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We need more of you old timers to make this site like the last one was. We did have a lot more people involved with the old site. Talk about what you remember as a child, that's what people come in here for.
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Ok...I grew up in HB in the early 1960's thru the 1970's. Does that make me an "oldtimer"?
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Everyone they knew, friends & relatives alike, told my parents they were crazy. They had one small child (me) and another on the way, and they decided to buy a house in this wilderness out in the boondocks called Howard Beach. Nobody had ever heard of the place. It took 90 minutes on the subway and the bus to get there from my Grandparents house in Boro Park, Brooklyn. The streets were laid out and the sidewalks were in, but for the most part there were entire square blocks with nothing but sand and trees on them; no houses at all. My folks took out a 30 year mortgage. Sometimes they could barely make the payments. The house cost $6,000.00, and the year was 1938. We lived there until just after my Dad passed away in 1970. Mom sold the house for around $45,000.00. Two years later it was sold again for $60,000.00 It sold again a few years later for over $100,000.00. I have no idea what it might be worth today, but I'll venture to say a lot more. I know that the town has grown and changed greatly since I hung out at the baseball batting range on Cross Bay Blvd, but I still have many a fond memory of that smaller and quieter Howard Beach where I grew up.
Edited by - ira_stoller on May 22 2001 11:20:37 PM
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Yes, being born in the 60's makes you a sort of old timer. Also that story Ira told about his family was so good. I really enjoyed it. I was born in 1946, in Howard Beach, old side. It was a lovely place then and in some ways still is. Yes, it has changed of course, but it still has some of the old people or their families. I love to hear about how it was back then when we all used to go 'killying in the creek" with a milk bottle filled with bread and tied on a heavy string. We then used the killies for bait to catch blue clawed crabs. Those were the days!
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Joined: 1/1/0001
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quote:
Originally posted by casinobabe:
We need more of you old timers to make this site like the last one was. We did have a lot more people involved with the old site. Talk about what you remember as a child, that's what people come in here for.
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casinobabe,
I agree old times are still very interesting and bring back some great memories. I can remember playing baseball at "Casino Park" - the name before Charles park. There was only one baseball field back then 1956. When you came down 99th St. to 165th Ave. you came to the tennis courts. There was nothing but trees and open fields between the tennis courts and the baseball field except for a set of swing and a see-saw on 97th Street. Somebody was always setting fire to the weeds between the concrete boardwalk and the bay, fire trucks were there almost every week during the summer. I can still almost taste the hotdogs from "Beezers" on 95th St and 165the Ave. Hot dogs were $.10 coke also ten cents hamburgers $.15, candy a nickel. We would walk the beach to pick up bottles and turn them in for deposit 2 cents for 7 or 12 oz. and a nickel for the quart bottles. Didn't take long to get lunch and a bunch of junk. I ruined my appetite many times those summer days. I too remember getting milk bottles and a piece of bread to get "killies" and fish off the bridge that crossed from Howard Beach into Hamilton Beach at 165th Ave. I can remember diving off the bridge and swimming in the cannal off 99th street. Swimming off Pearson's dock at 164th St. were great days. In winter ice skating on the canal when it froze over. It didn't do it ever year but we had a few good winters there with never a kid going thru the ice. Playing "punch ball" in the street during lunch at OLG. So many memories and thanks to this site I am remembering more. I will be back. Hope others will as well.
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Casinobabe:
My memories include playing stickball on 156th Avenue (new side) and hardly ever getting interrupted by a passing car, roller hockey in the original St. Helens parking lot, attending Sunday mass in a basement room of one of the garden apartments in Lindenwood before St Helen's built the first church, taking a bus to go to school at PS 63 because PS 207 was not built yet, fishing off of the Cross Bay Bridge, Meats-n- Treats supermarket, walking to the subway station to go to the "City", and biking around all of old and new Howard Beach to visit friends!
Edited by - Ray A. on April 02 2002 10:50:11 AM
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quote:
Originally posted by croninb:
quote:
Originally posted by casinobabe:
We need more of you old timers to make this site like the last one was. We did have a lot more people involved with the old site. Talk about what you remember as a child, that's what people come in here for.
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[/quote]Casinobabe---
I have lived in Howard Beach since 1934 and saw it grow. At that time I was 1 year old. There were only 2 churches at that time. Our Lady of Grace and Saint Barnabas. There was no new Howard Beach or Lindenwood. Very few stores on Crossbay. There was a minature golf game. Down at the park which was originally called Casino Park, there was a building at the foot of the bridge going from Howard to Hamilton Beach. On July 4th there were games played for the kids to compete in and the building served food and drinks. You could also go inside to get out of the sun and relax. Will talk again soon.
