White Plains Road Business Trivia

[Rich Burrell]

For the record, the official name of the diner was: The Parkchester Food Shop---catchy !!

[Eddie Acunzo]

Way to go Rich! What number bus was on Unionport going to Pelham Parkway?

In the summer of '69 I was working at Eagle Transformers off Westchester Square, the manager was one of the Diehls, I think it was Chris. On the actual weekend of Woodstock I was on vacation with my parents, we drove to Miami...Eddie

[toddf]

...but you left out one store on Guerlain...I remember that there was a Chinese laundry between Oscars & Playdrome( I used to pick up my fathers dress shirts there, folded and blue-banded)...anyone remember the name?

[Kathleen]

Rich, I have to agree with you about the A&P. That was my first job and we did have quite a few characters there. Was Barney McMahon the asst. mgr. you were referring to? He was great, I loved him!! Harry Farrell was my manager and he was a first class gentleman. Sometimes, if he saw me and my sister Honey coming from church on a Sunday morning, he'd invite us up for a cup of tea. He used to walk me home after work, making sure I made it safely down the block to my apt. During the winter, if he saw me struggling to make it across White Plains Road without falling in the snow, he would send one of the young guys who worked at the store to help me across--I had forgotten this, my sister reminded me. (I guess my brother Harry was right when he told me many years ago that I was not at all coordinated!!)
We have some great memories!

Take care.

Kathleen

[nick drewes]

It was the number 13 Bus Stop. It ran from Pelham Parkway to Castle Hill Pool.

[nick drewes]

It was the number 13 Bus Stop. It ran from Pelham Parkway to Castle Hill Pool.

[Rich Burrell]

Yes, the Asst. Mgr. was Barney Mc Mahon, from City Island, His wife was in the late stages of cancer that summer and yet he still had a hell of a sense of humor. He used to get visibly po'd at the senior citizens who would line up on Monday morning for the Jane Parker baked goods. The lemon pie, regular retail 39 cents was marked down to 20 cents and when the doors opened, it looked like the Oklahoma land rush. I worked with Christine Sweeney, Eleanor Rogan, John Bluett (from Morris park, who died of cancer during his college years, and a big guy whose name I believe was Fitpatrick, who lived around Guerlain and Leland. Jimmy Voltura was the produce guy, who loved fruits and vegetables more than life itsself. We went out of our way to screw up that dept. Hank ran Dairy and I forget who was the meat mgr. The bookkeeper was a nice Italian woman whose name I forget.

When not cashiering, I liked the soap aisle because everything stacked easily without sliding. Harry let us open a six-pack of Tudor (house brand) beer after Saturday night clean-up. I think that's why I've never been much of a drinker.

For fun we would take swollen cans of Daily (another house brand) dog food and punch a hole in the top with our box cutters. Next step was to slide it down an adjacent aisle, getting as close as possible to a working colleague. I cannot
describe the smell of the air escaping from those cans.

We loved to get Barney's goat whenever possible. That summer, we got a shipment of Gatorade for the first time. We kept asking him where "Gat-o-rad" belonged-juice or soda aisle. He finally came to the end of the aisle and yelled at the top of his lungs "don't bother me with odd-ball s_ _t ! When he realized all the customers had heard him, he couldn't stop laughing.

I tell my kids that i wouldn't have wanted to live anywhere else as a kid. Unlike the suburbs, none of us knew who had more or less-everyone was pretty much in the same boat. We all came home to a hot meal and a warm bed.
Our parents lived their lives for us and they never felt cheated.

I have next-door neighbors-the wife is a pediatrician and he's a lawyer for the NY Mets. She once asked us how we ever managed 2 boys and a girl in only a 3 bedroom house with two baths. I told her my mother grew up in Harlem with 9 kids in a cold water flat-none of them ever went to jail or suffered mental illness.

We were all blessed to have passed through there.

[Eddie Acunzo]

Rich

I retired about three years ago from Dow Chemical as a Quality Assurance Specialist, spent my entire career in one location, though I traveled quite a bit. Three years before that, and for the entire the rest of my career our corporation was Union Carbide Corporation before Dow took us over. More than a few of those people, though I'd probably recognize their faces, I'd fumble for or would be unable to remember their names!

How do you remember all of those people???

I guess I burned more brain cells than I ever realized.

Eddie

[Rich Burrell]

Actually, Ed, I seem to have a unique ability to recall scads of useless data. I once had a boss on Wall St. tell me that no one he knew had such recall of useless information. That was probably the best compliment I ever got from a boss.

Actually, my short -term memory is terrible- I don't know where I've left my car keys five minutes after entering the house.

[Kathleen]

Rich, My family is always amazed at how much useless information I remember, but I must admit you have me beat (though I'm not saying what you remember is useless). Our bookkeeper's name in the A&P was Ethel May, she was great. Eleanor Rogan was fun to work with, the customers loved her. I'm sitting here laughing as I'm reading your story about Barney, he was hysterical! Whenever I get together with my family on my trips to NY, and we start talking about the old neighborhood, we usually bring up the A & P, and then of course my brother Harry starts telling Barney stories. I've probably heard all of them hundreds of times but I still laugh like it's the first time. And it was John Fitzgerald who lived on Leland. I'm embarassed to say that he had to take me to my sister Honey's apartment one Saturday night, after one of our "after work" parties that you referred to. I couldn't go home in that condition! Oh well, the good old days. We did have fun. Take care.
Kathleen

[JohnTell]

Rich, I was wondering if you worked in the A&P when my uncle,Bill Lamasney an off duty Sgt on the NYCTPD, was shot during a hold-up while doing some grocery shopping in the A&P...

Thankfully my uncle Bill survived, and still lives in Bergenfield,NJ with the bullet still lodged in his abdomen...

JohnT

[Rich Burrell]

John, I wasn't working there at the time of your uncle's misfortune. I only stayed for the summer of '69. But, I had heard that there were several incidents there over the years, We had a steady stream of head cases among the customers who shopped there. Surprisingly, many of them were from Parkchester, home of the "10 cent millionaires" as my dad used to refer to them. One huge, elderly woman, who we nicknamed Lurch, was about 6'3" tall,weighing in at about 225. She used to come in with a homemade plywood shopping cart, like the wire ones people used to bring packages home. She'd spend a while shoplifting groceries, then proceed to the meat department where she'd place 2 or 3 trays of ham steaks between her legs (no "meat" jokes, please) under a long skirt and proceed to the exit. Barney was usually aware that she was there and would head her off near the doors, by ramming into her ankles with a handtruck. That was an aggressive move because those trucks were almost razor sharp from picking up deliveries on the sidewalk

[pgirty]

I remember the A&P on White Plains road very well. My father Bill Lamasney was shot there during a hold up on Friday June 13th 1969 - 38 years ago.

I'm glad to say that he survived and is still with us.
Patty

[Luis Vazquez]

It was definitely a Gulf station circa 1965.

[kay rogan moore]

matty, the name of the irish pub was MacElroy's...the MacElroys are related to our good friend in common, eileen mccrudden...

to kathleen, thanks for the nice words about my mother, eleanor rogan...my mother worked in the A&P starting when i was probably in the 2nd grade until they closed the store. she then went onto the Pioneer and worked till she was 70...we always enjoyed all the crazy stories of the A&P people she worked with and the stories of Barney from rich burrell really made me laugh. ...i hadn't thought of him in years. Harry Farrell of course was a very lovely man....my mother kept in touch with Ethel all those years. I do remember that she was particularly fond of all the Kelly siblings...so thanks for those memories.