Hackensack, NJ Community Message Boards

Ah Kiddieland!
Until I read the comments on 5 and 10 cent stores, I hadn’t thought about Kiddieland for years. It was located on the southeast side of  the intersection of Main Street and Hackensack Avenue on the border with River Edge (The streets have been “rearranged” since then and it appears on recent maps to be where the extension or Grand Ave meets Main Street) When I was 13 in the summer of 1953, a year before I could get “working papers” that allowed me to work legally, my mother learned that the owner of Kiddieland “hired” young boys to lead ponies around a pony track. Since one of her friends had a son my age working there, she told me to go up there and see “if they were hiring” rather than to “laze around the house all summer” (my older brother had been working the past two summers at Maplecrest Beach “mudhole”). Although the pay wasn’t regulated by anything like minimum wage and it was always a mystery what we would get paid (depending on the “gate”), which was never very much, I remember it as one of the most fun summers I ever had. Not only were we expected to lead little kids around a dusty track on ponies but actually take care of the ponies…feed, water, curry, exercise during the day . We got there early in the morning and stayed until closing, so it filled my summer. Since there were a band of us boys with piles of straw to wrestle in, ponies to ride and little or no supervision, it was a great experience (imagine an employer taking that risk today!). That was the summer when 3D comic books and 3D movies came out, so much of our modest income was spent on those. On rainy days we would go en mass to the movies and no one would sit near us since we smelled of horses.  The other memory seared into my brain was the seriousness the owner showed when he pointed to the image of FDR on a dime and intoned “ he was one of the greatest man to ever live”

Re: The Hackensack Library has some city directories in book format and some on microfilm.  The 1920 Directory is on microfilm (the reel contains 1912-1920). It is housed in the Periodicals Dept. which is open Mon-Thurs 9 a.m. to 8:30 p.m. and Friday and Saturday 9 a.m. to 4:30 p.m.

 Since I live in Indiana and don't often get to Hackensack, is there anyone at the library or some interested student who would be willing to look through this directory for information on the Fairmount Bottling Company? It would be much appreciated.

I just purchased a soda bottle on Ebay made by the Fairmount Bottling Company of Hackensack. According to George Scudder's essay "Fairmount - 1915", page 2 (on the Local History part of this web site), this was a company owned by O.H Krause on Voorhis Lane. Does anyone know anything about the bottling company or O.H. Krause (who was my Great Grandfather)?

(link added by Editor)

I worked at Maplecrest as a teenager in the 1950s and walked past the driving range across the street on Hackensack Avenue all the time. There used to be a creek behind the driving range where we used to go to collect golf balls...until the owner caught us and slapped each one of us in the face...and we never did it again. Mickey Mantle used to live in River Edge or New Milford and used to drive balls at that driving range. In those days baseball players lived amongst the fans!

I sent in the photos from Maplecrest but don't have any of the driving range (film was expensive!).