Reviews

Nostalgia Trip Home During the Pandemic

12/6/2020

The NYT plant in College Point. (Photo borrowed from the Web. The other photos here are via my smartphone.)

Don't we all have things we miss in this pandemic -- beyond family and friends?
I miss my home town twinkling on the western skyline.
I wrote about this a few months ago.
www.georgevecsey.com/home/i-miss-my-home-town
On Sunday I did something about it.

With the plague at full blast, I had to deliver something to the NYT plant in the College Point section of North Queens.
It was a cold day, very little traffic. Ideal driving conditions.
My muscle memory told me how to handle the turns and merges and quick decisions of parkway driving in the city,
With every mile, my exhilaration grew.
First stop was the NYT plant; since my retirement in 2011, I have become friendly with the people there.
On a quiet Sunday morning, I dropped off the item and kept going.

I drove a few miles west and stopped outside New Shea Stadium, hopping out of my car to take this quickie over the fence. I cannot imagine going to a sports event in the near future, but I am rooting hard for a season, come spring,

After my circle of New Shea, I crossed Roosevelt Ave, to the Tennis Center. During the Open, this entry is bustling with reporters, carrying the gear, chattering in many languages. I thought of my pals I did not see this year.

A few hundred steps away, I saw the globe from the 1964-65 World Fair. One lone plane was heading toward LaGuardia. However wintry and quiet, it was all so familiar.

At the entrance to the Queens Museum, six people were keeping a tennis ball in the air, soccer style, with what sounded like Chinese pop music playing on a radio. One man had no shirt, in the 30-ish weather.

The museum had large banners facing the Grand Central Parkway. I remembered one winter in junior high school, when I went ice skating in this building with some classmates. Now it is a vibrant community asset; I thought of my friend who helps run it, and the Panorama of New York City, where we have "bought" our family home in Holliswood.

I zipped east on the Parkway to Jamaica High School. This is the field where I attempted to play soccer.

I drove around to the front of the awesome building on the glacial hill. My mom was in the first wave of students in the new building -- in 1927. She loved the school as much as I do; it was our major bond, She passed in the very nice Chapin Home, a few blocks away, in 2002. The city, in its dunderhead way, terminated Jamaica High a few years ago -- a DiBlasio failure -- but there are several smaller schools tucked away in the building that will last forever.

I drove along Henley Rd., near the house where the worst president in American history used to live, soiling the image of Queens. There was no time for a drive past our old house, where my mom moved nearly 100 years ago; I had to pick up my order of Shanghai dumpling soup in Little Neck.

My Sunday morning excursion temporarily dispersed the miasma of the murderous pandemic.
I'll keep in touch with the many dozens of my Jamaica contemporaries; we are very tight.
Maybe some quiet Sunday morning soon, I will drive into The City (Manhattan, that is) -- just to see it.

Mike from NW Queens or so

12/7/2020 02:42:38 am

Thanks GV for another look at life through your eyes, experience and keyboard. I used the word surreal today to the author of that outstanding Covid-19/Queens section when talking about the norms.
Priorities changed 180 degrees on our nightly mission, people matter more than ever. We have an amazing, loyal and dedicated crew as you know.
Sports and the like move to the back of the bus with a lot of other high class problems.
I'm centered, thankfully.
Your day in the park reminding me to grasp quality time, safely.
Hope this all makes sense.
Mission accomplished tonight.
Thanks

Victor de la Serna

12/7/2020 08:20:03 am

Ah, those memories, George. I spent my NY years in Manhattan, but I was a Syt John's fan, went to Quens all the time, and my friend Lou Carnesecca lived in Jamaica Estates. Plus, the NY World's Fair was such a hopeful event for my country, Spain, which had the most admired pavilion there and showed it was ready to move on from being a fascist relic from the 1930s...