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Maloclusion:
Is there any way you could share pictures you might have of Howard Beach from the 1930's and 1940's. how different it must have looked! I believe CrossBay Blvd must have been pretty vacant and that the LIRR station in HB was still active. What did the "new" side look like?
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Anyone out there remember hanging out at white castle after last period at John Adams--65-66...The waitresses were still on roller skates. We put 20 people in one car to keep warm while we hung out there...........or the big black out????? Parking the cars on the lawn for light....
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I love this old timers forum. I don't remember a whole lot about Howard Beach but reading all this helps me to recall the days visiting my grandmothers and walking around Howard Beach. My parents and grandparents grew up there and its fun to try and recognize some of the 'hot' spots. Fuzzy but warm memories. Thanks!
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We moved to 97th Street and 164th Avenue in 1959. I was 5 and I remember the complete freedom and safety. We never locked doors, we walked and biked wherever we wanted to, went fishing for killies at the creek-I tried to keep them for pets though. I loved your recollection of BeeZee's. We did the same thing with the bottles. I am sure more than a few of us did. How about the winter? When we had a blizzard, Howard Beach was just about forgotten when it came to snow plows! We were snowed in-literally. For those of us down near the park, we didn't go to school. A simple thing like a quart of milk was a walk "to town". Oh-I LOVED those snowstorms! What happened to them? Does anyone remember when we were snowed in for about a week-no busses or anything-drifts six feet high in the middle of the streets? I think I was in High School-maybe 1968 or 1969. Here's another-If it rained too hard and the creek rose, the streets were flooded. This was before we had sewers. I remember the nuns actually picking us up from the bus door and passing us along like a fire brigade to the sidewalk so we could get to school, because the streets had water knee-high. During Hurricane Donna-people were traveling aroung in row boats.
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There are other sites that you can check. Try Classmates.com and they have message board from the different schools.
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I used to live in Hamilton Beach as a kid in the 60s and early 70s at 9969 163 rd and I to have fond memories playing football in wolfs field, Sleding down the walk over bridge in the winter. Fishing and crabing in the canel, Man it was great. I wish I could go back. Does anybody out there remember us (The Behrens Family)
Edited by - davebehr on October 04 2002 7:48:48 PM
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quote:
Originally posted by Ray A.:
Maloclusion:
Is there any way you could share pictures you might have of Howard Beach from the 1930's and 1940's. how different it must have looked! I believe CrossBay Blvd must have been pretty vacant and that the LIRR station in HB was still active. What did the "new" side look like?
My ggrand parents had pictures of howard beach when there was like 3 houses there and it wasn't HB yet, my grandparents and my parents told me stories about how RP (rockwoodpark = new howard) and crossbay were nothing but a single gas station on one side and sea grass on the other side, a race track of some kind where the belt pkwy and RP is, i remember when i was a kid and the canal was clear, and you could see bottom.
Crossbay was nicer, there was like a car here and there parked in the street, you could look down 160th ave and see 1 or 2 cars parked, same with most streets then, everyone knew eachothers parents you couldn't do anything really wrong without it somehow getting back to your parents. It was nice all the store owners knew who you were and spoke to you, knew what it was your grandmother or mother wanted even if you didn't, i still go to Sal's when i go to see my parents and my grandparents on the weekends, sometimes i still see Bob (not driving the deliveries anymore) abe in the hardware store is gone , so is hellers , so is the bowling alley, the train station is under construction, i would like it better if it stayed the way it was, crossbay changes every few years, and i can't remember his name off the top of my head but the haircutter is still there in town.
Mrs. latwaituce (may be spelled wrong) ran the HB thing at st.barnabus, she had lots of pictures maybe more that what was on this site, but they left HB quite a few years ago
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Evildriver 3
If you go into the History part of Howard Beach you will find some old pictures.
Good Luck!!
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Yeah Mrs. Latwaituce had alot more than the site has i have seen the sites pictures, Mrs. Latwaituce (if spelled correctly) lived on 158th ave right off 99th st on the south side of 158th ave next to the blue corner house, her Husband owned the metal shop in town behind the former movie theatre now No.1 auto body he used to make screws for the govt or air planes or something
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quote:
Originally posted by outasite2:
Anyone out there remember hanging out at white castle after last period at John Adams--65-66...The waitresses were still on roller skates. We put 20 people in one car to keep warm while we hung out there...........or the big black out????? Parking the cars on the lawn for light....
The thing I remember most of when we moved to Howard Beach from the Bronx was that we went to White Castle for dinner and they had skating waitresses.
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quote:
Originally posted by Howie M:
The thing I remember most of when we moved to Howard Beach from the Bronx was that we went to White Castle for dinner and they had skating waitresses.
That White Castle is now next to the bowling alley on rockaway blvd next to the old dead l or the long island rr, they moved from its original spot down the block
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