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For bagel lovers, enthusiasts, nostalgic taste buds, and pleasure, Rosanne Litwak Skopp’s latest editorial in the NJ Jewish News:
Link to Editorial
Jac Toporek (6/63) and Marc Curtis Little (69) continue their dialogue on the “Weequahic lifestyle:”
At the end of your thoughtful note, Marc, you write, “However, the coining of the term "Weequahic Lifestyle" makes me wonder about who believes such a notion prevailed during the twenty-five-year period from 1950 through 1975. Most of all, I ask myself who is taking such an attitude to their graves.
I, for one, am taking the memory of my family's life in our Weequahic District apartment and neighborhood. I certainly am not taking the lifestyle, itself, because, first, I never lived it and, second, I did not aspire to it. Maybe it was because I was socially awkward and naive and knew I had enough of a challenge living my own life on what God and my parents’ genes gave me. But there was something in my upbringing beside my parents' direction, values and strict rules that formed the basis for what the future had in store for me. I like to think that Weequahic, and the totality of the life we lived during those days, played a part, especially as to respecting diversity and doing so notwithstanding others, including family members, who may have felt differently. Jac
Hi Jac. I pray that you did not misunderstand my post. It was merely an observation. My mother and father, neither of whom finished high school (my mother went through the eighth grade and it stopped there while my father dropped out after his junior year to volunteer to fight in World War II. Both fled the South during the Great Migration in the '30s and '40s because they were forced to leave due to unseemly conditions, not realizing the atmosphere where they settled was almost as bad) worked as a nurse's aide and an auto assemblyman. But they were able to pay their long-term mortgage in twelve years by purchasing used cars during that period and going to the shore on day trips every now and then for what I thought were vacations.
My mother served our neighborhood well as the "go to" parent when some of our friends needed a person to offer them a loving hand. Daddy would round up my friends to play baseball against other neighborhoods (many of those players were older than us; most of our team members were nine and ten years old) at Weequahic Park every Saturday during the summer and football (without adequate protective gear) in the fall. There were other activities which garnered our participation, but nothing on the level of some kind of "lifestyle."
My point in the post was that many of my friends and I lived simple lives much different from what was the norm in the Weequahic neighborhoods. Unfortunately, we felt some of the older residents in the "Weequahic Lifestyle" resented our presence at 279 Chancellor Avenue and its environs when the area was changing. But we worked through it, nonetheless, while we roamed the halls of the legendary Weequahic High School, a place we proudly claim wherever we go. And some of us have no regrets about the experiences because they sharpened our resolve and resiliency as we grew older and more mature. Thanks for the soapbox. Marc
I understood your post, Marc. As new immigrants and a Holocaust surviving family, we felt resentment from several areas. It was not easy to fit in, but not sure it mattered because we were busy making do. Not unsimilar to your family.
So happy that you decided to join the conversation. Have tried many times over the 23 years of editing the weekly newsletter to get our African American alumni to share their memories; the churches, restaurants, community programs, shops, inspirational leaders, etc. and, of course, the WHS experience. Until your note, I have never received a response. Yes, the discrimination and Newark riots lurk in the background, but there was so much of life and district that was shared, enjoyed together and separately as a community. There is more to the W-community than the Jewish perspective and a so-called Weequahic lifestyle.
By the way, I recall playing some Saturday and summer baseball in the track at Weequahic with area friends from Peshine, as well as football games in other areas of Weequahic Park. I graduated Peshine in June 59 and WHS in June 63. Jac
A teaspoon more of the Rx:
Fancine Solomon Finkel (67)
To George Rubin (6/59), thank you for clearing some things up about Rubin Bros. Pharmacy. I always thought Phil and his wife actually were the owners. I say this because of the way they took such good care of the whole operation. I worked there for 3 years and everyone knew that I wanted a future in medicine. Doctors would come in and offer me positions even before I finished my program. The job was so important to me because it took me out of my quiet self and taught me how to properly interact with staff, doctors, customers, providers and all who came in touch with the pharmacy. And all this for $1.25 an hour and all the babysitting I could do for the pharmacists and their families. Great times. Francine
Carole Kaye Ades (64)
I believe the pharmacy that was referred to on Bergen Street was Kaye’s. Carole
Iris Lauer Talesnick (6/53)
Regarding Phil Skuraton, we used Rubin Bros. on Chancellor all the time. Whenever someone in my family got sick, my father always consulted with Phil about a diagnosis before calling the doctor. He had the utmost confidence in him. We lived on Schley between Lyons and Chancellor Avenues and went to the Schley Street Shul on the High Holidays. Iris
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