How intertwined the Milk business was with me.

Viewed from Summer 2018
Selling Muller Dairy was about the biggest risk I ever took. From a distance of eighteen years, it doesn't seem as great as it was back then. Back then, Muller Dairy was everything I knew and everything I was. When I was born, my Dad delivered milk.
      I started delivering milk at about five.I remember a transistor radio on the tray that served as a
desk in the Divco. When We drove slow I could hear the music. When the Truck went fast, maybe thirty-five, the static would get so bad I couldn't hear the music.
I remember waiting on a Christmas morning on my parents bed for my father to come back home. He'd gone out extra early to deliver milk to his customers. As We waited on their bed Christmas, out of site mere feet away.
      I remember my dad asking Karl and I who would go to work with him on the truck. Karl would say he'd go, then I said I wanted to go also. Then Karl said, he'd stay home, then I said I didn't want to go. It went back and forth like that for a while. I wanted to go to work with Karl and my dad. I must of been five,six.
      I remember my Mom getting sick, I don't remember what it was, maybe colitis, maybe something else. She spent time in the Hospital I remember. It was a weird time, I remember Karl and I delivering milk together with my Dad in Valley Cottage near Tolstoy foundation, alot of those houses.
    I remember an other time,waking up on a Saturday morning, it was summer and I'd slept out with Mike in the tent. My Mom calling me to get me up to go to work with my dad, me not wanting to. What I now wouldn't give now to go.
     The Years would pass and I would deliver milk. I turned sixteen and my mom got me a job at a typewriter repair shop. I still delivered milk. I got my license, I still delivered milk. I went to college at RCC, I still delivered milk. I was trapped.
       I had delivered milk all my life and in the mid-80's I taking classes, part time at Iona College. I was also in therapy and it was deep at the time. At the end of classes, I was three courses away from getting my degree and I couldn't, no, I thought there was no reason to go back, so I never did. I let Muller Dairy swallow me whole.
\     At the start of the 80's I wanted out. As the decade wore on, it became a safe place to be and when my dad died in February 1989, I was the owner. My Dad died because he smoked and he died at sixty-six. It was too early and I felt cheated and I was angry. During the next few years I was angry, sleepy and finally I was in a panic I'd loose the business. My Mom had sunk $40,000.00 into the business, I owed Hood Dairies $109,000.00 on weekly business of about $2,500.00 or so a week. I had killed the business. I had lose a few stops over my anger, I had not grown the business (Business, like relationships and sharks must always be moving forward and I think we have a died shark on our hands,- Anne Hall sorta) I had panicked over prices, cutting them thinking I'd lose a lifetime customer. I don't know what changed, but one day I decided to try and fix it. I got some stops back, I settled on a profit margin of about 22% and with an Angel looking over my shoulder I got a call from Mary Ann Connolly, who ran Meals on Wheels. She was impressed with my service and helped me get several Nursing Homes, I went into Nyack Manor, got them and suddenly I was doing $6,000.00 a week and life was good.
     I started this piece because I went to The Crystal Spoon the other day and there was a dumpster full of stuff the place was throwing out. I look in to see what is in there and I see several milk cases in there. Like any good milk man I was a little enraged. People are always taking these cases, causing the cost of milk to rise and when they are done with them they throw them out instead of returning them.So I dug them out, stacked them for the milk company.













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Odd Thoughts about growing up.

 Mr. Segerist, a neighbor was a TV repair men. I remember him coming over to the house to fix the TV and to help us get a better picture he would sometimes stick a wire hanger in the rabbit ears. Yeah, You want to know what rabbit ears are, and maybe even what a TV is? I'll answer the first one, because in 2018 when I am writing this rabbit ears are a relic of the distant pass, TV's not yet.
     Old time TV programs were beamed over the air from antennas on top of the Empire State building, later the first World Trade Center, both being the highest points from where the signal came from. To receive the signal you needed an antenna. Our original one on our black and white TV was put on the ceiling of the sun porch (now the front part of my Mom's bedroom) It had two positions you could put it. A slightly north/ south position and a slightly east/ west position. It had a clicker in the middle of the antenna that changed something sometimes making the picture better. If that didn't work, you switched the position of the antenna on the ceiling.
The first TV I remember was a black and white set with the channel selector on the side. The Selector had a dial around the outer edge of the selector, which was supposed to help make the picture better. It was used to fine tune the picture. Now a selector would turn the channels from one to the next. The stations we had were WCBS, channel 2, WNBC channel 4, WNEW channel 5, WABC channel 7, WOR channel 9,WPIX channel 11 and WNET channel 13. Channel 2, 4 and 7 aired original programs that started the week after Labor day in September and ran uninterrupted until the first week or two of June. No repeats, if you missed a show, you would never get the chance to see it, well you might get to see it after it had gone off the air and would be aired years later on channel 5, 9 or 11. Channel 9 used the saying, 'the best of all seasons' in the early 70's.
    The Yankees were on channel 11 in the sixties and seventies. They aired several dozen games a year. Same for the Mets who aired on channel 9. One Year, channel 11 aired a news program they were very proud of  that ended at 8 PM.The Yankees decided to switch starting time of the games from 8 pm to 7:30. WPIX threatened to join the games in progress. Everyone was how dare they, after a few weeks of threats by each side, they backed down.

