Hackensack, NJ Community Message Boards

I saw this on American Pickers also. Don't know the year, but 99% sure it is a high school pennant. The logo is HHS for Hackensack High School.

When I was a kid, 60s and 70s, I think they were located on Passaic, between Park and Railroad.

HHS72 is correct about the location of Lamstons. This was my first real job in 1974 as a 15 year old. Didn't have to produce any paperwork regarding my right to work, didn't have to prove I was a citizen, didn't have to show a work permit. Worked behind the luncheonette counter. Served coffee, cooked hamburgers, hot dogs, grilled cheese sandwiches. Cleaned up afterwards. Washed pots in the basement, where there  was a small kitchen where the day cook/manager prepared the daily specials and soups. Behind the counter was a 2 sided griddle press that was used to make grill cheese sandwiches. The manager always complained about how we never got it clean enough. We used to scrub that thing like crazy. I remember he went on vacation for 2 weeks and nobody cleaned it. I thought his head was going to pop off. I started working there in early November and in late December employees got Christmas bonuses. Bonuses were based on how long you worked there. I never expected to receive a bonus, but to my surprise was called up to the office and presented with a bonus check of $1.65, of which I think I got to keep $1.01 after taxes. This job prepared me for my next 2 jobs as a dishwasher, first at Wellington Hall and then at Hackensack Hospital (it wasn't a medical center yet) where I earned almost $8 per hour. A lot of money for an after school job and they would give me about 25 hours a week.

The sporting goods store referred to by Prospect Girl was Cowan's. They used to sponsor a little league baseball team.

I believe the beverage distributor was Seilheimer, or something like that.

About time somebody mentioned Breslow's. For a while I thought this site was just gonna become about the "flatlanders" in Hackensack.  Chief, you summed up Breslows best, "treasure trove". Used to ride my stingray bike there to buy baseball cards, wrestling magazines, balsa gliders and rubber band wind up planes, "pinky" Spaulding balls to play curb or stoop ball.... buy a soda at the counter and get the cone paper insert cup in the metal holder. Breslows was old school. The awning out front that cranked open, the newspaper racks out front with the bricks used as paper weights.  Used to steal the shopping carts from Shop Rite to deliver our newspapers. 

hmmm, weird, I kind of remember a Thom McAn on Main St. now that you mention it. But I seem to remember this little skinny Thom McAn store on State St. My mom would never let me where Cons or Pumas like the other kids, because I had flat feet and needed a "sturdy arch".  Where was Robert Hall, down by Mercer and Atlantic St? It's been 40 years with the last 23 living in CA, so a little rusty on my Hackensack trivia and getting fuzzy memory.

I agree, Bob provides a great service to this board. I grew up in Hackensack and moved to California 23 years ago. I check the site nearly everyday and almost always find something that triggers my memory back to my youth, stomping around the hill. Keep up the good work!!

Chief Oratam... OK, starting to come back to me now.... Helen's Hut would have been across Lodi street from the Sunoco station? about 2 short corners north of Coast Automotive? Never ate there. What about Steljie's though? Been racking my brain about that one. Was that on Main St, near the Middle School?