| Author |
Message |
    
Nursie
| | Posted on Friday, August 24, 2001 - 1:39 pm: |     |
I have really enjoyed reading this thread.
John, you do indeed have a great memory. I remember using Dr. Evans when I first moved here in 1975 for my tots until I discoverd Dr. Boodish, who they remained with until they went to college.
My kids were always terrified of Eva too, heck, so was I. She had "guards" posted in the back of the store to be sure you didn't touch anything you were not going to buy. I loved the cheese shop and hated when it closed. I would always send custom gift boxes back to my family in Texas for the holidays. Kings was something else, cramped and busy with a full liquor store where the registers are now. Angelo was the manager and he knew most of his patrons by name. There was an elderly butcher behind the meat counter who would always say in a sing song voice "somthing else for you today?" I swear he must have said it in his sleep. BTW, the former owner of the Village Market is working at Freemans, he is the heavy set guy behind the register. Freemans building was a realator before it became a fish market. I loved the dime store for its convenience, I could go in there and buy a package of needles, a hammer, baby bottle and a pair of panty hose. They went out of business because Savedi (the deli/liquor store next door) raised their rent. I outfitted my kids at the Young Cottage too, and happily shopped for myself at the Clothing Barn and sometimes Lazy Daisy.
When we first moved here the old movie theater featured Jaws for a whole year. We never could understand that. Eventually my daughter got her very first job there, she was the popcorn girl. This was before it was renovated. She said the popcorn machine dated back to the 40's.
I swear when my son was around seven that there was an Army Navy store somewhere near the stationary store it was only there for about a year. No one remembers this place but me. Am I going crazy? I remember the kid across the street, also age seven, stole $100 bill from his mom's purse and bought $100 worth of pocket knives there. None of us parents could believe the guy would actully sell that to a kid by himself, but he did.
The Winolear became PJ Goodtimes at one point and was a beer and shot joint for kids. It was run by the Peitz's son, they were the owners of the Winolear. It then became Jo Anna's, owned by Tony of the Roman Gormet, then Nadia's, and of course now Centanis. (sp?)
Where the Trottoria is now was a taylor and then our very first video store, we were all so excited when it opened. Later it went out of busines and became and antique shop. BTW, the owner of the Trottoria, Angelo, used to flip pizzas for Tony at the Roman Gormet, there was a big bruhaha when he decided to open his own place. Well, thanks for starting a lovely thread and a stroll down memory lane. |
Kestrel
| | Posted on Saturday, August 25, 2001 - 11:54 am: | |
o-o-o-ps ! Let's try again! |
Kestrel
| | Posted on Saturday, August 25, 2001 - 12:02 pm: | |
Photo of painting done by Karl Egge
Ricalton School House at Ricalton Square: pre 1958
This building stood facing Maplewood Ave, just across from the movie theatre, before there was the (ugly) Post Office we live with today.
The grounds surrounding it were very much like Memorial Park, in fact seeemed to be an extension of it, with trees, shrubs and winding paths. All in all, I think it was quite lovely, but the need for more parking and a new post office brought it down.
Originally a School house, built in 1868, it later served as Town Hall - Police HQ's - Library - and a Post Office Annex, until it was removed in 1958.
I used to go to the library there when I went to Maplewood Jr. High (Now, Maplewood Middle School)
The small island of trees, shrubs, plantings and benches - with the clock - is what remains of the "park" now. |
Sac
| | Posted on Wednesday, August 29, 2001 - 9:26 pm: | |
I don't usually feel like an oldtimer (I've only lived here for 15 years), but these descriptions remind me of Maplewood when I first came here in the mid-1980s.
I seem to remember that at one time, there was a camera store in what is now the Village Coffee shop ... am I crazy or is that right? |
Kestrel
| | Posted on Wednesday, August 29, 2001 - 9:56 pm: | |
You're right: Camera One - now on Highland Ave and before that it was Bert Miller's Camera/photo store. |
Extuscan
| | Posted on Thursday, August 30, 2001 - 6:39 pm: | |
BERT Miller. Thanks so much, I wasn't able to remember his first name. But still before that it was Bert Millers Cameras and RECORDS. That sign was up, at the back door, for YEARS past when he stopped selling records.