 

Who lived on my block in West Nyack in the 60's- 70's

There was a Comedian on You Tube who talked about how Italians used to be ready for company when they came over by having an Entamans cake and all the other things that he felt were funny now. When I was a little kid their was a rhythm to life.
    As a little kid, I would go over to my friend Mikes house and knock on the front door like I was taught. Someone would answer and I would go in. There came a time when I would knock or ring the door bell. Mike's grandmother would answer and she would say, "Don't ring the bell, there is a new baby in the house." It took a while but I got into the habit of knocking instead of ringing the bell. As I got older I was told, "Don't ring the bell or knock, just come in." It took me the longest time to get to that point to do that. I was always told to knock on the door, never try to open the door.
     My Aunt Elsie and Uncle Ken got me to come to their back door, because no one would hear me at the front door. I understood that, but it took me years to get comfortable doing that.
     As a young kid I never understood why I called everyone Aunt or Uncle, they weren't related to me.
     Everyone in the Neighborhood had been living beside each other for years. At the top of Klein Ave. and what was then called Old Route 59 (West Nyack Road) were the Natales, their house set well off the road and behind their strip mall. they had lived there for as long as I remember.
     I was told by my mother, in the fifties, before the strip mall, the house had been closer to Old Route 59 and there was a big tree just off the corner of Klein Ave. That stump would stick out of the tar on Klein Ave. for years. I remember it being there as late as the early 90's.   
     Across the street from the Natales, lay an old house that in the 60's looked old, abandoned and unloved. In the late 60's a guy named Scott bought the place and turned it into a funeral home. For the longest time it was the big news on the block. Some time in the 70's as the rumor went Mr. Scott bought a gun out of his house when there was some problem or other in front of his house/ business. A few months later the Score's bought the Funeral Parlor.
     On the same side after the Funeral Parlor was Mr. Nelsons house. He was a tour guide in the City. I would go over his house and I would use his stamp pad to stamp fliers with his phone number so people could use him for tours. One time he took my mom, myself, Karl and maybe Ruth into the city for an adventure. We rode the tour bus and stopped at an early version of an Arcade. We were not allowed to play any of the games. That was the mid-sixties. Mr Nelson moved to New City sometime around the early seventies and everyone lost touch with them.
     Next to Mr. Nelson were the Seagrests. Mr. Seagrest was a TV repair men. I remember him coming over to the house to fix the TV. His Shop was in Nyack on Main Street, just east of Franklin Street. Gus and his Wife, Lee had two children, Gussy and Gege. They were the oldest kids on the block along with Nickie Lafascano and Tommy Martins older brother on West Street.
     The Seagrests loved to party and boy they did. They had a pool in their back yard I swam in it in the mid-sixties. Across the street from the Seagrests was the swamp. When  the Seagrests redid their house all the wall board went into the swamp. Someone, most likely Gussy had painted two bases on the street in front of his house, first and third. Either home plate and second were unimportant or they wore away from traffic. Either way whenever we wanted to play baseball on the street, a relatively safe past time then we had to find some thing to use for home and second. Someone discovered that the old wall board, that We called chalk board, I think you can see where this is going, was prefect to draw home and second on the road. The chalk was great for just drawing on the road. One time I remember drawing space ships on the road. They were about six feet long and I remember drawing a seat, a place for ray guns and so forth. The best thing about this 'chalk' or maybe the worst was after a rain, it was all gone from the street. And the 'chalk' was unusable if it was wet.
     Next to the Seagrests were the Marsicos. Of any house on the street, this one was the fullest. Kay and Joe Marsico had five children, Terry, Ronnie, Steven, Micheal and Kevin. On top of that, Kay's mother, Mrs. Quinn lived there and Kay's brother Tommy, who was also an alcoholic. Joe worked for the Journal News when it was the Nyack Journal and Kay worked for the local school district. I would spend most of my childhood over there.
     Across the Street from the Marsicos lived my Aunt Elsie and Uncle Ken. My Grandfather owned the land where he built his house.A large Shed was built on the property where he lived after losing the house next to it in the depression. My Aunt and Uncle had three children,Harriett, Kenny and Billy. My Dad and Uncle were so close that they never let anything come between them. Not even the time their wives were not talking to each other. Or the naming of their milk companies. They were as close as two brothers could be.
     And of course, next to Uncle Ken was where I lived. My Grandfather lost the house in the depression. In the fifties, after my Dad got married he heard that the house was up for sale by the owners, the Demarests. He paid $9,000.00 for the house. In 1979 I paid over $10,000.00 for my first car. The House at that time consisted of the sun porch, a living room, a master bedroom, with access to the bathroom, a dining room and a small kitchen. My Grandfather, Joseph with the help of  two of his sons Bill and Ken added on two back rooms and made the kitchen bigger. I am told that if you go down the cellar stairs, the cabinet/ access to the crawl space split door, that was the old back door to the back yard. Later the Bathroom door would be moved, the bathroom would be done over several times until it was done right, then the Kitchen would be down over in the seventies and the new living room added on with the sun porch and the two forward bedrooms being reconfigured around 1973.
     Across the Street next to the Marsico's house was an empty lot that Joe Marsico's brother Junnie was supposed to build his house on like Joe did on his lot. Junnie just never got around to it and for many years it was one of the places everyone played baseball and pine trees grew that were planted to be harvested for Christmas trees, that never were.
     Next to the empty lot, across from my house and a little north lived the Watkins. As a little kid, I'd go over to their house and have fun, Mr Watkins taught me either to start reading or how to add, something like that. In the middle sixties theu moved away. Years later they would come to visit and I would be amazed that they were black. After they moved, the Harrins moved in. They were a young profession couple that worked at Lamont-Doherty Labs.They stayed in the house for maybe half a dozen years. I remember one day Mrs. Harrin bringing over a loaf of freshly baked bread forus. That Bread had a short life span in that house.
    When the Harrins moved to Upper Nyack, they gave us a big heavy duty desk made of a light color hard wood. It stayed in the Sun porch for a few years and then for some reason my mom cuts it up and I end up with the drawers section in my room. I had it for many years finally getting rid of it in the late 1970- early 80's. After the Harrins left, the Grosmuches bought the house. Mrs. Grosmuch was from Germany. They had one daughter and lived in the house until the late 80's selling to the Kelly's who have lived there since.
    Down the Street lived the Perones. Vinnie and his wife had two kids. Joe the youngest was Karl's age and they became fast friends. The Family moved into the house when it was built in the late 60's and Vinnie worked on the Tappan Zee Bridge. They sold the house in the 90's I think and it has been sold several times since and I don't know to who.
     Across the Street from the Perones, next to our house, in the early 60's was an empty lot that my Parents didn't own. A Builder wanted to come in an either build a house on it or move one to the lot. There was a second lot, just north of it that was also up for sale. Now the story gets a little foggy at this point. I believe the builder got so much grief from the people on the street that he offered the lot closest to our house to my Dad, who bought it. And the Builder then bought a house in to put on the second lot.
 

















