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Eydie Urbaitel (Adams)

I worked at Cohen's Knishes during my junior and senior years.  Couldn't look at a hot dog for years after!!

Richard Shuba

Hi Edyie...  I worked at Pals Pancake House my junior and senior year, and I never wanted mushroom soup after I saw how it was done there!  Yummmmm... LOL...  Take care...  Rich

Myles Schlank

Do you remember our 9th-grade English teacher, Miss Hirschoff? Check out what her classmates wrote about her in thier 1932MontclairStateCollegeYearbook  (<-----click on yearbook hyperlink).

Diane Shallis

Myles,  thanks for the correction of the school title to is proper name - WEST ORANGE MOUNTAIN HIGH SCHOOL.  They should make the change permanent.

Susan Fauer

It is so funny that you bring up Miss Hirschoff today. Just yesterday, Michele Glass and I had a laughing, teary, hugging get-together in downtown Chicago. During our long chat....the topic of Miss Hirschoff came up. We both agreed that she touched our hearts and minds in a profound way. And both of us remember tons of what she said, did and taught us. That's the mark of a great teacher. I have always felt she was one of those.

So, Myles, Michele and I want to know if you were there yesterday, perhaps sitting at a nearby table? How in the world did you know????? And now that you know all of our secrets, what are you going to do with them?

Patricia (Nickie) Shaffer (Gorsky)

 I also have very clear and sweet memories of Miss Hirschoff...Chaucer and Middle English, The 
Rhyme of the Ancient Mariner...she brought literature to life for me...the way a great teacher does. She was always upbeat and truly in love with her work and it rubbed off on me. I became a reader because of her and remain so. There was not a teacher after her that came close to being so inpspiring. Susan...remember her shoes? The plastic heels that housed various flowers (or other decorative items)? I was intrigued, to say the least...

Myles Schlank

     Susan and Michele, your secrets are safe with me (remember I wouldn't divulge to Sam the names of our gang that stole golf balls from the driving range).

     However, I will enjoy thinking about them (your secrets, not the gang or the golf balls). Often. Next time, I'm there, I'll ask to join you. Your meal looked more appetizing than mine.

     Miss Hirschoff ... I remember learning from her about simile, metaphor and hyperbole. Also a life lesson: look at yourself in the mirror. If you don't like who you are, you must make changes or you will be this way forever. She said it more aptly on a day she must have had reason to be really irritated by our class' behavior. Does anyone remember that? How does that view square with what she was quoted saying in her MSC yearbook about modifying student behavior?

Michele Maurer (Glass)

Wasn't there a wonderful deli next to Pleasantdale Bakery?  Fantastic turkey sandwiches with Russian dressing and cole slaw on the sandwich! What was the name of that deli? 

David Belfiore

Yesterday I became a Great Grandpa, we have a beautiful Great Granddaughter, 5lb, 11 oz 18".

Debby Timins (Snowman)

mazel tov my friend.    love to all,    debby

David Belfiore

I lived on Victory Rd. until 1956. It was a hill full of future baby boomers. One thing you never had to worry about was finding someone to play with. Bicycle riding, climbing trees and snowball fights and sleding in the winter, never a dull moment!!

Myles Schlank

Here is one person's take on the 15 songs that define our generation: http://www.nextavenue.org/15-songs-defined-boomer-generation/

(1) What song(s) would you add?

(2) the Web site this is on was created by a Minnesota PBS affiliate. Supposed to be the first site of its kind. Never ceases to amaze the variety and number of Web sites (in 1997 there were 1,117,255 and in 2015 there were 926,530,422, this according to the Webby Award site).

Ron Farber

I too remember Mrs. Hirshoff.  I think I was in her 8th grade class.  

She was quirky yet so likably cool in her own way.  She lived in Short Hills and actually helped spark rebellion in us.  She would tell us how she cut school back in her day and said we should do the same sometimes.   What a grand old dame!   

Also, the deli near Dale Drugs and the Pleasantdale Bakery was Jay's.  They did have the best everything, particularly their potato salad and killer sandwiches.  

In those (our so formative) days, there were so many places in Pleasantdale center that had actual soda fountains whereby you could sit at a counter and order a cherry coke, chocolate coke, vanilla coke, etc.  Even for a plain coke, they would pump the syrup out and then ad the seltzer from the spigot.  Used to ride bikes there and it was a choice of which counter:  Dale Drugs, Fried's Drugs, Bella's (on the corner), The Mint, The Spa  --  and you could hang out!   These days, the kids have only 7-11 (or similar) where you purchase already bottled or packaged beverages or food and must leave to indulge.  No seating no tables, no hang!   And am wondering who remembers "Ralph's Corner" where Starlight Pizza is now.  This was the original one-stop everything convenience store before any of the large super markets existed!  There was not even a traffic light at Mt. Pleasant & Pl. Valley Way then  --  this was before Cohen's K's was built.