John |
2shoes
| | Posted on Wednesday, September 19, 2001 - 5:45 pm: | |
Oh, lots of memories! Hair by Silvio at the end of Maplewood Ave, when the First Union used to be the Dime bank. My grandmother went there every week for her 'set'. At the end of the butcher counter in Kings was a tall water fountain, I waited years before I was tall enough to drink from it on my own. I also remember sawdust on the floor of the butcher area [or was it another butcher store?]
The yogurt place by the theater was "I Can't Believe It's Yogurt"..... now it is in the Ritz Deli on Valley Street.
Anyone go to the summer park programs and bring frozen hot dogs/hamburgers that would be cooked on the barbeques at lunchtime? And being very excited when it was pizza lunch at the park?
Roman Gourmet had coupons on the box lids, save ten and get a pie! And yes, they did have their own boxes at one time! |
Fallenangel7757
| | Posted on Friday, December 21, 2001 - 3:46 pm: | |
I realize this thread is months old, but I sure wish I knew who some of you posting were. I was born in Maplewood in 1957 lived in the same house until 1976 when I moved out on my own. Work in a few of the stores in the village. I think some of you are probably younger than I am by the changes of the stores that you remember. Anyhow it would be neat to know if any of us grew up together. |
Goodolddays
| | Posted on Monday, December 24, 2001 - 1:32 am: | |
Extuscan: Every so often I check in at MOL and the Message Board, always find myself reading once again your post of August 21st...the night you had trouble sleeping.
Having lived in town for almost 40 years, raised a family and working for the town for close to 30 years, I naturally can also picture Maplewood Center and all that you describe. But I am still amazed John that at the time you had your "quiet here, idle mind" you happened to mention at the end of your threat of being 23 years old. You have truly had the Maplewood experince, a treasure you will have for your life time. And a wonderful commentary for the Maplewood so many of us remember. I can well understand the impression made on the new Maplewoodians just starting the journey of a life time. Let us all hope it will be as wonderful as we were fortunate enough to live it in our day. |
Drewdix
| | Posted on Monday, December 31, 2001 - 2:04 pm: | |
does anyone know the origin of "The Sirlyn Shops", the engraving over the group of storefronts now including Sweets & Treats?
Was it just a local developer or is there a story there? |
Galileo
| | Posted on Saturday, January 5, 2002 - 11:18 pm: | |
Drewdix - I don't know the origin of The Sirlyn Shops but years ago the original Maple Leaf was squeezed into that little corner store. At that time it was really a greasy spoon luncheonette. |
Extuscan
| | Posted on Sunday, January 6, 2002 - 2:24 am: | |
There are some Maplewood postcards coming up on eBay from time to time, of things like town hall, or streets, marked "The Sirlyn Shops" on the back. |
Bobk
| | Posted on Sunday, January 6, 2002 - 5:46 am: | |
There are two postcard collections posted here on MOL for those who are interested. A lot of them are street scenes and it is surprising how little many of the houses have changed over the better part of seventy five or more years. |
Goodolddays
| | Posted on Sunday, February 3, 2002 - 1:15 am: | |
Galileo....if memories serves correctly, that small corner luncheonette was owned/operated by a gal named Irene. Although small, did serve a great breakfeast and lunch. Back in those days, right across the street was Milt's Cup & Saucer, also a good early morning stop. |
Ckg2
| | Posted on Tuesday, February 5, 2002 - 4:05 pm: | |
I'm new to this Web Site, but quite old to Maplewood. I have lived here for over 30 years. Recently, I met with my children at Maplewood Center, and we had a fast dinner at the Mapleleaf.(My children grew up here in town and went through the school system). After dinner, we stood in front of the Maplewood Bank & Trust (alias Summit Bank, and now Fleet Bank) and we recalled every store that was here in years gone by. What Fun!!! |
Ronsgal
| | Posted on Saturday, April 6, 2002 - 10:56 pm: | |
Not to hurt any feelings but that "greasy spoon" was THE hang out for us in Jr Hi...the cool place to be!!!(Guess I'm dating myself...class of '64) But no matter when you grew up there it will be always an experience not to be matched by very many other people!!! We were so lucky and didn't even realize it! |
Mayflower2258
Citizen
Username: Mayflower2258
Post Number: 1
Registered: 6-2002
| | Posted on Monday, July 15, 2002 - 9:26 am: | |
My two cents: Fourth of July = Maplewood. Can't do better anywhere else. Love this thread! |
Extuscan
Citizen
Username: Extuscan
Post Number: 126
Registered: 6-2001
| | Posted on Thursday, August 1, 2002 - 9:06 pm: | |
Perhaps... (ponderance) it is time for another installment.