George Vecsey

12/7/2020 09:22:59 am

Estimado Sr; Thanks for the lovely note.
The Spanish pavilion: a college friend of mine (not Spanish) had a PR job at the pavilion, He met a Cuban ex-pat named Conchita.and by 1966 they were living near the Parco del Oeste in Madrid...while he worked for a golf club in Sotogrande. There was romance in the air in the Spanish Pavilion. Somehow, it all lingers on that hallowed ground, Que recuerdos lindos.
PS: Looie still living in that house. I saw a Bruce Beck interview with him at the front door recently. GV

Corinna V, Wilson link

12/7/2020 09:39:44 am

Pop,

This is fantastic! You should make this a regular feature of your blog! It reminds me of the many car rides you would take us on as kids, showing us the sites! Need more! Miss you and love you!

Co

Laura Vecsey

12/7/2020 09:44:06 am

Wonderful day to see all the beloved sites! Really enjoyed this vicariously! Also, looks like you may have new career as staff photographer. Nice job! See you in ... June?!

George Vecsey

12/7/2020 10:34:20 am

Dear Laura and Corinna: You poor kiddies. How many times did I detour off the parkway to show you my high school? You guys would sign with exasperation. I could see the images of my friends. You just saw the old man on a nostalgia binge, I'm sorry. What about the park in Kew Gardens where I hit a two-run homer over the LF fence in a Daily Mirror tournment game? (first inning, brand-new softball)
I would park there and give you guys a play-by-play. I'm sorry, I really am.

Craig Lang

12/29/2020 01:45:49 pm

George,
I miss you and wish you'd call. My book, which is one chapter away from done, is not a slam on my Dad like you thought. My mother was the evil one that beat me to almost death. My father was my protector of sorts. Please call, I'd really like to explain. Craig

bruce

12/7/2020 10:38:31 am

george,

g'day.

i could be mistaken, but there appear to be two (2) names that would identify the senders as being non males tho one looks like she might be some kind of relation.

a banner day.

i am looking forward to your robust defense of that patriot mr barr after that mean mr trump shat all over him.

unusual because trump is usually so calm, rational and loyal.

and, as i send this, i see a michigan court, treasonous for sure, has thrown out another ironclad case for voter fraud.

amazin'.

George Vecsey

12/7/2020 12:53:51 pm

Bruce, very astute of you. Yes, they are are first and second children --lawyer and journalist-poet, David, who copy-edits the print edition of the NYT late at night, was third. I made him suffer some of my tours, also.
As for Barr, he groveled for Trump He is a man with clearly no self-respect. Whatever public shaming he gets from his master will be too good for that servile creature GV

bruce

12/7/2020 05:07:28 pm

george,

sharpest knife in the drawer, i am.

a grovel expert--your barr, pas moi--the likes of which have never been seen before

Judith Katz

12/7/2020 12:11:31 pm

Your loving and nostalgic trip to Queens and reference to our “still-tight” class gives me an idea. Maybe we should develop a Class of ‘56 cooperative retirement community- back home in Queens.
Judy

George Vecsey

12/7/2020 12:41:10 pm

Judy your mom and my mom, classmates back in the day, put you up to that, right?
You talk Sheldon into it, and I'll talk Marianne into it.
Oh yeah.
G

Wally Schwartz

12/7/2020 12:15:56 pm

George, Great trip down Nostalgia Lane! Especially the venerable landmarked edifice atop 13 acres we still call Jamaica High School! And the more than five-mile roadway from Brooklyn to Nassau that we've renamed Reunion Turnpike. Cunningham Park, one of the 8 wonders of Queens Wonderland. And the Valencia Theatre, our miniature Radio City, still providing services for a religious community. We all have our treasured memories, made all the more meaningful by the friends and families who shared them with us.

George Vecsey

12/7/2020 12:48:28 pm

Chief, did you notice that Kim Ng, new GM of the Miami Marlins, went to PS 173? Somebody should put up a plaque there, noting that she learned to play ball there. GV

Letty Cottin Pogrebin link

12/7/2020 12:17:39 pm

Loved taking this virtual tour with you, George, especially your stop at JHS, our shared high school alma mater. My family lived in Jamaica on 167 Street from 1940 until 1950, when I was 10, then we moved to 85-36 Wareham Place in Jamaica Estates where our execrable POTUS lived at number 85-15 as a child. Since I'm 7 years older than Trump, he was a toddler when I was there and the thought that I could have strangled him and saved this country so much grief and so many Covid deaths fills me with regret. Next time you take a tour of the neighbored, stop and spit on 85-15, okay?

