 2 only And 2 people from behind us would brush passed us smiling and getting a table(it was so frustrating.) Finally we got in too. There are about 10 little tables in the whole place. You would literally be sitting elbow to elbow with other customers(sometimes you would even share a table with them.) We would order and the best Chinese food this side of Hong Kong would come out piping hot to our table in about 4 minutes. The bill would come and it would be like $9.00 for all of us. IT WAS THE BEST! I remember when I was in college(my crazy years - crazy for a Jewish kid anyway), my friend and I would drive to Wo-Hop at like 3 in the morning for some lo mein and egg rolls(I had no fear back in those days - NOW? I like to be home as soon as it gets dark.) I have never forgotten Wo-Hop and still go there whenever I get the chance(and nothing and I mean nothing ever changes there.) In the summer months we would venture over to Coney Island in Brooklyn. We would walk through all the streets on the way to the beach. We would notice all of the bath houses lined up next to each other(they were legitimate bath houses in those days no hanky panky went on there.) I remember my father once in a while would want to stop in for a steam(it wasnt called a sauna back then it was a steam) - my mother used to say the steam would open up your pores. Finally we would reach the beach and lay out in the sun all day(we used no sun screen who knew about the dangers of the sun - we thought the sun was our friend.) I used to get such a bad sunburn, it hurt to put on any clothes the next day. There would always be vendors walking the beach too carrying all kinds of food and drinks(I particularly remember this ice cream man carrying this huge white freezer in front of him and he could barely walk holding it.) I could always see the boardwalk and Steeplechase Park from the beach. But mostly I remember the PARACHUTE JUMP ride! I wanted so much to go on that parachute jump but of course my mother said what do you need it for(in fact like a good Jewish mother she said dont even watch them go up and down, youll get a stiff neck. At lunchtime we would walk over to Nathans(where they used to have good hot dogs not like the ones they have today.) When I watch that Joey Chestnut guy eat 68 hot dogs every Labor Day, I always think to myself Let me see Joey do that with sixty eight Johnny & Hanges all the way hot dogs. Then Ill really be impressed! After a few years Coney Island started to become a little seedy and we started to go down the shore instead(you know youre from Jersey when you say down the shore.) We would go to the Asbury and Bradley Beach shore area. In the summer months Ocean Ave would come to a crawl with traffic from so many cars going from one shore town to another shore town. We would walk the boards(thats what we called it walking the boards.) I remember as a kid I always wanted to go under the boardwalk to look for change that may have fallen through the slats in the boards but my mother wouldnt let me go. I would want to stop in all the fun arcades to play skee-ball or play the pin ball machines(I remember hitting the side of the pin ball machine hard so I could direct my ball better to the targets and rack up more points.) But if you hit the machine too hard, the machine would tilt and the game would suddenly end(I learned the lesson of risk/reward in life very early playing pinball.) We would play miniature golf sometimes and try and miss the spokes on that turning windmill on the last hole so we could play a little longer. We would have so much fun on the bump cars too. Or we would go on the Hell and Back ride and be scared half to death. But to be really totally scared to death, we went to the Asbury Park Palace Funhouse. We would enter through this barrel and see these mirrors that make us look either very fat(like 600lbs) or else look pencil thin and 8ft tall. Then suddenly everything would go dark. Theres an attic smell and cold air is blowing on us. Beneath our feet we feel bumpy, rubbery things. Dead body perhaps? We make a turn and something is wrong with the floor. Its leaning to the left and then we see a mother in a chair rocking her baby who all of a sudden shrieks out in horror. Whats this? Looks like bars...prison bars...Now what do we do? These bars are solid iron. Wait look at this! One bar is made of rubber. Lets pull it aside and then squeeze through it and were out. A few more bends and we see a half naked cannibal stirring someone in a pot. We quickly make our way a little further and see the light of the day! Whew we made it out alive somehow! There were so many great places to eat down the shore too. For breakfast there was La Bovs right on the boardwalk. There were hot dog places for lunch like Mike & Lous, Sweet Works, Hot Works, The Windmill, and Maxs(the lady owner was kind of gruff but the hot dogs were great) At night there was Evelyns in Belmar for fresh seafood(in the summer you would have to wait outside for a long time for a table.) But probably my favorite restaurant was The Homestead on the boardwalk in Ocean Grove(that little town that literally closed down completely on Sundays.) There would be all these college kids who would come there from all over the country to work and enjoy the summer shore at the same time. They would use these hand held devices and click them to communicate with each other. I can still taste the veal parmigian and the fresh baked cornbread sticks with melted butter that they kept bringing out to the table. Once in a while we would take even a longer drive to Atlantic City. In the 1940s to the 1960s Atlantic City was a bustling tourist mecca in the summertime(who needed casinos and gambling - look at whats happening there now!) There was the Steel Pier with the Diving Horse(can you imagine what PETA would say today about a horse that was forced to dive into a shallow pool of water?) There was The Miss America contest hosted by Bert Parks(there she is Miss America, there she is, your ideal, the dreams of a million girls... ) And there were, of course, great places to eat too like Captain Starn’s and Hackney’s Seafood Restaurant on the boardwalk. They were two of the most famous restaurants on the entire East Coast. I remember eating at Capt Starns many times(they gave us all Capt Starn hats to wear and took our picture at the table too for a souvenir.) We would go to Dock’s Oyster House on Atlantic Avenue or the Knife And Fork. If you were in the mood for a great Jewish deli experience, you had Kornblau’s operated by Morris and Alex Kornblau best known for their tasty corned beef and hot pastrami sandwiches. After dinner you would make sure you remembered your salt water taffy to bring to your neighbors. And then you would start the drive back home(and you prayed that you wouldnt hit bumper to bumper traffic on the Parkway.) Finally you would see the exit sign on the GSP for Paterson and you knew you were almost home. It was always fun to get away but you were also very happy to be getting back to Paterson too. Somehow there was something very comforting being back in your own neighborhood on your own street and in your own home. You felt safe knowing you were home again where you knew you always belonged.
Posted on: Sun, 14 Sep 2014 21:05:41 +0000
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