Clinton School is where I went for Kindergarten and 1st grade. This is when they were tearing out all the old doors on the exterior of the building. The old ones were wooden cored with galvanized metal shaped like they were wooden, and they covered with countless coats of brown paint. They had raised panels and bubbly frosted glass with chicken wire embedded... The new doors just plain flat, with a rectagular window... sorta, well, ugly. When they painted them they sure smelled gross. It was some sort of really bad nasty oil based industrial oil paint. Go visit today, I bet they are there, just as ugly. Look at the kindergarten doors with the fan windows on top and think, do these nasty flat doors match? Nooooope.
Clinton also had these really cool strange doors about three feet off the ground, on the back of the school. I think they were for coal maybe. Some Maplewood residents, especially those in the "college hill" area (is that what you call it?) have something similiar called a Mystic Milk and Package Reciever...
When I was in the first grade, Clinton was having an elevator put in. We used to have to take some CAT test... California Achievement Test I think. Well they were jackhammering something up for that elevator when we were taking our CAT test. Not enough? Well all the jackhammering created a lot of dust which set the smoke detectors off again and again during construction.
Kindergarten was Mrs. Green, 1st grade was Mrs. Bigelow.
Clinton had portable classrooms where we went for lunch. Way way way behind Clinton was Underhill Field and there was a chain link fence seperating the two but for some reason there was an orange set of stairs on the other side. We climbed over more than once because there was a really cool sandbox... long sandbox actually... Now I think, it must have been for track and field... shotput or something.
First grade flashback: Suzzane Piazza pushed me off the swing set and I broke my knee.
Well we moved from a little house in Maplewood to a much bigger one when I was in the second grade. Our realtor was Bannie Muskie. Her office was a yellow house off Maplewood Avenue, I think on Baker Street but I could be wrong. She sold us a big old beat up house that had alot of "potential". In the basement, there was a large room covered in 1950's style knotty pine paneling. Next to the stairs on either side, there was a slightly lighter colored shape of a "T" on the wall... It was a shelf and a bracket there before leaving a shadow... but the realtor told me it was T for Tuscan, where I would be going to school.
Tuscan I can remember alot more vividly. 2nd grade was Mrs. Frooms. Our classroom was painted pea green... it was one up from the end of the hall on the right side. Every classroom door had the room number painted in gold outlined in black in a way they only did in the 1920's. The numbering lasted, gosh, 60 years. Later on they got some Chanel-Home-Center-Style numbers like you would peel and stick on your house in Irvington and re-did all the numbers. Of course they didn't last the year, peeling off and falling off and getting gross looking.
The library had orange carpet. It was two classrooms with a wall knocked out to make a library. If you walked in the door, to your right was a section of history books. Two shelves up from the bottom was "The History of Maplewood" and that book of mural prints. In front of you, at about 10- 11 o'clock was a short shelf. On the opposite side, top shelf, was "Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs"... my other favorite book. I must have read that 1000 times. The PTA organized a "book exchange" at the library. I thought this was a way to take crappy books from home and pawn them off on the library and get thier good books. I was gonna get "Cloudy with a chance of meatballs" and they were gonna get some scholastic crap I have no interest in. Didn't work out that way... I didn't know we exchanged our books for books other people were exchanging, not library books. It was the second grade, how would I know. I took my books home seeing nobody else's books as being any better.