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Stores in and around West Nyack

Before I was born, Spring Valley and Nyack were the dual hubs of commerce in the county. The original Nanuet Mall was built in 1969 and helped to remake the commercial landscape of Rockland. Moving the majority of retailing from those two locations and causing a long decline in both places. Spring Valley has yet to recover.
     In the 1960's none of that mattered in my world. My existence centered around a few streets in west Nyack and the stores there.

First back door on left used to lead to Natale's Luncheonette

     The closest and the first one I remember was Natale's' Luncheonette. At the corner of then Old Route 59 (West Nyack Rd) and Klein Ave. The Natale family owned the property for many years. The House behind the strip mall was where Freddie and his family lived. Between the house and Klein Ave was there lawn and a hedge that blocked it from the road.
     I remember walking up Klein Ave turning the corner to go toward the Clarksville Corners and looking in the windows and seeing new bottles of soda in the large windows. A clean open Luncheonette. A Counter to the right with stools to sit on and booths and tables to the left for families. I remember going in there for lunch, sitting at the counter and swinging back and forth on the stools. I also remember talking to Judy and Maria Natale and liking them, you know..... I was just too young to understand.
     It was a great time. When We wanted to go up to the Luncheonette, we would enter through the back door, it felt special. It was special, no one but the local kids could go in the back door, pass the phone booth and the kitchen and enter the Luncheonette.

Between the car and the cone was the stump.

It all changed in the mid sixties when a new owner took over. The Name Don Len comes to mind, but I think that is wrong. My Mom said it was bought by two guys and they knew a lot of people and they started to cater to a different crowd.....Hippies! That lasted until the early 70's when a family took it over for a number of years. I think they were there until 1980 or so.
     Next to the Luncheonette in the early 60's was King's Laundry. Mr. King was about 5' 8" , Next to his wife he seemed small. She was a very large women who never seemed to stand, She would sit on a stool and take care of business from
there.
   Next to Kings Dry Cleaner was the Typewriter Repair place, I don't remember it's real name, but it was run by Mr. O'Brien. This was the first job I had outside of Muller Dairy. I was sixteen and I didn't understand that I couldn't stand around like other employees and BS. I was a kid and expected to work. It was the beginning of copy machines becoming a standard part the landscape. It was the precursor to everyone having a printer/copy machine in their homes. Before that if You wanted to make a copy you had to go to a store that had a machine and pay anywhere from a nickel to a quarter per copy.  In the backroom was the guy who ran the shop and another guy who kind of just let life go on bye. Both names are gone to history. The second guy was laid back and a former hippie I guess. When I said I wanted to join the military and fly planes, he gave me a look and asked me why I wanted to go and do something like that. It was 1974 and the war had just ended a few years earlier. Sometime after I left the shop it closed up supposedly Mr. O'Brien got involved with some shady characters and went into witness protection.
     After the Typewriter store was Richie Printer's store. The Store had something to do with building plans and printing. He was an odd sort of character, but he fit in well in the West Nyack of the 60's and 70's. He was friends with most of the kids who walked by his store. Now You would question that. Back then it was normal and you were safe. You walked into his 'shop' into a small front area. A wall with a service window set up in it blocked off the back three quarters of the shop. When he was in he'd be sitting at the window or working in the back. He was heavy set with dark hair and I think a beard. He reminded me of someone who would have been called a beatnik in the fifties. He drove a car from the fifties and it always seemed to be parked out back.
         Mike and I were walking by his shop one evening and a few other people we knew were in there. So We went in and they had a bottle of alcohol, I don't remember what it was, but it was being passed around. Mike and I were young and stupid and wanted to show we were cool, so when the bottle came to us Mike takes a girlie sip and people make fun of him. I never like being made fun of so when the bottle came to me I tilted the bottle up high so it looked like I was taking a gulp and just let a little into my mouth, it still burned the whole way down. Richie, behind his counter went, "yeah, now that's the way to drink it." or words to that effect. That was Richie. I was never a 'real' friend of his, but I'd say hi when I saw him and we'd talk at the deli when I met him there. He'd drive his fifty something black and white even then classic car over to Ken Lemm's Deli at the corner of Western Hwy and West Nyack Road. He'd come in for his carton of Marlboro cigarettes that back then a $10. bill to care of.