George Vecsey

12/7/2020 12:46:22 pm

Letty: When I was going into The City once a week or so, I would park after 10 AM near your building...but sometimes I would park my rusty old second car in front of TrumpHaus, although I knew they are long gone. One of our classmates used to take snotty little Donald sledding on Henley Rd. He was The Bad Seed even then. Everybody knew it, I gather, I didn't meet him until the early 80s when Ivana was clearly the brains of the outfit. Be well, G

Hillel Kuttler

12/7/2020 12:47:37 pm

I love trips down Memory Lane in my home borough, so thanks, George. It’s also cool, going by your children’s reactions, above, that they also appreciate it.

BTW, I recently saw a terrific clip on YouTube, running a half-hour or so, dealing with Lucille Ball’s visit to the World’s Fair in 1964. WCBS-TV’s Jim Jensen makes an appearance, briefly interviewing her.

Do tell about your homer in Kew Gardens, which is where I grew up. In what K.G. park or field did this proud moment occur?

George Vecsey

12/7/2020 09:22:04 pm

Hillel, actually not your corner of real Kew Gardens, which I have come to know and love for its Cinema, showing the National Theatre productions. This was on the other side of Queens Blvd. in what is actually Kew Gardens Hills, I believe....Kosher bakeries, etc. on Main St. now....I had a lot of friends in junior high. My home run was at the park west of Main St., where Union Turnpike and the GCP and the Van Wyck all tangle, I know the ballpark is still there because I showed my pal Mike-the-Judge the hallowed ground on his last journey home. GV

Jeffrey Geller

12/7/2020 01:43:15 pm

Hi George! Thanks for the photo tour; especially Jamaica High. It was only a brisk walk from my apartment house on 164th St to get to class back in the early 70s. As you may know, that street was always busy with the Q 65 bus route, ambulances going to and from Queens General Hospital, two FDNY companies and two NYPD stations. Never a dull moment.

George Vecsey

12/7/2020 09:24:13 pm

Jeff, I know 164 st. When our mom was in Chapin Home, I would take her to lunch at the Sri Chinmoy restaurant on 164. She always talked about the saris on the waitresses -- how did they stay up? I doubt that was there in your JHS days, Be well. GV

Alan Rubin link

12/7/2020 03:24:20 pm

George—Nostalgia is great and definitely not overrated. The past is essential for one get through the present and into the future.

The timing of your photo memory lane was perfect. Just this Sunday I came across a post about 181st Street in Washington Heights.

This was the southern boundary limit that an under 12-year-old from Fort Washington Avenue and 190th Street was not supposed to pass. However, I felt safe pushing it all the way to the unknown territory of 175th Street.

181st Street ran from Haven Avenue overlooking Riverside Drive east to Amsterdam Avenue and on to the Washington Bridge at the East River. Pinehurst Avenue crossed 181st Street after descending 47 steps.

A web post over the weekend discussed the gentrification of 181st Street along with photos. I remember some restaurants being there, but none that my family ever went to. The transition was amazing and worthy of any of the upscale neighborhoods to the south and in Brooklyn.

Years ago, when asked, I would recommend new young couples to NYC to look to live above 181st Street in the “Heights” or in the 135th Street area between Broadway and Riverside Drive.

I should have taken my own advice and invested there.

I agree with your kids, keep talking about all the tours.

George Vecsey

12/7/2020 09:28:51 pm

Alan, Lin-Manuel Miranda got there, The armory became the home of track and field in NYC, But now Coogan's, the great T&F hangout, sort of the Foley's of the Heights, has gone down just like Foley's. What is the city going to be like when we can emerge from our caves?
Be safe. GV

Alan Rubin link

12/9/2020 12:50:22 pm

Thanks for mentioning Lin-Manuel Miranda. I had seen a video he posted a few years ago showing his newly decorated apartment. The view of the George Washington Bridge from his window indicated that he was in a new building that was build adjacent to the New York Presbyterian hospital's new addition, both build upon a rocky outcrop that my friends and I climbed as kids.

