|
Correction to Class of 1966 as to time of event (1 PM start, not 11:00 AM):
Class of 1966 will be holding a luncheon on Tuesday, October 11, at Sofia's on Morris Avenue in Springfield, NJ (1:00 PM-3:00 PM). October 1, 2023 deadline for registration. For info, cost, response please contact Sy Mullman at 973-376-5929 or via e-mail, symullman@aol.com.
Bergen Street furriers are the subject of conversation:
Carole Ades Kaye (64)
To Jacqueline Kaufer Klein (66), I really appreciate you going through the stores in Newark. You help me recall other ones that I had forgotten about. But I was wondering if the furrier was called Schmerel’s? I remember it being on Lyons and Bergen Street next to Tiny Town. Is that correct?
Jacqueline Kaufer Klein (66)
I remember Schmerel Bros Furriers. They had a large, fancy store on Lyons and Bergen. Also, there was Kaye or Kay's Furrier further down on Bergen Street past Bo Peep Children's shop and Rubin's Drug Store. Schultz Furriers was near the Bergen Bake shop. I don’t know why that store has always stayed in my mind. Maybe, it was the blue lights or Mr. and Mrs. Schultz themselves. It seemed like a very unusual place like it would be in Vienna or Budapest.
Remember Wittenberg's Antique Store? I loved all of those little shops so much on Bergen Street. Tonight, would be a great night for a corned beef sandwich from Kartzman's with some potato salad and cole slaw. Jacqueline
Jac Toporek (6/63)
Thanks, Jacqueline. Thought you would have total recall on this. So, what I thought was Shultz's at Lyons and Bergen, was Schmerel’s. What was cross street where Bergen Bake Shop and Schultz's was located? Jac
Jacqueline Kaufer Klein (66)
You know the stately Fidelity bank on the corner of Bergen and Lyons? If you were walking up Lyons Avenue from Weequahic Park, the bank was on the right-hand corner and if you turned right on to Bergen Street, just a few stores down from there was the magnificent Bergen Bake Shop. Wonderful bakery filled with the best challah, rye, salt sticks, bialys, cupcakes, victory cakes, brownies, Munn cookies, bowtie and all the little, adorable Jewish cookies on doilies. I can see the shelves right now.
Well, right next to the bakery, I think was Schultz Furriers. It was just a little storefront. It had blue lights and smelled like game animals in a forest; the store was cold. I must have thought the furs were very exotic. Mr. Schultz would show me chinchilla, ermine and mink pelts and Persian lamb coats, beaver and seal. I couldn’t believe how soft and luxurious they were. Now, I am a vegetarian. But back then, many mothers and grandmothers had mink stoles or rabbit muffs. And we used leather shoes and gloves and ate fish and meat; a different time.
Anyway, for some reason, it always stayed in my mind, just like all of the other stores; the Chinese laundry, Universal, the supermarket, hardware store. It was a whole world, right there on Bergen Street.
Do you remember the shoemaker shop? The cobbler was a tall, spindly, grim, bald man and the store was very dark with big wooden chairs for shoe polishing. How about the butcher shops with sawdust on the floor? just like a beautiful dream. Jacqueline
Jac Toporek (6/63)
Well done, again, Jacqueline. As I wrote to Carole, I dated Mr. Schultz's niece for a few years during college. Her dad and owner Schultz were brothers and he worked there for his brother. Jac
Jacqueline Kaufer Klein (66)
I didn’t know Mr. Schultz's niece, but I clearly remember that his wife looked like one of the gorgeous Gabor sisters and his daughter looked like
a porcelain Dresden doll. They looked like princesses. Jacqueline
Hawthorne Avenue memories spurred by recent comments in the “WHS Note:
Susan Oaklander Leon (1/58)
Thank you to Linda Krugman Holtzman (6/59) for the photo of where you father's pharmacy was on the corner of Hawthorne Avenue and Walcott Terrace. It brought tears to my eyes. My Great Aunt Yetta and Uncle Ellis lived a few doors down on the right on Walcott. When I was at Hawthorne Avenue School in the 40's, I would go to their house after school when my parents weren't going to be home. They called me “Suzypuss” in their eastern Europe accent. They always had Chicklets chewing gum for me. The things we remember/ Susan
Marty Kaufman (Irvington 56)
I lived around the corner from Krug’s at 15 Fessenden pl. I remember when my mother took me to the drug store when I had some thing in my eye. Mr. Krugman kindly removed it in a minute. I passed the store going to Hawthorne Avenue School. Checking the temperature on the Ex Lax thermometer on the outside of the pharmacy is also a memory. I remember this so vividly and spurred me to buy an old one from the 1940s from eBay; and I check the temperature regularly. Marty
Bob Dubman (6/52)
To Linda Krugman Holtzman, I recall you as a young child and both your parents in Krugman’s Drug Store on the corner of Hawthorne Avenue and Wolcott Terrace. It was also a confectionary and sold many sundry products. Did pharmacy school include a course for your dad to make ice cream cones; cost 5¢ plus another penny to add Jimmies (chocolate sprinkles) on top. Mister Krugman was great guy!