More later.
|
Mayflower2258
Citizen
Username: Mayflower2258
Post Number: 25
Registered: 6-2002
| | Posted on Thursday, August 1, 2002 - 10:00 pm: | |
Extuscan...When did you attend schools? Just curious. We might know the same people. MF |
Mayflower2258
Citizen
Username: Mayflower2258
Post Number: 26
Registered: 6-2002
| | Posted on Thursday, August 1, 2002 - 10:05 pm: | |
Your memory (as others) should be recorded in a town book....any takers???? |
Bella
Citizen
Username: Bella
Post Number: 213
Registered: 7-2001
| | Posted on Friday, August 2, 2002 - 9:18 am: | |
Extuscan-
Great memory, except that they were CTBS tests- California Test of Basic Skills. I still remember one of the stories from the reading comprehension section (it was the same story for three years in a row) it was about a girl living in the future and her aunt giving her a bird. |
Mayflower2258
Citizen
Username: Mayflower2258
Post Number: 37
Registered: 6-2002
| | Posted on Wednesday, August 21, 2002 - 10:33 pm: | |
Extuscan...where are you? Your stories have prompted questions. Are you on vacation? |
extuscan
Citizen
Username: Extuscan
Post Number: 171
Registered: 6-2001
| | Posted on Tuesday, March 11, 2003 - 11:43 pm: | |
I rode the streets of Maplewood on a red Raliegh bicycle.
The same hills that create an interesting landscape can also wear out the legs of someone 12 or 13. They were no deterence though! I ruled Maplewood from behind the handlebars of that bike. There was no corner, no block, no back way, or place that I did not belong... where I wasn't found.
The scary part was always getting home. It took nothing but a burst of energy, some begging to mom, and a couple of strokes of the pedals to be flying down South Crescent, or if really brave, the latter section of Oakview Ave to land in the park. But getting home on that bike, with no speeds, was rough going. It took years before I was able make it the whole way up South Crescent without stopping. My legs are still disproportionately large to my body. I blame it on those hills.
The arguement, as fruitless as arguements are among 12 year olds, is which hill was steeper? Was it North, or South Crescent? We knew it was only a fool who ventured up Oakview from behind the Municipal Building, and it was a wuss that went down to Tuscan Road. But you did have a choice, North or South... either way was probably the same.
The third choice was to go right up the middle. Through everyone's backyards. The house all the way at the end, facing Valley Street, was always worth exploring. It was perpetually for sale, so nobody lived there. When someone did live there I swear they were avid collectors of Nazi Memorbilia. Peering in those stained glass windows into what appeared to be a study we could only imagine that those swords and medals and what not were from the Third Reich. Who knows what they were.
They had a patio... and what my mother called a mushroom style roof. I think she said that... or I created the term myself to describe the way it blobbed over and rounded out on the edges. I remember it being for sale when I was young for the then-astronomical price of $800,000. We had no concept of money, but knew nobody was gonna pay that. Well until the Kearny connection 10 years later apparently.
There were two other houses I remember on South Crescent very distinctly. Right at the upper bend was a white house and then a brick house that had half round windows. Look very closely at the brick under those half round windows... its a clever match to the rest of the house. Those windows used to go floor-up. The white house I remember because they put in the first fake-brick walkway in Maplewood that I knew of. That stuff was reserved for millionaires on This Old House. It turned up on the sidewalks of Maplewood Center before long. The kid who lived there was such a prick. From Park Slope apparently... just a jibe boys, calm down.
On the corner of the Crescents and Prospect street was a beautiful brick house. Its near twin was next door. They looked like mansions to me. The far house had its own well to fill the pool. Gosh what it would be like to live like that. I lived on my bike though and I'm sure they were more jelous of me... the residents of that house living in a train car and a glass box in Manhattan only viewing Maplewood long enough to drive up the hill from the train station, watch some TV, and fall asleep.
The longest bike trip I ever made was after reading a book in the Library about Olympic Park. I rode down to see what that place was all about... and discovered the Hostess Wonder Bakery Thriftshop. Twinkies... my god... 10 for a buck. Half were squished, half were squeezed, all were still edible and only a dime. I was partial to apple pies though. I could only buy what I could eat and then hide from my parents. $2.00 went a very very long way. That sugar power alone was all that could get me home.