I posted this on Lin-Manuel Miranda's Facebook page.

Alan D. Levine

12/8/2020 07:16:54 pm

George--Great piece, but you know I'll quibble. It was Bloomberg, the capitalist, not Deblasio, the completely phony and hypocritical "progressive", who broke our beloved high school into four little pieces.

George

12/8/2020 09:06:30 pm

Alan, you more than any of us, are a Queens boy -- still lawyering in Kew Gardens. Our hero, Bloomberg was mayor until 2013 and JHS was closed in the spring of 2014, but it was in the works for years. Actually, the real hatchet man was Joel I Klein, the chancellor. interviewed him in 2009:
https://www.nytimes.com/2009/12/13/sports/ncaafootball/13vecsey.html
In our chatty interview, Klein praised the old JHS and told me he had wanted to go to JHS but was a few blocks out of the catchment area.
"Rosebud!" I said. He laughed. I give him credit for telling the story.
He made a case for smaller schools. I made a case for tradition and identity. I stand by my case, as you say in court.

ED MARTIN

12/8/2020 07:44:20 pm

Enjoyed it, GV, nice to hear from daughters as well. As an RVC kid, little to add, but here are some Queens memories.

1. I was at the 1939 World’s Fair, Trylon and Hemisphere. GM world of tomorrow- overpasses as I recall. Great display of train engines. Little
pull trains, people moving.

2 Watching the Yankee Clipper land and take off at LGA.

3. The Flushing Quaker Meeting House, site of Remonstrance, against Peter Minuet’s racism against “Egyptians” and non-Christians. The Dutch West Indies Company withdrew him.

4. Louie and his sweater at Alumni Hall, now Carnesecca Arena and at MSG. Met him briefly, and admired him. His daughter Enes and husband Jerry were wonderful people. Enes was a colleague. Jerry and I went to St. Johns games together.

5. My Dad was involved in Bakeries in Astoria, (Brick Ovens) and later in LIC. 23rd and 37th. Can still smell the bread,

Best to you Queensies. PS. Were you really the Sports Writer for. MS?

12/8/2020 08:52:36 pm

Ed: The bread was Silvercup, back when white bread had some cachet. Driving over the 59th St. Bridge in the evening you could smell the bread, open the windows, let it in. Since early 80s, it has been Silvercup Studios. When you saw Tony and Carmela having coffee or arguing in their kitchen, you know where it was shot? Silvercup Studio, all the interiors. But I bet you can find better bread these days, in delis and bodegas in LI City, Astoria, all along Roosevelt Ave, to Flushing, GV

ED MARTIN

12/8/2020 11:13:31 pm

You are right about Silvercup, around the bridge, my Dad’s bread, small wholesale bakery, had wheat germ, best flour, real butter in “Butter Gems” Real Pecans and Honey in sweet rolls. Thats the smell I recall. He sold in Gristede’s, Deli’s, competing with the quality breads, not TipTop, Wonder, etc. Business grew into Supermarkets, “Bake and Serve,” expanding and then the world changed. TV ads became prominent, big corps bought Arnold and Peppridge Farms, but the major factor was Supermarket chains started their own bakeries and squeezed competitors on prices, shelves, advertising.

I wondered if my Dad and his partners competed well enough and then I read that hundreds of bakeries, breweries, small food shops, etc. Went through a similar decline in NYC and elsewhere. In Allentown, PA when I was in college there were three local breweries. All long gone as is Schmid’s of Philadelphia, and, of course, the brewon the Baseball Stadiums, Subways, etc.

C’est la vie; c’est la guerre. “So it Goes,” wrote Kurt Vonnegut.

Andy Tansey

12/8/2020 09:09:33 pm

Fun! Not often I can recognize each of so many pictures.

However, daughters and nostalgia? Go a mile east, 188-61 85th Road, backyard = Grand Central Parkway; our first home married, where our first cat adopted us. My kids love it when we stop there. However, that cat did have supernatural powers.

