Milkmen, and Other Artifacts of a Lost Era

I was 9 years old when our family emigrated to the US. I remember landing at Idlewild and being overwhelmed by the mounds of snow. We stayed in Jones Beach for a week and my uncle took me to the city and showed me around. My favorite place was the cafeteria where you reached into a pigeonhole and pulled out a dish. Don't remember the name...but it was well known.

Reg, I think it was Times Square. I'm not sure. I do believe that the rickety old 7 train is still in service. In fact, I think it's the train that John Rocket (was his name John?) made insulting remarks about. Well, not so much the train as the people who were on it.

That was the only time I went to see a NL game. All other baseball games I attended were in the AL at Yankee Stadium. I would stroll over on ladies' day. Fifty cents a ticket. I still have the stubs.

panzade

The name of the restaurant you are referring to is"Horn and Hardart"

Thank you kind sir

" My favorite place was the cafeteria where you reached into a pigeonhole and pulled out a dish ". we had those 'eating establisments' in germany before the war(kind of dates me, doesn't it ?). in hamburg it was called 'automatenkaffee' , and it was a favourite for my brother and me. for 10 pfennig you could also get a drink from the automated dispenser; 'malzbier' (a low-alcohol and somewhat sweet beer) was our favourite. every now and then the dispenser would not shut off and we would gulp as much 'malzbier' as we could before one of the attentends noticed and spoiled the fun by shutting it off. hbg

Panzade, The Automat!

When I was a kid, I LOVED the automat. There was a lady in a booth in the middle of the automat who would give you nickels for your dollars. You would go around, pick out what you wanted, put the correct amount of nickels in the slot, turn the knob, and the door would open. The Automat made the greatest pot pies, and baked beans!

Yes the Automat! A true wonder.

I feel too young to be involved in this thread, but it seems my missed memories of days gone by do revolve around local restaurants (surprise), Noodles (then Acrobat, where I apprenticed briefly, now Pangaea), La Scala, Three Small Rooms, Palmerston, Nikka, Oceans, well, the list goes on...

My most vivid memory about the automate was the man in the both in the center who made change. His fingers were covered in a gray film from handling all the coins and for some reason that facinated me.

Cav
And I feel too old. People remember and speak of things as Items of a lost era that seem to me happened just yesterday.
In any event I remember when Davie Crockett was the rage of TV. My son would put on his coonskin hat take my wife's Mouton coat {fake fur} and kill it over and over again with a broom stick.

I hate it when I turn on the "oldies" station and hear a song that I thought was current.

Somehow that story is incredibly funny au. I know that once, as a child at a Jewish school, a few students were tapped to appear on some local station to give their opinions on god, from a a Jewish child's perspective. Most mentioned the standard stuff that was taught to them. I said "God flies around the world in an airplane and picks up gold." Dang....I was a **** disturber even then. I couldn't imagine the carnage if I said something like that today! At the time, it was an innocent concept of a child mind. As an adult, it would most likely be construed as extremely racist, or worse, self-hating. One thing I do remember, people used to be able to speak their minds without fear of prosecution, for a brief blip in the time I grew up in. These days, I'm not so sure.

When I am at the doctor's office, I will pick up a copy of "People" magazine. Damned if I knew who those guys in the magazine are. I think that the "youngsters" are Brad Pitt and Tom Cruise. Then I realize that the newest up and coming stars are twenty years younger then they are!

Ahh, George just reminded me....a lot of the rebellious songs I loved are now being used to sell merchandise. Sad...

I will tell you what is disconcerting to me. When I watch an old movie on cable and see all the stars that I recognize and are so familiar to me. And than realize that they have all passed on.

My Jewish mother laments that these days, rather than read the headlines, she checks the obituaries first.

Cav
Well she knows where the real news is.

Too true.

i like that they're playing disco now.
"its not your father's oldies station" kinda thing...