I remember riding down to Blanken's Hardware on Springfield Avenue. They had done some strange things to that place over time... moving the door, chopping it in two, adding a wood burning stove. I wanted soem rope, I don't know what for. I didn't buy it when he told me what it cost.
I had gone to Maplecrest Hardware numerous times though with my father and Maplecrest made Blanken's useless anyway. Maplecrest suffered an ill-advised renovation shortly before I moved away. They blew out all the cobwebs I guess. I miss the cobwebs though. They had a giant fish above the paint counter. They had about 15 sizes of "something" hanging from pegs high up on the wall. I couldn't figure how they could sell anythign from up there. They had a water fountain with ice ice ice cold water. They also had ashtrays, with "American Hardware" written on them. This was an Ace Hardware I think though. Or a True Value. It wasn't an American Hardware and I dont think I ever saw anyone smoking there. Can you imagine that today? Smoking in the hardware store? Well they lost alot when they remodeled. They lost the fish. They lost the ladder that ran along a pipe on the wall. They lost thier business eventually too. I haven't lost my memory of how that place smelled though. Perhaps, there was a tinge of cigarette smoke mixed in with that smell.
You know what also smelled very distinctively? Hilton Brach Library. I can't remember that Librarians name, the one who read stories at the Hilton Branch. The kids that went to the Memorial Library had stories read to them inside a room revealed by a secret door behind a bookcase! We had Snoopy's Doghouse though.
Snoopy's doghouse sometimes turned into other things. It was somehow related to Star Wars once. CP3O was nearby. Me, with a stamp on my hand, would go into that dark doghouse and the smell would be intense. The odor of slowly rotting books.
Anyway, that Librarian told my mother to go to DiPietros and get some of these little pizzas. We were not new to Maplewood. My father moved here in the 1950's or 60's to get out of Newark. My mothers family had been in Maplewood longer than Maplewood was Maplewood. She was from a Ukrainian family, and it was very possible that in 40 years she never previously went in DiPietros. She went to the Olympic Meat Market. Olympic Meat Market used to overlook Olympic Park and is one of the few remaining clues that Olympic Park stood where it was, or that Ukrainians lived in Irvington. But ethnic ties didn't matter much by the 1980's and DiPietros didn't need to be Ukrainian for us to go there. It must not have mattered much in 1972 either, when my parents married. My father, Irish Roman Catholic, and my mother, Ukrainian Prespyterian, married in the Ukrainian Church in Irvington by a Catholic Monsiengiuer. But habits were what habits were and DiPietros was just one of those places we didn't go to. Well until we went.
The DiPietros were the nicest people. Thier sausage lost some of its spice after Mr. DiPietro died. Literally... the son didn't put as much in. It was still very good, my parnts said. I didn't like sausage. I liked thier bologna. We'd buy just enough for the car ride home.
We used to order trays of food from them for the holidays. Since we were all that was left of our families in the area, barring those buried at Hollywood Memorial, everyone came to our house at holidays. We'd order something and find it had doubled in size before we picked it up. Mrs DiPietro says she knew us kids... and that we'd surely eat it all. That was another place with an incredible smell... Cheese. An inch of wax couldn't keep the smell from pouring out of those huge roped up cheese things in the window.
I remember when my grandfather was over, and my mother got a little extra protective. She told me I couldn't cross Prospect Street. Now dammit, I'd been crossing Prospect Street on my biek for years it seemed and suddenly I couldn't. But I wanted to get to Memorial Park, for whatever reason. I rode all the way down Prospect street to where it hits Springfield Ave. On that corner stood two banks and Topfs Pharmacy. The Maplewood Bank and Trust I never went in. We used to go to the other Maplewood Bank and Trust in the Center (where we got our poofy green things with giggly eyes and to visit Evil-Violet at the giant safe). The other bank, Crestmont, was strangely modern looking. It was smooth stone, round end... It was probably the newest building intown. Newest building in a town built 70 years earlier. Newest building, built 60 years ago instead. I was 10, I had no sense of new and old. Crestmont is closed but ceramic-likenesses pop up on eBay from time to time. Mementos, like my puffy green thing with eyes that it long lost, or the free-china-with-deposit from Maplewood Bank and Trust that my grandmother still has, are not available anywhere.