After my first foray into photography of Mets' Ballyard on this site, I learned to avoid the corporate brand name on the stadium's façade. Hide it behind a tree or something.

JHS is a very beautiful campus. I don't know how you feel about its current use for smaller specialty schools. What's best for the kids.

I bet all who visit here can agree on the answer to this question: What's the worst thing about The Queens?

George Vecsey

12/9/2020 10:40:47 am

Andy: We all grump about the loss of JHS. Between building and history, it was a grand entity of Queens. Jelani Cobb -- terrific guy, JHS grad -- did a long New Yorker piece in 2015 about the closing of the school. I will add that a relative works in the NYC school system....at a small HS with a rather specific mission -- and that relative says there is much to be said for small, focused schools -- and I agree, having visited that school.
Worst thing about Queens? The sociopath who is dragging down the country, and people who refer to him as "from Queens."
Otherwise? Long Island Expressway? LaGuardia Airport (now being rebuilt)? JFK airport, including wretched "mass transit" from there.
Crossing Union Turnpike by foot?
Tell us...

bruce

12/9/2020 10:52:40 am

george,

only been to nyc twice so i can't contribute about queens.

however in the mid 80s when i was travel writing i went to Scandinavia a few times. i could fly pan am from hamilton to laguardia, taxi to jfk and then to copenhagen.

i have absolutely no memory of laguardia, but the taxi ride was incredible. burned out and abandoned cars to jfk.

walked into the terminal and it seemed like a third world country.

then on the way back i was going thru customs huge line. korean couple in front of me going to toronto.

they got the officer who was very loud.

he looked at them and said, 'japanese?' before looking at their passports. they said, 'korean'.

'same difference' was his response.

they were some kind of pissed off.

as for trump...that's unanimous.

Andy Tansey

12/9/2020 04:01:38 pm

What I had in mind as the "worst" of Queens is indeed the sociopath in chief.

Mia E Hinckley

12/8/2020 11:19:48 pm

I love this. Sometimes going back sparks up a nostalgia and other times, it breaks my heart. Thanks for the great pictures.

George Vecsey

12/9/2020 10:49:14 am

Hi, first time on this site? Welcome, I love thinking about my old high school -- but the fact is, I'm still in touch with more than 100 of us...so proud of them. Queens was great when I was a kid. A girl back in the woods near us had a pony! Imagine that. But my main nostalgia is for the Queens of a year ago, B.P. (BEfore Pandemic) when I could wander North Queens for dosa (74 st.) or Cannolis (Mama;s 104 st.) or dumplings (Main St. Flushing). Now it is Covid Central, as depicted by Dan Barry in last Sunday's NY Times. I'm nostalgic, sad, mourning, those lives, and the way of life in this dynamic borough. Please visit the site again. GV

Alan Rubin link

12/9/2020 10:11:16 am

Ed- There is something exciting and unique about running a small business. The challenge of battling all the chains and large independents more than makes up for the day-to-day struggles.

The small guy needs to be more creative and nimbler. I suspect that your dad, in his darkest times, more than enjoyed his “cotchya” moments.

I’m a do-it-yourself home bread maker as is my son-in-law Matt. I have been using a 5 qt Lodge cast iron pot for about ten years, but I plan to experiment with their 18” cast iron pizza skillet. I’ll stretch out some dough into rolls and see what happens.

Matt just left me some of his starter that traveled west with his ancestors in a Conestoga wagon.

A mini-brewery opened between Bethlehem and Allentown in about 1956. Its products were not yet available before I graduated and left the area. Rolling Rock was my go-to beer at that time.

The local semi-pro soccer team that I played for always bought my beers after a game because they said that I was not working. It was hard to keep up with them, so I stuck with the smaller Rolling Rock pony bottles.

Good stuff, keep the memories coming.

bruce

12/9/2020 10:24:25 am

alan,

i don't own a small bidness, but i do my own bread.

it's satisfying doing it myself.

always nice when i come home after being out for my daily meander and having that baking bread smell wafting down as i walk up the steps into my place.

