Author Topic: On a lighter note...food nostalgia  (Read 16278 times)

Offline prospectgirl

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On a lighter note...food nostalgia
« on: January 10, 2009, 11:57:22 PM »
On a lighter note...
I found these three remarks posted on a comment chain online, although these are not my own comments, each touches my own sweet memories. I wanted to share them, but I do not know how to create a link to there, so I thought maybe some board readers might want to add some  personal notes on "food" nostalgia on this thread...

Here are three I am sharing that were part of Hackensack's past....

 
#1

I turned 60 this year and spent my childhood years in Bergen County, New Jersey during the 1950s and '60s. There were several ice cream trucks that came around in summer, including the Good Humor man. Those little white trucks had bells mounted above the windshields which the driver operated by pulling a string. None of today's annoying music blasting over loudspeakers! The ice cream bars were kept in freezers in the back of the truck and the driver opened these really thick doors and had to reach way in to get your Popsicle or chocolate-covered vanilla ice cream bar. (All 10 cents.) There were hardly any chain "fast food" places unless you counted Dairy Queens, which in those days had only soft ice cream, served at walk-up windows. My friends and I went to a soda fountain in either a drug store or Mom and Pop candy store to get Cokes for either 5 or 10 cents, made by squirting Coke syrup into a paper, cone-shaped cup held by a stainless steel holder, then they would fill the cup with seltzer and stir it up with a spoon. We kids earned our spending money by bringing soda bottles back to the sore for a 2-cent deposit on small bottles and 10 cents on the large. If we were lucky enough to find a quart-sized beer bottle, we could return it to the liquor store for 10 cents! Ice cream sodas and milk shakes were 25 cents and a malted was 30 cents. They would give you the stainless steel mixer cup and it would fill a standard sized Coca Cola glass about three times. Ice cream cones were ten cents.
The local lunch counters cooked their hamburgers on the grill but sometimes my grandfather would take me to a highway place called Sandy's Charcoal Hearth for a really good char-broiled burger. Naturally, after tasting these, I was completely unimpressed with the McDonald's variety, which I first tried around 1965 when fast food places started invading Bergen County, much to the chagrin of the older residents who appreciated much better food — and service.

#2

They had a chain called Dugan's "Bakers for the Home" in the NY metro area and their trucks would visit your neighborhood two or three times a week. They carried Entenmann's-quality baked goods. Milk men? Of course! We had a metal milk box and the milk man would bring us four quarts of milk every other day. (Five kids in the family.) My Mom also bought more milk during her weekly shopping trip, which sold for around 25 cents a quart.

#3

I was lucky living in Hackensack, New Jersey up until 1958 because we were within walking distance of what many people consider to be one of the finest bakeries on Earth. The B&W (Boehringer & Weimer) bakery. Their specialty was the real New Jersey-style crumb cakes, where the cake is about an inch high and the crumbs on top are thicker than the cake! They also sold very good 7-layer and Neapolitan cakes with butter cream icing so rich it tasted like chocolate or vanilla flavored butter! Their brownies, with chocolate icing and walnuts, were only 8 cents apiece!

« Last Edit: January 11, 2009, 12:02:35 AM by prospectgirl »



Offline just watching

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Re: On a lighter note...food nostalgia
« Reply #1 on: January 16, 2009, 09:41:55 AM »
What hits my mind was the extreme inflation of candy and ice cream prices when I was a child.  I can remember everything on Dairy Queen's menu being under a dollar, except a banana split for $1.25. That may have been around 1971.  Then only a few years later, you couldn't even get a plain ice cream cone for $1.25.  For some reason, their prices far outpaced inflation, which was high in the 1970's.

Same for candy bars. 

Even those little machines that used to take pennies and spit out candy for you.  They went from nickels to dimes to quarter in less than 5 years.