Every time you'd go down Klein Ave past the  Natale's building, Richie's car would always be there around back. I never thought it would change until one day it did and he was gone. The Story about how he died is from Kevin, Mike's brother, who may or may not have embellished it. Richie had not been seen around lately and the building owners, The Natales, I don't know if Freddie was still alive, but one of them went in to check on him and found he'd had a heart attack and had been dead for a while. Kevin's addition to it was Richie's cats had eaten part of him to stay alive.
        The rest of the shops after Richie's, I don't remember. At times there was a day old bread store, a card store, a hairdresser, never a barber. And the West Nyack Liquor store was there for a few years. I think that is the location where I purchased my first bottle of Alcohol. I don't know if I was legal then yet either. Back then legal was eighteen, not twenty-one.
       Years later the Liquor store was closing up. It was a few years before my sister's husband Doug died. The Owner was selling the business for the cost of the stock. Doug wanted to buy it and he asked me to join in. I thought Liquor Stores were dying out and I didn't want to join in, so it closed, now there is a Pizza Parlor there. Before I move on to Bill Vines, I can't leave the Natale building without talking about Freddie Natale. The Natale family owned the property at the corner of West Nyack Rd and Klein Avenue back when West Nyack Road was called Route 59, I have heard. Freddie and his brothers lived in the house  when it was closer to Route 59 and had it moved back to build the strip mall. Again rumor has it that they build the strip mall themselves.
     During the early sixties Freddie had a shoe store in their walk out cellar of the house. I remember going to his house, with my mom and Karl to get shoes or sneakers. The big Sneaker back then were Keds, because they made you run faster and jump higher. They had the action insole. Yeah, advertising standards were a little looser back then. The Government did stop them from saying that eventually. You could even get shoes repaired at Freddie's shop. Eventually He would move his shoe business out of the house and into the center store of the mall. He would put a chair in the window of the store and he had a sign on it saying something like, 'Believe it or not this chair is over 150 years old. I think, if I remember correctly it was a chair connected with shoe repair or something like that. Every few years one of us wise ass kids would come into the store and ask him if he was ever going to change the sign, "The Chair's got to be over 160's old by now."  Freddie's shop would be strictly shoe repair remaining there even years after his death. Up until his wife sold the mall around 2017-18.
     The Pizza Parlor called 'Pizzarena' that takes up the final two stores of the Natale Building as of 2018, was originally next to the Natale's building, but more on that in a moment. Not too many more memorable stores were ever there. When I opened my Video Store in the mid 80's I briefly thought about going to the Natale building. There were two problems, the first an other video store was there, in where the Pizzarena is now and the store fronts were all full.
      Next to the Natale Building was Bill Vines' buildings. He had two storefronts and his office. His Office was a home that he moved when the Thruway came in or when Route 59 was widened. I don't remember. The real story here was his two store fronts. In the early seventies when it rained hard a lake would form in front of his office and the two store fronts would get flooded. Originally the rain would have flowed into the West Nyack portion of the Greenburg Swamp, but people in the 1960's and 70's thought swamp land was a just a great place to throw junk. In the early 70's the site of the present Post Office was built on a section of the swamp filled in. The Post Office was built right next to Mr. Piper's property. More on Mr. Piper later. In back of Bill's Office was Muller Dairy, we were always dry. That spot on West Nyack road was just a low spot formed when Bill filled in the swamp behind his offices to build houses on Phillips lane. The Mysterious part comes that one night his store fronts burn and everything is lost inside. And guess what, he rebuilds and raises the height of the property. He also goes over the property line and builds onto the Natale's property. I don't think it was much, maybe a few feet at most, but like the store fronts burning, OK, You win, I'll spell out what I'm hinting at in a clumsy manner. It was rumored, just by kids mind you, but it seemed a little convenient that the store fronts would burn and Bill could build them higher avoiding the floods. And building on Natale's property, he figured, well, hell why not, their not using it. I think he was a little surprised when Freddie Natale took exception to it. I think there was some sort of financial compensation given to Freddie Natale.
     The Stores occupying Bill's store fronts were a hair dress and a barber/ stylist. The Barber shop I went to that I first remember was in there. It was on the right side of the building.The Barber Shop was convenient to go to and as a kid my mom could walk Karl and I over there to get our hair cut. I never liked getting my hair cut, the kids at school would always tease me, why you ask? because I  reacted to their teasing. On the left was a Coffee Shop, I think, but I rarely ever went there. I went in there once and bought a candy, started walking home and opened the candy only to discover that the chocolate was so old that it had started to turn a cream color. I threw it away and didn't go back. By the early 1970's both businesses would be closed. A Pizza Parlor would open in the left store around 1973-4. Before it opened I went in and asked for a job. I was so scared I could hardly get the words out of my mouth. I considered it a victory that I even asked. Then I considered it a defeat that I was so scared. I didn't like myself much back then. Next to the Pizza Parlor opened a hair stylist. You couldn't call him a barber. I went in there once in the mid-80's to get a haircut. I was a conservative guy and didn't go in for stylish trends (There's a blog  entry about my fashion style) He convinced me to get what was called a tail then. It was when the back of the hair is left long. I think I was sorry the moment I said yes. My Sister was getting married and in the pictures you can see the stupid haircut. I cringe more every year when I look at the pictures.
     After Bill's Office there was not much until you got to the Clarksville Corners and the Clarksville Inn. The only thing in that stretch was Mr. Piper. Poor old Mr. Piper. As Kids you don't realize everything that you should and don't appreciate everything that you have. And Mr. Piper and his poor wife didn't mean anything to us, he was just there. It never hit us how poor he was or that his and his wife's life were a struggle. The building he occupied was once an Ice Cream parlor. I don't know when he took it over or if he ran the Ice Cream Parlor at anytime. During my life time Mr. Piper was a failed second hand store proprietor.

