"Park chester and the cCiffe Dwellers"

[Les Sherwood]

We used to call the ids from ParK Chester "the Cliff Dwellers”-
Around 18 we hung around the park. Included were guys and girls from Park Chester; but more guys because they want to meet the good looking girls from our neighborhood. Park Chester was a unique place. What are your favorite memories of it?
What they about the Playdrome; adventure on the elevators; The Oval-as when we were caught wading in the fish pond; Macy’s and the Christmas village ; The Palace and Loews’s movie theaters; playing softball in the North playground; Pub crawling to the bars-Pot Belly, Kenny’s, Park House, Rota’s; or visiting the Beer Distributor on Tremont before going to Orchard Beach or on another adventure; the railroads yards to buy a Christmas Tree or seeing the Freedom Train( in the 1950’s); St Raymond’s; walking to the subway on a freezing winter day along the windswept Cross BX Exp.
I met a lot of good people from Park Chester.
Recently we had dinner with Linny Dorfman, Bruce, Jim Calabrese, Bill Galvin, etc
Good people. And Good memories.
Linny’s parents had a new1959 Plymouth Belvedere (?). It was a beauty. He was allowed to “borrow” it. We used to go to the village on week days leaving the neighborhood after 10 PM then go the “The Café Wha” which had amateur shows –singers, comedians, etc. and stay there to well into the morning. I was working at Chase bank on Wall Street so then I had to travel back to the Bronx, catch a few hours sleep and then go to work. Of course I was not in good shape many days.
What are some your good memories Park Chester? I know various posts talled about some of the place noted above. But maybe you may want to share a special memory.
Les

[Les Sherwood]

helo
WE need only 2 replies to to get to
Maybe some have something to say interesting.
Hello out there. Maybe wants to respond sting or anything.
all the best.
Les

tthe next topics are
1-th guys from 138 th ave
2-The Yankees
3-The gints
All the best
Les

[Marion Farrell Cronin]

Ah Les - Parkchester - what a place. Every crack in the sidewalk tells a story. My recollections are mostly based on shopping experiences - being a girl that was very important! Whether it was buying my Easter coat in Lerner's, then proceeding to Macy's to buy a hat if we could afford it, or shopping for that perfect pair of shoes, Parkchester was always exciting.

My aunts lived on Wood Road so my brother and I were able to get away with using the park off Archer Street by the garage. Those showers in the summer were perfect! I remember we wore plastic shoes with a buckle - similar to the Crocs that kids wear today. Then there was Womrath's on Metroplitan Avenue - there was a guy in there (Presumably the owner) who would stare you down and follow you around. Very unnerving - I was indignant that somebody would think I was a crook. Also - summers in the library. My mother was an avid reader and I am sure we visited every week.

We visited the Oval at Christmas last year and it was still remarkably the same as we all remember. I could go on an one with hundreds of recollections - but suffice it to say that Parkchester was a unique place.

[Les Sherwood]

Marion
You hit on a grat place in Park chester-the library. A of good memories come to mind about using unique place. and it was close to Woolworth's and th e Lowes's Movie.
Les

[Jim Mc]

Hello to all,

I guess I will throw in some childhood and young adult memories. Here we go Remember the baloons hanging from the luncheonette in Woolworths The ticket in the baloon was the price you paid for the banana split. Camera Craft for the latest 45. Horn and Hardarts for the pasta in tomato sauce (God awful!!)
Lofts for the chocolate chuck candy and model planes, boats and cars. Buster browns for your easter shoes and sneakers (High top KEDS of course) for the summer (No one wore sneakers after the summer!!!). Dukes drug store across from Howard Clothes. Bowling at the Chester House or Playdrome on Saturday morning before the leagues started. Lenards on White Plains Road can still taste their bread and italian ices. Lastly the store up from there that sold TV tubes (My Dad's favorite store.

Lastly the best thing from Parkchester my bride of 33 years and counting Kathy O'Brien

Bye for now

[Marion Farrell Cronin]

Remember the Parkchester "cops" who would not let anyone walk on the grass? Wonder if they still enforce that - I am guessing they do not!

[Jim Mc]

We use to ride our bikes from the old neighorhood ( all meet at the corner of Beach and Archer Street) to the garages off of White Plains Rd and then into the ovals. Parkchester cops would of course chase us but couldn't catch us we were to fast. Then they got smart and put the chains and the gates up to keep us out.

Happy times!!

[Eddie Acunzo]

Hello All,

Haven't been on this website in quite a while, hope everyone is doing well.

How is this for stupid adolescence? My group of friends, on particularly boring afternoons or nights might visit a spot in Parkchester known to kids as the "Thousand Hallways." Those of you who may remember it will recall it was a series of interlinking utility hallways that connected into a real confusing maze. As we'd make our way thru, we'd break or remove the overhead lightbulbs, throwing the hallways into total darkness. While returning to our neighborhood, if any Parkchester patrolmen gave pursuit, we'd bombard them with the lightbulbs we'd hoarded. Yes, we were a mature, community minded bunch, but on the positive side, it did liven up a dull evening!

Eddie

[Marion Farrell Cronin]

Oh Eddie, you were so naughty!

[Eddie Acunzo]

Hello Marion,

You've become the unintentional instrument of my healing, Maid Marion, the catalyst that has sparked a major breakthough for me. A heavy burden has been lifted from my soul. All those years of counselors talking about my sociopathic or antisocial youth, for which I had to take responsibility - therapists be damned! I was just naughty and misunderstood, after all. Hence forth this condition will be known as the "Officer Krumpke Syndrome".

I will be forever in your debt.

Sincerely,

Eddie

[Parkchester Guy]

Growing up in Parkchester in the 40's and 50's, we called them the "Hundred Hallways". Your house key, we discovered, with a little jiggling, could open basements not your own. The basements were storage places for baby carriages, bikes, sleds, etc. Like Eddie said, they were connected underground to many other buildings, hence the Hundred (or thousand) Hallways.

As little kids, it was fascinating to go from one building and come out halfway across Parkchester. Seemed, at the time, that we were possessors of esoteric knowledge known to none but ourselves. Until the Parkchester cops caught us.

If you had your "name taken" by the cops three times, (walking on the grass, etc.) the parents would get a "letter". Your son, etc., etc.. I never understood why, but some people later said that kept them from getting into Parkchester when they grew up and got married and wanted to live there. Most of us didn't want to live there when we grew up - we moved to the suburbs like the rest of the Bronx middle class in those days.

Looking back, Parkchester was an idyllic place to grow up, but we never knew that then. It was just where we lived, same as Archer Street. Nostalgia filters memories and makes them, sometimes, what they never were.

It IS true, however, that our Bronx upbringing those days was a far cry from today where kids are protected to the point of stiflement (if that's a word), and when we were allowed to explore our environments without parents freaking out if we were ten minutes late to supper.

Btw, Parkchester is planning a big 70th reunion next April centered at St. Raymond's. An all-day affair for the old-timers and the current residents. Maybe you CAN go home again.

[Marion Farrell Cronin]

Dear Eddie: I am so glad I could be of assistance! If you need me again, I'm here for for you! Have a great night.

Marion