Offline semafore

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Re: On a lighter note...food nostalgia
« Reply #2 on: March 01, 2009, 06:16:45 PM »
For all those lovers of B&W Crumb Cake, Road Food singled out B&W's crumb cake on their website.
http://www.roadfood.com/Reviews/Overview.aspx?RefID=5020

Offline Warren from Summit Ave

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Re: On a lighter note...food nostalgia
« Reply #3 on: August 14, 2009, 05:47:38 PM »
On a lighter note...
I found these three remarks posted on a comment chain online, although these are not my own comments, each touches my own sweet memories. I wanted to share them, but I do not know how to create a link to there, so I thought maybe some board readers might want to add some  personal notes on "food" nostalgia on this thread...

Here are three I am sharing that were part of Hackensack's past....

 
#1

I turned 60 this year and spent my childhood years in Bergen County, New Jersey during the 1950s and '60s. There were several ice cream trucks that came around in summer, including the Good Humor man. Those little white trucks had bells mounted above the windshields which the driver operated by pulling a string. None of today's annoying music blasting over loudspeakers! The ice cream bars were kept in freezers in the back of the truck and the driver opened these really thick doors and had to reach way in to get your Popsicle or chocolate-covered vanilla ice cream bar. (All 10 cents.) There were hardly any chain "fast food" places unless you counted Dairy Queens, which in those days had only soft ice cream, served at walk-up windows. My friends and I went to a soda fountain in either a drug store or Mom and Pop candy store to get Cokes for either 5 or 10 cents, made by squirting Coke syrup into a paper, cone-shaped cup held by a stainless steel holder, then they would fill the cup with seltzer and stir it up with a spoon. We kids earned our spending money by bringing soda bottles back to the sore for a 2-cent deposit on small bottles and 10 cents on the large. If we were lucky enough to find a quart-sized beer bottle, we could return it to the liquor store for 10 cents! Ice cream sodas and milk shakes were 25 cents and a malted was 30 cents. They would give you the stainless steel mixer cup and it would fill a standard sized Coca Cola glass about three times. Ice cream cones were ten cents.
The local lunch counters cooked their hamburgers on the grill but sometimes my grandfather would take me to a highway place called Sandy's Charcoal Hearth for a really good char-broiled burger. Naturally, after tasting these, I was completely unimpressed with the McDonald's variety, which I first tried around 1965 when fast food places started invading Bergen County, much to the chagrin of the older residents who appreciated much better food — and service.

#2

They had a chain called Dugan's "Bakers for the Home" in the NY metro area and their trucks would visit your neighborhood two or three times a week. They carried Entenmann's-quality baked goods. Milk men? Of course! We had a metal milk box and the milk man would bring us four quarts of milk every other day. (Five kids in the family.) My Mom also bought more milk during her weekly shopping trip, which sold for around 25 cents a quart.

#3

I was lucky living in Hackensack, New Jersey up until 1958 because we were within walking distance of what many people consider to be one of the finest bakeries on Earth. The B&W (Boehringer & Weimer) bakery. Their specialty was the real New Jersey-style crumb cakes, where the cake is about an inch high and the crumbs on top are thicker than the cake! They also sold very good 7-layer and Neapolitan cakes with butter cream icing so rich it tasted like chocolate or vanilla flavored butter! Their brownies, with chocolate icing and walnuts, were only 8 cents apiece!



Thank you so much for appreciating my nostalgia!  :) As soon as I stared reading it, I thought there was something familiar about it. I originally posted those ramblings on another board Serious Eats http://www.seriouseats.com/talk/2008/09/im-so-old-that-i-remember-food-style.html and part of it was on another board aboutnewjersey.com (where I am known as Jersey Warren.) I lived in Hackensack until I was 10 (1948-1958) and every time I go near there, it's time to stop at B&W bakery for a crumbcake! I now live in Florida, so that doesn't happen very often.