That Bank BURNED. It was something else I saw from my bike. I pedaled past it. I pedaled around it. I wish I could have pedaled right through it. We didn't see the fire, it had happened overnight. But the picture on the front page of the News-Record showed it all... all gone. The old version of the bank was pretty dark, had alot of fake wood-tone laminated things. The new bank was bright, white, and had shiny brass. The vault didn't budge. Violet had survived too apparently.
But anyway, I had to ride my bike all the way down Prospect street to where it ended and cross that street and come all the way back on the other side. I didn't cross Prospect... but I got across it.
You could cross Valley Street a similiar way. Coming out of middle school, you cut into the Country Club Pool parking lot. WEll I guess its not that similiar because we'd cross Valley Street by going under it. The bridge there had some serious structural deficiencies I promise you that.
We'd take the stream all the way up the street to Tuscan School. There is one section where the stream went into a pipe and under someone's house. We went in the pipe and out the other end! That was one of those rare "new" houses in Maplewood.
There was also a large section of stream in a pipe in the Country Club. We used to go into that too.
Whoa well its getting late again
--John |
crossroads
Citizen
Username: Crossroads
Post Number: 10
Registered: 12-2001
| | Posted on Wednesday, March 12, 2003 - 8:22 am: | |
Ex-Tuscan:
I still have my green Raleigh Sports bicycle. It's probably 30 years old by now. Someday I'm going to put air in the tires and rule the streets, no backyards, of Maplewood once again. I always went down North Crescent and up South Crescent. It just seemed easier. A few times I actually rode the S-curves on South Orange Avenue through the reservation. Your post was excellent. Sounds like we had the same stomping grounds and haunts. The photo of a painting done by Karl Egge in the thread from Kestrel, The Egge's lived across the street from us on Courter Avenue. He would always give me a birthday card with a personal watercolor of Snoopy or another Peanuts character that he'd draw. Thanks for the ride. Keep up the posts!
|
shestheone
Citizen
Username: Shestheone
Post Number: 2
Registered: 5-2003
| | Posted on Tuesday, June 3, 2003 - 1:19 pm: | |
extuscan,
i sure hope you write for a living. your prose is emotionally charged.
please keep posting. you have a rare opportunity to unite all of maplewood through your childhood memories.
shestheone |
extuscan
Citizen
Username: Extuscan
Post Number: 304
Registered: 6-2001
| | Posted on Wednesday, September 1, 2004 - 9:25 pm: | |
I am just posting to put this thread back on the top of the list for the benefit of someone who was looking for it. |
Tom Reingold
Citizen
Username: Noglider
Post Number: 3903
Registered: 1-2003
| | Posted on Friday, September 24, 2004 - 10:05 pm: | |
I have reread these messages a few times, because they bear rereading. Thank you for writing them. Since I read about your cycling adventures through the time, I have had a chance to cycle through it myself. I don't find it hard to pedal up Oakview from the Municipal building, as odd as that may sound, though the Crescents are decidedly easier. Of course, a modern bike helps. But I challenge myself to go up without shifting into a low gear. Yesterday, I challenged myself to ride along the streets that are west of Wyoming Ave and along the South Mountain Reservation. Those are definitely steep hills.
|
extuscan
Citizen
Username: Extuscan
Post Number: 327
Registered: 6-2001
| | Posted on Saturday, September 25, 2004 - 3:19 am: | |
It is time again I guess-- 1:27 am. Perfect time to wish I was somewhere else.
I remember, more than anything, the good times in my life. I look at past places, and see only green lawns, shady trees, and a bright shining sun. Did it ever rain in Maplewood? I look on past relationships and remember everything wonderful that we did together, but can't remember why on earth we broke up. My memory is not accurate... its idealistic. Since 2001, in this thread, I wrote my memories of Maplewood New Jersey. I wouldn't say I used my "defective memory" to write because who wouldn't want a memory that only remembered the most wonderful things and forgot everything bad that ever happened? Its not defective at all! I have nothing but wonderful memories of Maplewood NJ.