George Vecsey

12/9/2020 10:56:00 am

Alan and Bruce: I have such admiration for men who cook, or bake. I have no aptitude and yield to the wonderful cook I married. Our son, and son-in-law, both cook. Good on you both. GV

bruce

12/9/2020 11:04:11 am

george,

no choice.

if i don't cook i'll starve.

my first wife's mother did most of the cooking for her. a olde werld romanian/german thing for the family.

mieko was an exquisite cook.

didn't know until i lived in japan that you could eat bamboo and lotus root.

loved bamboo so much that she started calling me 'bamboo boy'. because it's what i asked for when she asked me what i wanted if she had no dinner plan.

kyoto is famous for bamboo. we lived in nara, japan's first capital, which borders kyoto prefecture. tiny market about a 15 minute walk from our place. we used to rush over when the season's bamboo was ready. everything they sold had the farmer's name on it.....

George Vecsey

12/9/2020 10:52:54 am

Alan, when I first started covering the Mets in 1962, a boy wonder, I discovered Rolling Rock in Pittsburgh, and would smuggle a 6-pack back on the Alleghany Airline prop plane to LGA.
GV

bruce

12/9/2020 10:58:09 am

c'mon george...you're still a boy wonder--at heart at least.

ED MARTIN

12/9/2020 11:18:12 am

At the risk of “overtalking”—a risk I always seem willing to take....
In Pittsburgh, in addition to those “Little Green Rollies” local beers included “Iron City.” (Rolling Rock, from Latrobe, home of that local golf guy..). A comic Morning Radio host, KDKA, Rege Cordic, did a campaign for Iron City, selling a beer called “Old Frothingshloss... the stale, pale ale with the foam on the bottom.” They created a label and put it on upside down, for a Christmas special six pack.”

How’s that for creativity, Alan? Iron City, no more, in more ways than one.

PS. In this nostalgic mood, I am thankful for George, his humanism, intelligence, which has brought this special group together across continents and Queens Blvd. i would toast him with an Old Frothingshloss, but....

bruce

12/9/2020 11:34:18 am

ed...good point about the group across continents.

i first emailed george sometime around 2009 or so, i think.

i was living in japan and had been reading him for a long time. tour de france, world cup plus lots more.

what struck me--and i don't want to be insulting--was that when he covered international sports he recognized that the usa wasn't the only country that had citizens that enjoyed or loved their own countries.

and that the usa might lose because the other team was better. also. the usa wasn't unique in fighting hard or trying to the bitter end.

bruce

12/9/2020 04:19:18 pm

andy....i think we'd all agree that trump is numero uno.

have to exclude him as automatic and go to #2.

Andy Tansey

12/9/2020 09:45:28 pm

#2?

Hard for me to pick a #2. After marriage, I moved 3 miles east of the City Line on the south shore, nice bedroom community, but now full of ominous "Back the Blue" stickers and signs. I tend to like cops, respect what they do and cooperate with them, but the undercurrent code is apparent and disturbing. So, now back more or less full time with Mom in The Queens, I feel more at home, especially in Flushing and in the diverse 'hoods along Roosevelt where food is a happy adventure.

However, sadly, I think #2 would be a couple of areas of the boro where racism and MAGA are still prominent. I sha'n't name names.

On brighter notes, public works:
- LGA will be much better and worth the wait;
- The LIE - always enjoyed the true oxymoron there - "expressway" was such a lie! - has also been improved;
- I have been proud of myself when I could use my monthly Long Island Rail Road pass at no extra cost to Jamaica and take the Air Train to JFK for a total $5 trip to the airport.

If it weren't for George, as a mortally scarred 10-year-old Yankees fan in 1969 living in the Flushing ZIP, I'd quip about #2 as the inhabitants of the ballyard whose corporate logo should not be mentioned. However, truth be told, Mets' fans are generally nice, happy people, and so I'll focus on my love of The Queens, perhaps the most diverse place on earth.