Everything outside the house/ Ice Cream store was rusted and worthless. His Car, an old Ford Bronco was forever parked beside the building on the left side, his wife forever on the passenger side of the of the vehicle. Occasionally coming home from school as I passed by he would ask me to go up to the Hi-Health Convenience store and buy him a quart of milk. He'd hand me a crinkled dirty old dollar bill and reluctantly I'd go. Why reluctantly, well I'd just come that way and I'd have to double back, but He was an Adult and back then if an Adult asked you to do something, you did. When I got back He took the quart of milk and might have said thank you, I don't remember, but I was not happy he didn't give me some money for doing him the favor. The next Day I walked home on the opposite side of the road so he couldn't ask me again. Poor Mr. Piper most likely didn't have any money that was why he didn't give me a tip. I was young and didn't see that. Or maybe he was just cheap. One Day, just like Richie Printer Mr. Piper was gone. Mr. Piper had died. His Place bulldozed into the swamp, bought by Bill Vines. I went looking for traces of his existence in 2017. I walked back beyond the trees that had grown up to the sidewalk, past the tall grass and into the past. It wasn't much of a past. I found half buried bits of unidentifiable metal, a fender to a car, maybe it would now be considered a classic. Skeletons of once useful household items memories of Mr. Piper flooding my mind. Memories of the past filling in blanks in my mind as I stepped around trees to young to know who Mr. Piper was, There was no one to ask how Mr. Piper had come to such a state and why did no one seem to care. The Times back then were different, People were still kind, but it was a live and let live time too. I never understood about Mr. Piper. The Remains of his second hand store had outlived him and even Bill Vines the next owner of the property.   
    The Clarksville Corners were considered far away when I was a kid. Only when I got older and wanted a change did I go to there. Usually I always went up the Mohawk trail, onto Benson Ave and went to Perino's Grocery. Now You ask with arched eyebrows and an awakened interest, The Mohawk Trail?? Yes the infamous Mohawk Trail. Across Klein Avenue from the Natale building, was an old home. In the 1960's an old woman lived in it, I think. My memory says she didn't like kids walking on her property, or that may have been kid mythology. It didn't matter the Mohawk Trail or what I figured was all that was left of it ran up the edge of her property toward Benson Avenue between two houses on Benson giving kids a perceived shortcut to Perino's Grocery and McGrath's Market. I'd walk down Klein Avenue toward old Route 59, make the left after Mr. Nelson's house and start up the well worn path. Going to the edge of the property there were a couple of rocks that served as steps as the property rose to meet Benson Ave. When You got to Benson, you'd go toward old Route 59 again passing that old garage and house on the left. I would find out in later years that was where my Uncle Ken, as a kid used to go to work in the early mornings, causing him to fall asleep in school and drop out at sixteen. I think it was a dairy that delivered milk to homes. In the sixties several strange characters would live there. The Kones, then the Bogart's. The Kones by far were the strangest. More about them in characters of West Nyack. A left onto old Route 59 and a short walk on the stone wall, because as a kid who could resist walking on a stone wall.
       If You were riding a bike the Mohawk Trail was not practical. You'd go to the corner of Klein Ave, turn left and ride on the well worn dirt and rock path that somewhere along the way turned to sidewalk. Or maybe it didn't, I don't remember. Either way once at Perino's Grocery, you'd drop your bike on the ground somewhere a grown up would not complain about or maybe right in front of the steps into the store. It was an unwritten rule to never bring anything you bought somewhere else into Perino's because he'd throw you out. It is so ingrained in me that I have told my daughters to leave purchases outside stores.
       Perino's Market was the first place I ever saw a price for an Italian Hero. I never bought one because when I was younger, it was filled with all the things I didn't like. The Price, 89 cents. Walking in the door there were two aisles going toward the back. On the left side of the building, a counter, and a deli box. The Deli box was white with a glass front. It would stay in the store at least until the 1990's. It may still be there, I haven't been in there since I quit delivering milk to the store.
       The Perino's ran the Deli until the early 70's when a guy named Ken Lem took it over. The Perino's just disappeared like everyone else. One day they were there, then gone. No one missed them, they were mean.
       Ken Lem had the deli open from six in the morning until eight or so at night, seven days a week. For the first few years he ran it on his own. Sometime around 1975, my friend, Mike was getting into trouble at school and was asked to leave. He was told if he went to summer school that year he'd graduate. In the meantime he was not welcome at Albertus Magnus High School. He was known to Ken Lem and was asked if he wanted to work at the deli. Mike would work for Ken for the next several years doing lunch time rush and weekends until sometime near graduating from College.
       Ken sold the deli to his brother in law sometime in the eighties. Ken bought what looked like a sold investment, a card store called 'The Scoop' on Western Highway down near the Blauvelt Fire Department. The Scoop had been around for years. Ken didn't do anything wrong in running it as far as I knew. It was just a time where everything sold at the Scoop would start to be sold everywhere. I don't know if Ken sold the Scoop or closed it some time in the 90's. Ken died at a young age. I don't know how old, I just remember he had young kids when he died. Ken worked hard all his life and it seemed he never had time to do anything else.