The Maplewood content is about to take a serious detour. The word "I" is takin' over. About a eight months ago, I "cracked up". I had a decent job, made about $40k managing a car parts store. One cold grey morning I just couldn't get out of bed and, by default, quit my job. This wasn't normal for me. I have never been unemployed since I was 14. I worked at a camp for free before I was able to get paid. After moving to New Hampshire at 16 I got a job a supermarket and didn't quit until I graduated college. When I moved from one job to another after college, I gave my employer a months notice. But suddenly, tired... just so tired... I quit my job. I stared at the ceiling and decided that not only did I not want to work at AutoZone, I wanted to never work for anyone again.
Thats a bit rushed though... Obviously you do not just wake up miserable one day. To satisfy myself in the past, when I was feeling slightly upset, or feeling alone or in anyway not "perfect" I'd spend some of the money I'd saved. Having good job while living at home in HS and college and no drug habit, I had managed to save quite a bit! First, when I was 16, it was a '73 MGB-GT. Pumpkin Orange. I thought this would make me happy... because MGs made me happy I guess? When I was around 12 or 13 my parents had bought a 1972 MGB. They bought this car in 1992 because in 1972, when they were married, it came down to a new MG or a new Ford Pinto. They bought the Pinto. My dad was a VP at PaineWebber or NY Life or something when I was 12 or 13 so $4200 for a 1972 MGB for my mothers 20th wedding anniversary was a reasonable indulgence I guess. I loved that car. We still lived in Maplewood back then.
That farty old car, in a pale baby blue, made such an awesome noise going up the S-curves of South Orange Ave. We'd go up to the top of the reservation and cut down I guess it was Cherry Lane into Millburn and then we'd go home. I wasn't old enough to drive, I went with my dad. I'd always be asking for an "MG ride" and we'd go on some of the coldest nights with the roof down and that feeble heater on. The heat was no warmer than a dead man's breath so my Dad had some big Irish scarf. I missed those rides and I guess thats why, when I wanted to be cheered up, I bought that 1973 MGB-GT. I couldn't drive thier '72 MGB to school and aroudn town so I got my own. This was the first time I bought something ritarded to make myself happy and it was, more than anything, a connection to what I left in NJ.
Well, the pumpkin orange '73 MGB-GT did nothing but piss me off. It stranded me a million times. Later, it caught on fire for no good reason. It was repairable but needed a new electrical harness. In a final episode it broke down, was pulled up on a flat bed tow truck, and then rolled off. Thats ok, it wasn't making me happy and I had already bought a 1959 MG Magnette Mk. III... (which is a four door MG.) I was 17. The Magnette didn't make me happy because it needed paint so badly, or it was deathly slow, or being a four door sedan, it wasn't realy an MG at all. Or, perhaps I was just not happy. It wasn't really driveable every day, so when maybe I was 18 or 19 and the GT was demolished, I got a 1986 Jaguar XJ-S with a V-12 engine. That made me happy till I hit a bridge. (I'm not big on advice, but never ever ever drive a rear wheel drive 12 cylinder english sportscar in a snow storm) I was upset. But, another car came, a 2001 Mitsubishi Eclipse Spyder. It was a college graduation present to myself. For two years I hated it. Oh, and I couldn't afford the payments. I wasn't just buying cars. I bought this laptop I'm using. I bought clothes. I ate very well. I charged... credit. That was ok it was all zero interest and I could flip cards. So I saved my money and had this stuff too. I then did something really stupid. I bought this car, for $7500, with a zero interest charge card:
That, if it didn't make me happy, I should have realized no car was going to. 12 Cylinders and a beautiful body. But now I realized that money was getting very very tight. Monthly payments were high and my cash reserves were dwindling. I had to cut my monthly payments so I had to sell the Eclipse. I had put $10k down when I bought it (money was from the wrecked XJ-S) and made some serious monthly payments and in the end, after two years, had about $4000 in equity in it. I promptly blew it on another Jaguar, an '84 XJ6. It was to replace the Eclipse... and I needed it because the XJ12C got 8mpg and it was cheaper to have a car that got 20mpg And, well, ok, it continued. One month turned out to be a three paycheck month, so I bought yet ANOTHER Jaguar, a 79 XJ12L. I was gonna turn that one around for some cash it was only $800 and worth probably $3000. So for a while there I had a '59 MG 4-door sedan, a '72 MGB, (the 73 fell off a tow truck and was totaled), a 76 Jaguar XJ12C, a 79 Jaguar XJ12L, and an 84 XJ6. And I was unhappy. And, if you forgot, one morning I just woke up and quit my job.