Living on the first of the two blocks of Wolcott Terrace between Hawthorne Avenue and Nye Street were a bunch of great kids; Carl Glassner, the Dvorins, Billy Ludwig (52), Allan Stepner, Charley Bernhaut (1/54), Nicky Gevas, Jerry Glassner, Allen Lazaroff (51), Neal Nadler and several others that I can visualize but not recall their names. We never lacked for anyone with whom to play, whether it be marbles (mibs), touch football or have snowball fights.
Regarding the previous mention in these pages of the shoe store fun of looking down at an x-ray of your feet inside a new pair of shoes, consider that when a dentist takes an x-ray, you are covered down to your knees with a lead apron. What is the lead apron protecting from x-rays that are pointed at your head? Now, think of having a foot x-ray point straight up to your reproductive organs without any barrier protection. Bob
Sue Katz Bograd (6/55)
Thank you to my Hawthorne Avenue friends, Eddie Klein (6/62) and Eli Hoffman (1/56) for the beautiful memories. We came to Hawthorne Avenue as immigrants and were made to feel like family when my mother Bertha worked at Keil’s Bakery. Eli, at Hoffman Brothers, your dad and uncle, would save the old fruit for my mother that she would use to make desert. Your sister Phyllis, Eddie, became my closest friend. So very many years ago and, yet, it feels like yesterday. Sue
Sheila Stein Farbman (6/57)
To Eli Hoffman, I enjoyed reading your entry about Hawthorne Avenue. You knew more
about the area than I did. I'm looking forward to reading more about the
area and more about my dad's store, Stein’s Butcher Shop. You're right, they are happy memories. We were lucky. Sheila
Harlene Gelman Horowitz (6/58)
There was only one Jake Mohawk (men’s club). Sammy and Brenda Skuratofsky were so lucky to have Jake and Fay as parents. They let me meet Richie Roberts (6/56) in their basement when my father thought I was out with the Athenians, our social Club. Not like Uncle Jake’s Social Club for sure. Those were the days my friend. We were soooo lucky. Harlene
Myron Borden (1/52)
Here's more about Hawthorne Avenue. The group which used Katz’s, the candy store, as a hangout, besides Jerry Leibman (the son of the Rabbi who officiated at my Bar Mitzvah), also included Natey Weiss, Myron Kesselhaut and Allan Klein, who was the business manager of The Beatles for a number of years. My friends and I did the same thing at the Boodish Candy Store on Clinton Place next to one of the largest pharmacies in Newark.
Johnny, the motorcycle cop stopped by the Hawthorne Playground at least once every single day and stopped to talk to us. Hoffman Brother’s fruit store at 345 Hawthorne Avenue had some customers in chauffeured limos from the suburbs as part of their business. I lived at 343 Hawthorne Avenue from 1950 to 1959 in the third floor above Harrison's Fishery and supplied Sammy the Bum, who lived in Keil's basement, with leftover food in the alleyway of Keil's Bakery. Myron
Remembering and remembering and remembering:
Marshall Lipson (Hillside 64)
I am not a WHS alum, but lived on the border of Hillside and Grumann Avenues. I remember Watson Bagels so here’s my memory story. I went off to college in 1964 (the last time I had a Watson Bagel) and then moved to South Jersey in 1969. Around 1980 a bagel place opened in Cherry Hill, NJ. I went in there to buy bagels because everyone raved about them. One bite and I told my wife that I only tasted bagels like those at Watson's when I was growing up. The owner's wife heard me and said “Of course you do, my husband was an apprentice baker at Watson's and this was their recipe.” So, after all those years, I still remembered what Watson Bagels tasted like. They tasted like no other, they were the best. Marshall
Jerry Kaye [Krotenberg] (1/60)
What was the bread the Bunny Hop used to make the “Jerry Bombs” and can you still get it in NJ? Jerry
Rich Trugman (60)
Jerry, it’s called Pizza Bread which you can find it in most Italian bakeries. Rich
Herman Rosenfeld (67)
I vividly remember Ronny Elberger (64) playing his music at assemblies in Maple Avenue School when I was student there. It was the first time I heard rock n roll live. It was scintillating. The music teacher, Mrs. Schwartz, happily introduced the musicians. He was incredibly talented. I heard him playing a couple of times after that and always wondered what happened to him. Reading of his passing and obit a few weeks ago in this newsletter, it seems he had a very successful life. Herman
| 
