Stratton Park Message Board

Les,

I thought you might be interested in these photographs of Parkchester of another time.

http://www.parkchester.org/PhotoGallery ... index.html

To Parkchester Guy
Thanks for the great pictures.
I have many good memories of Parkchester and these pictures evokes some of these memories.
A few of them follows:
1) Duncan Yo-yo contests in back of Woolworth's on Saturdays. At 9 AM There would be ~20 kids lined up for the The Duncan salesman and he would run a contest for the kids. If you won you would get a "diamond studed "yo-yo-
2) Getting caugh by Parkchester cop "swimming " in the Oval one night . Also the Christmas trees in the Oval. And Santa' house in front of American at Christmas.
3) All the great movies we saw at the Loewe's American on Saturday .

One picture has a building with a statue onn side. It looks like the one my aunt in from 1941-1994 when she died.
All the best.
Les

Fantastic pictures of Parkchester. We hope to swing by for the anniversary festivities in May.

Cannot locate a picture of Santa's' House anywhere. We all have pictures of the inside, sitting on Santa's lap, but a photo of the exterior is elusive. Perhaps a photo will turn up during the anniversary festivities.

With all the people we knew who lived in and around Parkchester, not one, including ourselves, ever thought to take a picture of Santa's House!

Those pictures were mostly from the 1940's - pre- during and after WW2. There are a few from the early 1950's. The Santa house across from Macy's only began (I'm guessing) around 1957 or later. As a small child growing up, I know there was no Santa house. I first recall it as a teenager around 1959. The May reunion has about 700 signed up. God knows where they'll all park.

Parkchester Guy: That's a good question about parking. I wonder if they have made any provisions? Let's hope so.

Parking has always been a hassle; now more than ever. We were over there the week before Christmas to look at the decorations in the oval. I like to show my kids the things that thrilled me as a kid and the oval at Christmas is one of those things. Anyway, we drove over and had hoped to eat in Pizzeria Uno (formerly Lerners - a place in which I spent MANY hours) so we drove up and down Metropolitan Avenue, up and down Unionport Road - Tremont to Westchester Avenue for about a half hour and simply could not find a spot anywhere. We gave up and went home - we live in Throggs Neck so it's not like we traveled for hours but it was just so disappointing.

If we go to the reunion, we will take the bus!

Hey Les,

I know what you mean. But why not do what I do, go out to White Plains Road, Leland or Theiriot, park there and walk back in to Parkchester. Each time I go to Macy's or for other shopping, that's what I do. It beats looking for a spot. Besides, there are still some people that I know on Thieriot that are still there from when I was there. 15 years ago.

Jo

Can you give me the details for the Parkchester Reunion? Thanks a lot.

Pat, here is a link to the reunion website with a listing of all the activities that are planned:

http://www.parkchester.org/reunion1.html

Thanks so much for the information regarding Parkchester reunion. I did not live in Parkchester but hung out there as a youngster. I lived on Pugsley Avenue. I hope I can attend. Thanks again.

Here's an update on Parkchester reunion.

http://www.parkchester.org/displaypublic.php

With almost a thousand already signed up, there are 4 weeks left for more to sign up. One lady with foresight commented, "What about toilets?"

The Loews American and the Oval will be the central places to congregate with a ~~ in the movie theater being shown every hour or so. Many signed up are from PS 102. You can sort the names by school year attended.

Ages are clustered around 55-70 with a few in their 80's and some younger ones. 10am to 5pm.

It's starting to get media attention.

[EDIT - the word deleted is "~~" - no idea why deleted]