And so I did it. Without any thought. With huge monthly payments to make I quit my job. Worse yet, I was never going to work for anyone again. I bought a '94 Dodge Ram with 90k for next to nothingt and opened a produce stand. Got a friend to put an inspection sticker on the van, which, in New Hampshire, is good until your birthday month no matter when you got it. I opened the little produce stand in Portsmouth New Hampshire right during primary season. I met Joe Liberman and Wesley Clark, and all the other Democrats I didn't like. Later, I moved and expanded. My picture was in all the New Hampshire seacoast newspapers (five of them). I wasn't happy. I cracked up again. I ended up closing the produce stand (I threw everythign into a dumpster at a gas station). The stand didn't make any money and I was tired.
Oh and the '79 Jaguar was vandalized beyond recognition, but I hadn't bothered to register or insure it. Whoops. The '84 Jaguar blew its transmission and lived in my parents yard, the '59 Magnette I decided to take apart at one point and leave most of it in my parents basement, and the '72 MGB, even with a new engine, crapped out its 4th cylinder and and blew black smoke wherever it went. Parked that too. That leaves the Ram Van and the red '76 Jaguar.
This next part is not as crazy as it sounds. I was living in Boston and simply couldn't afford it. I was still very tired, just so very very tired. I gave up my ideal of having a large income and a nice life, to finding instead a small income and a free life. At this point I was truly outta cash. I moved into the van and parked it in Portsmouth NH.
This was actually really nice. It was a huge van, very private with no windows, and it was plenty warm. I got a job at a supermarket, produce department ofcourse, and had just enough money to eat and put gas in the van and the Jaguar. Also was able to cover the phone bill, etc. I went to the gym every morning to work out, and, uh, shower... and I went to work or the beach. People asked where I lived I said, 'downtown by the city parking lot' which was a hugely expensive area of portsmouth and they believed me because I still drove a beautiful red Jaguar. The didn't realized I lived IN the parking lot not just near it.
This all worked out very well. I was basically happy. Trouble was brewing because I didn' pay my credit card bills obviously, but that was ok... with no mailing address I couldn't get the depressing bills. The problem came when the van needed inspection. This was around May, and I had been living the van happily for months. Not even my parents knew... I was well kept, I shaved, my laundry was clean, and all that going to the gym I had bulked up to 175lbs! But the van simply would not pass inspection and my "friend" who passed it all that time ago had his inspection license pulled for putting stickers on uninspectable vehicles. The van needed $800 in work, I was living paycheck to paycheck, and who knows what the Jag would have needed to pass. It felt like a huge weight. One morning, I stared at the cold white metal ceiling of the van... and fell back asleep. I had just quit another job. As happy as I was hiding in that van, reality had found me.
So I sold the Jag for $4500 despite having paid $7500 for it. I junked the van. I had a tranmission put in the '84 XJ6... and with $2500 in my pocket I drove out to the last place I was ever happy...
Maplewood.
I found Maplewood thats for sure. The point of this post was to tell you what I found after a ten year absence... not to tell you how I ended up in Maplewood again or make a case for my own committment to Greystone in describing the process. I'll have to save what I meant to write for my next post because its now 3:16 am. With luck I'll tell you tommorrow.
--John |
Debby
Real Name
Username: Debby
Post Number: 1122
Registered: 5-2001
| | Posted on Saturday, September 25, 2004 - 7:58 am: | |
I can't wait to read the next installment, John.
I think with some light editing you could submit this one to Esquire. |
|
Closed: New threads not accepted on this page