Update 1-25-11

Hi,

First, in the present, from Jean Cohen Oklan:  I just received this from my brother, Bern, and was wondering if you had room to include it this week.  Thank you.
    From Bern:  It’s our last performance week of Abbie at the West End Theater on 86th Street, and we're offering specially priced tickets -- $15, reduced from $38.  Here's what Andy Webster of The New York Times said about our show: "You couldn’t ask for a better meeting of subject and performer... Mr. Cohen evokes the anxiety of living as a fugitive under surveillance... Directed by Thomas Caruso, Abbie is heartfelt."
    Recent audiences have included Abbie Hoffman's wife, Johanna, Jerry Rubin's brother, Gil, eight of Abbie's friends from Brandeis, and several other former buddies of Abbie's, like Mayer Vishner, who coordinated visits between Abbie and his son when Abbie was underground.  All gave very positive feedback.     
    It’s been exciting.  The Abbie Hoffman Foundation is trying to arrange a filming of this week's matinee, and two other audience members have come forward with film offers.  So please come support our closing week, and feel free to pass this ticket offer on to your friends.
    Six performances remain:  Matinees at 2 PM, Wednesday and Saturday.  Evenings at 8 PM, Wednesday through Saturday.  SmartTix -- 212-868-4444 or https://www.smarttix.com/default.aspx.   Use code FLWEEK.  Or call Wendy at:  914-310-7620 or write her at: abbie.the.play@gmail.com

Part way in the present, and following Robert Fiveson's thoughts last week about people from Valley Stream with interesting lives, Ryki Zuckerman offers:  "Steve Buscemi, Valley Stream Central High alumnus" -- who just won a Golden Globe for Boardwalk Empire.  Also, from Central:  Les Moonves, long-time head of CBS.

And if you want to go back to that time but stay around Valley Stream, here's the start of a series of letters that arrived around Christmas.  They overlap a bit because there are several people in the conversation, but the letters are mostly in the order they arrived.
  
From Barbara Blitfield Pech:  Just to keep Eric Hilton's question going -- for a short time, there was a second Len's at the Mill Road side entrance of the shopping center, near Grand Union.  It may have closed when Alexander's was built as there was another Len's counter location in that store, possibly on the lower level at the garage entrance.
    Also, I loved the "little" library on Rockaway Avenue.  The children's library was upstairs, and it had a wooden, creaky floor.  My first library card was blue cardboard and had a metal serial number clip, with a line across the top to print my name.  If I'm not mistaken, the librarian stamped my card with a return date and tucked it in the back pocket of the book.  A bit of related Valley Stream South library trivia -- every South library book had "Valley Stream South High" stamped on page 33.
    The bakery some people are talking about was on the other side of the street past Sunrise Highway.  It was called Barenburgs, but I'm not sure how it was spelled.  It was a German bakery, and it was responsible for my first, best tasting, and life long love of linza tart cookies.  For my sixth birthday, I remember bringing a filled-to-the-top bag with 32 cookies --one for everyone in the class -- in a white bakery box tied with red and white bakery string .  The cookies looked like gleaming rubies.
    And you're right... DUH... I left Shluker's off my explanation of the area near First National.  Ben & Sol might have replaced Royal Farms.

From Valerie Nelson Gillen: It was Bambergers bakery on Rockaway Avenue.  Also, recently, I went down memory lane and drove through where I grew up in Green Acres, now Millbrook.  Oh, my god, the changes in some of the homes was unbelievable.  As I think someone previously mentioned, a home on Riverdale Road tripled in size, is now stuccoed, and has large, prancing, horse statues in the front yard.

From Judy Hartstone:  One entrance to the shopping center was at the end of Woodland Drive near my house (the main artery for the ABCD tree-named, dead-end streets: Ash, Birch, Catalpa and Damson).  If my memory is correct, near that entrance is where they built the bowling alley, a Castro Convertible Sofa store, and Grand Union supermarket; maybe there was also a bank.  Walking west across the parking lot, you came to Lane's as the first store of the shopping center -- later, I believe this became Love's.  In the mall, I remember a Sam Goody record store on the left, but this may have been a later name for a store that was bought out.  On that same side, I recall Len's, Newberry's, Baker's Shoes (where we always had our shoes dyed to match our prom dresses!), Beck's (I think) Shoes and then Gimbel's.  On the other side at that end was Cookie's, which we used to walk to after basketball games and sit downstairs, eating huge sundaes and making too much noise.  I think there may have been a Woolworth's on that side, too.  The only other store I recall was about mid-way on that side, and it sold women's clothes.  I think there was another, fancier, women's clothing store on that side, as well.  I think there was a place that sold pizza near Len's.  I'm sure there were many more stores, but that's all I can recall at the moment.  And then facing west, the movie theatre was off to the right, as were Royal Farms and Shluker's (that's the same spelling I recall), and yes, we probably got the bagels at Shluker's, but I seem to recall the guy slicing lox right off the fish.
    The stores I remember as being called the "New Stores" in the 50s and "Mill Road" in the 60s were Mollie's, then some other store or two, then a bar called Rendezvous.  Later, in the early 60s, China Jade from Hewlett opened a take-out place on the corner adjacent to Mollie's, and we used to walk there from South to get a huge eggroll (50 cents) and a bottle of Pepsi (maybe from Mollie's) and eat our lunch as we walked back to school along the creek.

From Joanne Shapiro Polner:  I remember the upstairs library on Rockaway Avenue, yes, indeed.  I hated to walk past the bar which was almost, if not,actually, next door, to get to the library door.  There was always a bad smell coming out of the bar.
    Now, about the bakery on the same side of the street, same block, perhaps.  I think it was called Barenburg's or some similar name (or different spelling).  They had the best jelly donuts.  Also, thank you, Eric, for bringing up the name of the ice cream shop, Mitchell's, and yes, I remember the other place across the street, but I can't think of its name any more.  Last time we were on the block might have been only two Octobers ago -- my class of  '59 reunion month -- but I did not register anything as we drove by.  I should have walked the blocks and tried to remember what was there in the old days, like: 
    -- the shoe store where you put your feet into the fluoroscopy box 
    -- the butcher shop where we got free baloney slices
    -- the shop where we had to buy all our blue gym suits -- and I also got to wear a white one, for I -- finally! -- was selected to be a Leader; my teaching presentation in the girls' gym was "How to bowl ten pins."  (I still bowl, but now in a smoke-free place.)  I think that these three retail places were on the east side of Rockaway Avenue, the same side as the movie theater and the other, yet-unnamed, soda shop. 
    I wonder if the Valley Stream historical society has information on past businesses.  I spoke to a research desk librarian today at the Valley Stream library, and I also left a message on the answering machine at the Valley Stream Historical Society.  I will also write to the Valley Stream library director, Mamie Eng, to inquire after material relating to retail history of the Green Acres Shopping Center as well as the retail businesses on Rockaway Avenue between Valley Stream Boulevard and Merrick Road.

[Rich -- That's terrific, Joanne.  Paul DeMartino will have to give up his super sleuth status in your favor.  And, as already mentioned, this is only the start of these letters.  There'll be more next week.  Finally, last week, the word should have been "hobnobber" not "hobnobbler."  My mistake, not Robert Fiveson's.  I'd like to blame heavy fingers on the keyboard, but it was actually limp brain.]

The South '65 e-mail addresses:  reunionclass65.blogspot.com

The South '65 photo site:  picasaweb.google.com/SouthHS65 


Rich