       Tony, Ken's brother in law took over the deli in the eighties and everyone predicted he'd run the thing into the ground. He was an outrageous crazy guy. He was funny and strange. He did bird whistles, called Tommy Quinn, Mike's uncle crinkle nose because, well, it was crinkly. He was a fun lively guy who became a friend. I delivered milk to his deli, where Ken never let me. I delivered the deli until I sold the business and even then I was the salesman for the stop. I had milk in the store through the next two owners. It would close sometime in the 2000's for a renovation. I think that was when I lost it. Sometime around 2017 it closed. It reopened several months later as a spanish deli, like most deli's seem to be these days.
      McGrath's Market located in the left side of a building near the railroad tracks. In the distant past it was a hotel for summer folkes. In the Sixties, the Fischers owned the building and McGrath's Market was on the left side.
     The Steps to go to McGrath's Market are still the same steps in my mind, old wooden and they flex when you step on them. In real life they were changed to cement many years ago.
        I remember as a little kid being asked by my mother to go to McGrath's to get a pound of ground chuck. In the early sixties ground chuck was less than a dollar or something like a dollar-twenty-nine a pound. She would send one of us to McGrath's to buy ground chuck. We were told not to buy just ground beef, but to buy ground chuck, it was a better cut of meat. It was also more expensive. There must have been something wrong with the ground beef if my mom said not to buy it. So I never did. At least until all the Butcher Shops around town closed up.Remember, this was the 60's and we didn't have a car yet. My Mom would give me a few dollars and I'd head up Klein, I'd make the left onto the Mohawk Trail skirting along the edge of the corner houses property on the right and Mr Nelson's house on the left. Up between the backyards of two houses and onto Benson Ave. The House at the corner of Benson Ave and Old Route 59  had a stone wall in front, I'd walk it most times. If not I'd walk the well worn path between rocks and clumps of grass that filled the space between the rock wall and the road. Past Perino's, past the Plastic Craft and after that long walk up the wooden stairs into McGrath's Market. The Door opened to the left against the wooden rail of the steps. Once inside the door a small counter was on the left against the front window. A few aisles of groceries faced you going back toward the meat counter. You'd walk back and Mr. McGrath would pop up from somewhere. Usually, from behind the meat counter. A big burly guy and He'd ask, "What'ja want?" I'd reply, "a pound of Ground Chuck". He'd go to the display case to get the ground chuck, sometimes he'd have to grind the meat up and he'd walk into the meat cooler. You'd hear the rhythmic clanking of the meat grinder. It would alway be mysterious to me. I'd hear it being done, but I'd never get to see. It was like a masonic ritual, something that only members of a guild or fraternity could experience. It wasn't until years later I'd get to see the meat ground. The mystical clanking sound of my youth was gone, missing. It was quiet and not very exciting seeing it. All the mystery was dead.
      The opposite direction from Perino's and McGrath's, past The Natale Building, past Piper's was the Clarksville Corner. In the 60's at the Clarksville Inn was a restaurant I never went in until I was in my thirties. I bought a girl there for what I hoped was a low key lunch. It was not a low key place then. It was an upscale restaurant.
       Above the Clarksville Inn were offices. Doctor Rosen, my first doctor had his offices there until the early 70's when he bought a house up the street toward the elementary school and moved his office there. His new office seemed like something out of a nineteen fifties summer beach house with the way he had it fixed up. I remember a sign as I went in to his new offices saying that the cost of a visit was thirty-five dollars. I thought very expensive then. Of Doctor Rosen's original  office I have few memories. There was a hall you went in when you entered from the parking lot. He had several small rooms that were cold. Walking from the parking lot you'd walk past the stairs that lead down into the Clarksville Inn. It always seemed to be a fancy restaurant. For a short while in the 2010's a restaurant/ bar opened in the Clarksville Inn. I went there a few times. All the mystery and glamour of the Clarksville Inn was gone after that.
     Across Strawtown Road from the Clarksville Inn was an empty lot. That was were a Miller's milk machine always was. You could go there at anytime of the day or night and get a quart or half gallon of milk. Remember this was when there were few supermarkets and nothing or very few stores stayed open after six or so, maybe eight at the latest.
     Next to the milk machine was the gas station. In the sixties it was A&B Texaco. The sideway was not there and they had gas pumps. I would go there when I first started to drive to get my gas, back when gas in the late seventies was around seventy-five cents a gallon, outrageous, I felt. How could you charge that much for gas. I remember pumping gas for my dad at Miller's and the price was twenty-five cents. That was in the sixties, early sixties.
     Across Old Route 59 are the Clarksville Corners. I've been told before it was built Manley Chevrolet was there. Sometime in the late fifties Manley moved to Central Nyack. Some time in the 1990's they went out of business.In the Clarksville Corners is the location of my first bank, the Pharmacy, the High Health and a Chinese Restaurant.