Offline Top of the Hill

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Re: On a lighter note...food nostalgia
« Reply #4 on: October 12, 2009, 02:30:15 PM »
The first fast food resteraunt I recall was "Goodies" or "Goodys" on Essex street just west of rt. 17. Got to go there once or twice a year. Back then fast food was a "treat" and not the American diet. I recall Dugan's trucks with the Entenmann's products. I recall the old ice cream trucks with the roofs cut off them and the driver in white uniform. We used to only buy from the Good Humor truck because Pied Piper had "ants in their ice cream". Don't know where that came from or why we thought that. We also had the milk man and the metal milkbox on the back steps. It was my job to bring the milk in and I remember several times I tried to be lazy about it and carry 2 bottles at a time in 1 hand by the plastic handles. The glass bottles would clank together and there would be milk and broken glass all over the steps. It's a wonder my mom didn't kill me. She always warned me and I continued to do it. Jeez, how stupid can you be as a kid? 

Offline Editor

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Re: On a lighter note...food nostalgia
« Reply #5 on: October 22, 2009, 09:06:59 AM »
I'm sure the Good Humor man started the rumor.  Both trucks serviced my neighborhood (near Baldwin Park) over the years.

I remember milk delivered to a styrofoam-lined metal box at our side door. We had a family of 7 and always had fresh milk. We would put the empties back in the metal box to be reused. The "convenience stores" put an end to milk delivery, I think.  There were also diaper cleaning services that picked-up and delivered in those days. In many ways, these services were very eco-friendly. Who knew?


Offline GinnyT

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Re: On a lighter note...food nostalgia
« Reply #6 on: June 07, 2010, 10:47:40 PM »
I'm new to the forum and the comment about milk delivery made me think about the experiment with milk machines.  There was a free standing one on Anderson Street about halfway between Pangborn and the railroad tracks.  I don't remember the year (late fifties or early sixties).  Depositing coins got you a quart of refrigerated milk.

Offline Editor

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Re: On a lighter note...food nostalgia
« Reply #7 on: June 08, 2010, 08:11:08 PM »
Was that machine there in the 70's?  I vaguely remember an ice machine but could be mistaken. 

Welcome to the boards!

Offline HHS72

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Re: On a lighter note...food nostalgia
« Reply #8 on: June 08, 2010, 09:45:46 PM »
I remember that machine. Believe it was next to the billboard, which was next to my first Barber "Otto". Boy did I cry when I got my first haircut!

Offline irons35

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Re: On a lighter note...food nostalgia
« Reply #9 on: June 08, 2010, 10:33:20 PM »
it was under the billboard, right next to Gavin's Auto Colors.  we used to walk to it to get milk.

Offline johnny g

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Re: On a lighter note...food nostalgia
« Reply #10 on: August 08, 2011, 08:40:11 AM »
I never saw that one, but I had posted earlier about the milk machine next to the Old Judge on Vreeland Ave.
There also was one by Frontier Liquor and Deli at Hudson and E Moonachie Rd. that later changed to selling cartons of orange drinks

Offline Oratam_Weaping

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Re: On a lighter note...food nostalgia
« Reply #11 on: August 08, 2011, 05:34:33 PM »

They had a chain called Dugan's "Bakers for the Home" in the NY metro area and their trucks would visit your neighborhood two or three times a week. They carried Entenmann's-quality baked goods. Milk men? Of course! We had a metal milk box and the milk man would bring us four quarts of milk every other day. (Five kids in the family.) My Mom also bought more milk during her weekly shopping trip, which sold for around 25 cents a quart.

There was a Dugan's Bakery on John Street along Railroad Avenue which ran at least two shifts that I know of in the late 50's early 60's - diminishing to one shift then slowed to be put out of business by modern bakers more equipped to handle demand and shipment. Dugan's was old fashioned and supplied local stores. I was not aware it was a chain. They did have several trucks and they were late 40's and early 50's International  step vans which fell into disrepair, as did the factory as well. They tried to focus on fresh baked goods more locally but they fell behind;  Lodi Modern Bakery as well as Entermann's and another brand put them under. The building caught fire years after it was closed. AQ new building stands in its place owned by North Jersey Community Bank and a rents to sattelite of Kessler Rehabilitation.
« Last Edit: August 08, 2011, 05:52:11 PM by Oratam_Weaping »

Offline johnny g

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Re: On a lighter note...food nostalgia
« Reply #12 on: August 21, 2011, 09:33:42 AM »
We all know and love this great place, but the sign needs some help!