It's got a few breweries of its own, and small-shop-craft beer is the latest and greatest. Astoria is a great blend of old world Mediterranean with the freshness of youngsters without Manhattan's angst. If you can't bake your own, Joe's Sicilian Bakery in Bayside is really good. Jackson Diner - 74th Street just north of the Flushing Line - is a solid option for Indian. I chatted briefly with Looie and remembered Dad to him - they were Stanners together - at Graziella on Francis Lewis, fine Italian.

People LIVE here. Thank you, George. Long live The Queens!

George Vecsey

12/10/2020 02:43:49 pm

Andy: Well done. I don't know Joe's bakery but will check it out. (Just don't tell my friends at Mama's in Corona. Irene will skull me with a skillet.) And you are spot-on about Jackson Diner. We started going there early 80s, I think -- after a writeup in Newsday or the Daily News.
Old German diner converted to Indian -- and the management kept the last old German waitress as long as she could go. Then Bobby Chhikara, a serious chef, moved Jackson down 74th St. to more space -- we were there for the festive opening. Bobby then opened Diwan in a rambling old house facing an inlet of Manhasset Bay -- terrific buffet plus his roasted cauliflower a la carte, 2 miles from our house. So no more Jackson Diner. But Queens still rocks, neighborhood by neighborhood. When this pandemic (whose horrors are described by Dan Barry in his recent masterpiece) is over, back to the barrios.
Oh, damn -- I just read that Uncle George's in Astoria closed late spring. I once went there with Alkis Panagoulias, Greek-born coach of the American soccer team mid-80s. Great guy. The staff flipped when they recognized him. Queens!!!

Andy Tansey

12/10/2020 09:22:05 pm

Jackson Diner has opened a second location on Hillside Ave a few blocks east of Little Neck Parkway. Thanks for the tip about Diwan. Sands Point Preserve is a favorite for an almost-hike/walk, and so Diwan should serve the primary purpose of any hike: to eat and drink afterwards.

Randolph

12/10/2020 07:58:36 am

I love Queens!
I have not had the opportunity to visit your wonderful Borough.
But you guys have made me love it.
RF

George Vecsey

12/10/2020 08:40:13 am

Randy: It's a world unto itself. (For all that, I miss Manhattan...and Brooklyn....badly.) Ethnic cooking was one of the things I missed when I was driving around Appalachia. Maybe it's changed....the magnetic Vivian Howard is doing a TV series called "Somewhere South," from her own Coastal Carolina, southward -- I saw a recent episode where she did dumplings, by Chinese folk with major southern accents plus matzoh balls in the Deep South from Jewish ladies with ditto southern accents, and Black cooking. I went to a Derby party in Louisville 12-13 years ago, invited by a few Indian families -- sensational buffet in a suburban home. My first words when I spotted the fare were: "Where were you folks when I lived here?!"
Changing world...thank goodness. GV

bruce

12/10/2020 09:29:31 pm

enough about nyc.

time for some collective memories of greensville/dundas, no?

George

12/11/2020 08:03:25 am

Bruce: you are Our Man in Ontario.
I will add how cool it was to be running around the Asian neighborhood in Toronto in 80s with Abel and Farber and enjoying the bright lights and great aromas wafting.
WAFTING! Only in the Americas.
GV

bruce

12/11/2020 09:13:05 am

george,

glad you enjoyed it, but it's changed a lot since then.

there were only 17 asians, nine blacks and six first nations people in the entire country.

my family alone has about 40% that number above today.

not sure how that happened.

something like 28% are not european ethnically now in the great white north.

i see what you did there with america, eh.

bruce

ED MARTIN

12/13/2020 02:21:33 pm

PS. From son Bruce, working musician who discovers holes iin the wall making homemade noodles and other Queens’ delights. He introduced us to LICity Noguchi Museum and Socrates Sculpture park as well as a variety of great foods.

“If I were in charge I would freeze Queens as it is
and bar all further development, gentrification, or
what is considered progress. It still feels like NYC
as I remember it. You can still find a vacuum repair
shop, which for some reason I find an indicator of the health
of the working class. Maybe I'm wrong. I know all things must
change, but please not at the expense of cheep little funky
restaurants.“

Comments are closed.

Nostalgia Trip Home During the Pandemic

Categories

Buy the Book