Those were the days, my friend

One of your recent columns reminded me of how much fun I had growing up in New York City and the wonderful uncomplicated and inexpensive toys that my generation had. (I was born in 1932.)

I enjoyed each and every one of the games you mentioned. (I was a tomboy!). How about our roller skates, worn by attaching them to our shoes? The most popular kid on the block was the one who had a skate key so the rest of us could also adjust our skates. And how about the radio? Remember all the wonderful programs such as the Green Hornet, the Lone Ranger, the Witches Tale (that was scary) and Let’s Pretend?

Boy, did we use our imagination. We were able to visualize all the characters and action in our minds. Those were the days, my friend.

Marge E. Faig

Hillsdale

When Truman dropped the bomb…

I was born in 1925 and lived in the Bedford Park section of the Bronx until I was 44. However, I used to visit my mother’s sister and her boys in River Vale in the early 1930s with my parents. The old house is still there on Westwood Avenue and I pass by it often since I now live in nearby Harrington Park. Who would have ‘thunk it?’

As for a Moment to Remember; I was on Samar Island, across the bay from Leyte in the Philippine Islands, when Harry Truman dropped the atom bombs that ended the war. Some moments you never forget.

Miles W. Greer

Harrington Park

I started to feel my age…

I love reading your column because it brings back so many memories. This incident reminded me how old I am getting:

While watching comedian Robert Klein on TV he showed a clip of himself way back when he appeared on the Ted Mack Show. It rang a bell because I, too, had been on the show in 1948 when I lived in the Bronx.

So I looked up the show on my computer and sent an e-mail. I received a reply confirming my appearance but informing me that the show was in its infancy in those days and they didn’t have any film from that time period. It was then I started to feel my 80 years of age.

Sandy Marks

Franklin Lakes

View from the top

This happened during the construction of the George Washington Bridge where I lived in Washington Heights. During the erection of the bridge my friends and I enjoyed playing on the lumber left nearby at the base of the tower, using it as rafts.

One day I noticed an opening at a cross beam and could see a ladder inside the tower. It was at least eight feet off the ground but my two friends, Joey Canazzo and James Springer, and I agreed we were going to make the climb. Since it was pitch black inside the tower we purchased three candles and a book of matches.

We climbed and climbed… how long I do not remember but at last we saw light. Finally we reached the top, got out on a beam or platform and saw the New Jersey side. The view was something we had never seen before and it was awe-inspiring. We scratched our initials on a metal support and then started our descent.

It was a Saturday morning that I will never forget and it is as if it happened yesterday even though my friends and I were only 12 years old.

Raymond A. Grieco

Cresskill

…shot heard round the world.

In the late ’40s I worked at the New York Post on the night side and attended quite a few day games (you remember them!) at the Polo Grounds.

Half a buck got you a bleacher seat where you could yell insults at Carl Furillo whenever he took the field. But in those days the vocabulary we used could be heard by our grandmothers without them blushing.

When Bobby Thompson hit ‘the shot heard round the world’ I was in an elevator – between floors – and when the doors opened I heard the screams of joy and only a few groans of agony. I worked at an ad agency at the time and there were radios around on every one of the floors we occupied.

Edward Gormley

Harrington Park