      The Bank was on the corner of the building. The Drive thru allowed you to do your banking without getting out of the car. The only problem when you left you were on the wrong side of the road and it was always, do you stay on that side or cross over to the correct side. I had my first christmas club there. You'd deposit a set amount every year for fifty weeks and at the end of that time they set you a check to do your christmas shopping. It was a great invention. One year I got really brave and did twenty dollars a week. It was a lot of money in the early 80's. I managed to finish it somehow and boy was it a great christmas that year. I even bought myself a present. I think that was the year I bought myself a shotgun. As the years passed Christmas clubs to be more inclusive became holiday clubs and eventually they were stopped altogether. The interest you received was minimal. The good thing about them was they gave you a target for savings.
      When I was a kid in Elementary School I had some money to deposit. School got out at two and I walked home with Ruth and maybe Eric. I wanted to deposit the money in the bank so We stopped at the bank. I only knew how to make a deposit at the walk up window outside, so for forty minutes We waited outside that window for it to open at three O'Clock to make the deposit. I did see people walking in and out of the bank door a few feet away. I don't remember why I didn't investigate. I was a little single minded I guess. 
      The Pharmacy was run by a guy named Leon Marshall. It has been so many years since he owned it I had to ask a friend his name. He was a huge man who because of his weight had trouble moving around. He'd spend most of his time behind the counter. His Store was the place you went to buy comics, placed just to the left as you entered the store. I was always buying Superman, Batman, Sad Sack. I was a big fan of DC Comics and looked down on Marvel as a second rate comic book. I don't know why. Now with Marvel being a huge asset for the Disney company and DC an also ran, I have to wonder even more why Marvel turned me off so.
      To my shame, I must admit the Pharmacy was the first place I shoplifted something. It was 1968 or so and in the soft cover book rack was a copy of the Guiness book of World Records. I don't remember how much it cost, or if I had the money to buy it. What I do remember was just taking it without thinking, put it in my jacket and walk out. My friend, Mike was with me and when we got outside he said I looked very guilty walking out of the store. I did other shoplifting. I never got caught. I never put together the fact that what I took was someone else's property until later. Maybe that was why I stopped. I don't know.
     A couple of doors down was the High Health. It was never a store I went into much until I got older. Then when I was around fourteen or so Mike and I would walk down to it, at night and buy a twelve pack of donuts, consisting of four chocolate, four white powder and four cinnamon donuts. With that we'd each buy a soda. As We'd walk home we'd eat the donuts and drink the soda.
       Down Sickletown road, south of the Clarksville Corners, at now where a traffic light is, on the right side of the road, at the corner was Doctor Hague's office., our dentist. In the early sixties, usually in the fall or spring, it seemed, our mother would tell us we had a dentist appointment. So after school instead of walking straight at the corner, we'd have to take the dreaded right hand turn and head to the dentist. You'd go in, I rarely remember my mom being there, I could be wrong. What I vividly remember was Doctor Hague never used novocaine, nothing, nothing to kill the pain. Remember this was the early sixties and Nazis's had escaped Europe after the war. He may have been one of them or maybe worse he was a camp survivor and my last name was german, maybe he wanted revenge for the war. Whatever the reason (and hey don't go all holocaust on me either. in 2019 everyone has become so thin skinned that they are looking for a reason to take offence at anything. Hopefully the future is more tolerant. Yes I used tolerant because that is the word used in 2019 that seems to give everyone the right to get pissed off at everyone that might say something that they can interpret as intolerant) it was like a visit to a torture chamber everytime I went. The big scary drill was the one that hug over the chair. Quietly, like an animal of prey it would wait for it's next unsuspecting victim, quiet and still never moving until the hand of it master rose to bring it to life. It was run on woven metal fan belts and had a high pitch whine to it to mask the muffled cries of pain from all the little children who were tortured there. I'm not saying Doctor Hague was a monster, no he might have not been. What I'm saying is it was a torture chamber that scared many a young child. I never met the doctor other then when I was in his chair. He was alway nice and to the point. Open, please, open wider. That was the extent of our conversation. I hold no ill will toward the man, it was just the state of the profession at the time I guess, I hope it wasn't that he didn't believe in pain killers, like all future dentists gave me. It's just he never used them. I went to Dr Hague until the early 70's when We switched to a doctor in the Clarksville Corners building. And it was like night and day. He used novocaine, gave you nitrous oxide , laughing gas, it was great. I can't say I loved going to the dentist then, but I didn't dread it any longer. I don't remember the first time I got nitrous oxide, but all the times were the same. The Doctor would come in say hello and arrange his tools for the procedure while his assistant would get the gas going. They put a little mask over your nose with a hose running through it and they'd then turn on the gas and leave. A later Dental group. Levine and Nyad in Central Nyack would even give you a choice of music and a set of headphones. The effects of the gas were the same every time. Left alone in the quiet of the exam room breathing deeply into and out of the mask I'd find yourself starting to relax. Muscles I hadn't known were tensed would now start to relax and I would find myself melting into the chair I was in. The difference between before the gas and after it started to take effect would be like you were a board six foot long placed on the chair. After the gas had begun to take effect you were a six foot piece of cooked, soft macaroni all nice and relaxed. The Dentist would come in and ask I how you felt. I'd give a thumbs up or at least a muffled "doin good."