Debby Timins (Snowman)

great memories.  I remember them well.  I also remember when pleasant valley way still had stones for a road..

I was always over by Wally Coyle's or sneaking into the back door of the mint to get pickles out of the barrell.  what fun we had in those oh so wonderful carefree days.  keep them coming. 

jays deli made the best ever sloppy joe's ...........no one down here knows what they were unless they are from NJ....  poor souls

How about moscowitz butcher shop............I just adored Stanley's father...........I loved to watch him cut up the meat but was not so sure about the chickens hanging in the back.

China Sky ...........fantastic wanton soup

now I am hungry and its well beyond the time to eat.    be well my friends.....enjoy the memories.

Jeffrey Wagner

Living on Vincent's Pond was a childhood dream come true.  Ice skating in the winter, feeding the swans in the summer.  I remember that Marc Sampson and Lewis Bruss and I played jump the barrel on the ice and fell through a number of times.  The water was cold but not deep so our moms could pull us out and get us ready to warm up and go back out on the lake.

Gary Caronia

hey jeff know what you mean.lived in your house for 7 yrs.enjoyed it.

gary

Myles Schlank

Gary, Jeff, was it 28 Hooper Ave? Here's a pic from GoogleEarth.

Gary Caronia

yes myles it was # 28.nice location

Debby Timins (Snowman)

thanks for letting us know about Arlene.   I will contact her personally but wanted to post my wishes for a speedy recovery.  PT is hard as many of us have experienced but with Arlene's  most fantastic attitude I am sure she will keep those therapists on their toes and looking at harder stuff for her to do.  

Debby

Myles Schlank

My childhood phone number was REdwood 1-4243. Before moving to WO, our number in Newark was BIgelow 2-5936.

What was your number?

Did they retire it?

Sandra Bowers (Linton)

Yes, Ron, I too remember Ralph's Corner Store.  Bruce Higgins manned the counter after school and his

parents did it other times.  In the beginning, they had just the one half of the store.  A cleaners was there

in the other half for a short time, then Starlight moved in.  Starlight was Satellite Pizza first, then changed their name.  Sperling Drugs was at the end of the strip mall with Cohen's on the other end.  Sperling then moved over next to the A&P.   I also remember when they were building Essex Green.  I used to go up on Saturdays with Eileen Camisa (sister of our classmate John "Jay" Camisa).  They would have "famous" people there.  We got Clarabell's autograph, and Jimmy O'Day and Farfel the dog's - remember                   N E S T L E S, Nestle's makes the very best....Chocolate.    We were very dazzled by their stardom.

It's funny how simple little things like watching buildings going up, trucks delivering supplies, etc., can keep a child's attention for the longest time.  We would walk around for hours watching everything that was going on.

In the beginning, they had two supermarkets - Penn Fruit (later it was Rickels, then Shop-Rite before it moved to the back of the center) and Good Deal.  Grants, Woolworths, and Grubers were some of the first stores. When Loucele Ost and I were 14-15, we worked at Woolworth's lunch counter.  For being young and inexperienced, they gave us a lot of responsibility.  We had to not only take the customer's order, we then had to cook it and serve it.  We had to work the grill and the deep-fryer.  Some times we were there alone.  Boy, what trust they had.

My husband used to talk about how every block had a empty lot on it for kids to play ball on.  There is not a square inch of land anywhere in West Orange now - it is sadly so over-developed.  The schools are now "campuses" - we were lucky to have an intimate experience in school where we just about knew every single student.   NJEA filmed Classroom Closeup at West Orange High School a few weeks ago.  I was there to help out and had a good time speaking with the students.  They couldn't believe how it used to be - although they know no different.  

Thank you again, Myles, for this wonderful labor of love.  This is such a wonderful place that affords us all the opportunity to stay in touch and trade memories.

Sandy Bowers Linton

Maxine Youin (Kleiman)

My West Orange phone # was Redwood 1- 7263 and my previous Jersey City phone # was Henderson 4-5370.  Crazy!  I moved from Jersey City in 1960.  Why do I remember it so quickly when I can't remember what I did yesterday?  Great and fun exercise. 

Myles Schlank

Maxine: thanks for playing "What's My Number." Why we remember what we do is a puzzle. I remember several WO friends' numbers and have no idea what my own children's numbers are now (cheers for smart phones). I have occasionally frozen at the gas pump when prompted to enter my zip code. Go figure.

Sandy: great stories. Thanks for adding on to Ron's posting. 

Anyone else?

Rich Galen

I grew up in New Hyde Park, Long Island so my number was:  FL2-8959 (Floral Park).  When area codes came into being in late 1951, ours was 516.  

Jay Kaplan

We moved to Pleasantdale (still hard to believe it is a real name) in 1951 into a house my grandfather built. Our number was Redwood 1-1270. We had the smallest lot on Stanford Avenue because my grandfather had to cut our lot in half and build a second house on our property in order to stay solvent.