He'd ask me to open wide and go about his business. Some Dentists wore glasses and I could watch what they were doing in them, but as the gas took more effect I didn't really care. Along about this time I'd start to become more aware of my body and my heart beating then what he was doing. I'd get the feeling I was starting to float up out of the chair and head towards the ceiling. I didn't move a muscle, I was there just for the ride. Just short of the ceiling, it felt, I hear my heart start to beat louder, maybe even to start to pound. When I was younger, it didn't bother me. I was just along for the ride. In later years I did start to have a small bit of a panic attack. But when I was in my twenties, this was the way to fly. About three quarters of the way through the procedure they'd turn down or off the gas. You felt it immediately. The perception of floating would quickly start to disappear. Clean fresh air being pumped into your lungs. By the time you got out of the chair you were back on terra firma mostly and ready to take another trip. You want me to pay for this session, sure how much? You want double because it was well worth it! I changed dentists in my fifties and don't go to them much any more, all my teeth are filled.I don't know if they still use gas, shame if they don't. great trip.
      Up past the West Nyack Elementary school where Demarest Ave. and Old Route 59 came together was Lenny Roth's store. Now a days there are senior citizens housing across the road and condos on the other side. Back in the sixties the senior housing were open fields and a little house sat on the rise just past where Lenny's store was. When he opened the store that intersection must have been a gold mine. He had a gas pump at the very northern tip of his property. It never worked that I knew of the few times I went to his store. The first time I went I was visiting a friend, Ricky Boyer who lived in  the first house after where Crossfield Ave is now. Him and I went to Lenny Roth's store and bought something called dots. They were just dots of colored and flavored sugar put on a roll of paper. I think you might have been able to tell him how many you wanted. The first time I bought them I thought they were so awesome I went back alone a few days later to buy more. The Few times I went to his store in retrospect it was obvious it was well past its prime. The Property now a days never seems to keep anything in it for long. It has no parking and it's history, mostly forgotten to everyone is gone. The gas pump is also long gone. I think road widening have covered where the pump was right at the tip of Demarest and West Nyack rd.
       After Lenny Roth's store, if you keep going up the road away from the school toward Nanuet on the left side of the road as you come up on your right was St. Regis Paper company. It was a fixture in the community from the time I was little. The Original Office was far off the road. The Building near the road was built by them just a few short years before they were bought out by another company and then closed.
      In the 1970's a large wooded lot on Route 59 in Nanuet was bulldozed and Caldor shopping center was built. Caldor's was a store you could get almost anything at it seemed. They didn't keep up with the time and went out of business in the 2010's I think.
     One of the most memorable stores I know was E.J. Korvettes. It was just west of the Route 304 and Route 59 cloverleaf. It was built in the 1950's. Supposedly E. J. Korvettes stood for Eleven Jewish Korean Veterans. EJ Korvettes was the original store where you could buy anything. At one point they had a grocery store called Hills Korvettes on the eastern corner of the center. Korvettes took up the entire building on the south side of the shopping center. On the western side, there were stores, but none ever seemed to stay for very long. Right near the road, I think I remember Korvettes had a tire center. Korvettes sold to a group of investors who'd not done there homework it seemed. Korvettes, another  store that didn't keep pace with the changing times had fallen behind and was gone a few years after it was sold.
     I remember sometime in the early sixties going up to Korvettes with my Dad and Mom. I don't remember why, but it was night and my Dad borrowed Uncle Ken's car so we could go. I remember only my mother going into the store, while my dad and most likely Karl and I stayed in the car.
     Going up Route 59 toward Spring Valley on the right side of the road, just past Middletown Road was Grants and Grandway. Grants was the place to go for toys. Grandway was the place my mom went shopping for food. I hated Grandway, it had a child care center. An Adult or two would watch over you as a TV mindlessly played something I think the Adults might have wanted to watch. I hated that child care center during that time of my life like nothing else. Thankfully I only had to go into to it a few times.
     Across Route 59 from Grants and Grandway were a few small store fronts and behind them was swamp or maybe just trees. I never went onto the property until after the Nanuet Mall was built. For some reason the small stores in front were left. One of the classic stores was Tapeville.

      In the 70's and early 80's 8 track tapes were the thing. They were supposed to be a step up from reel to reel and phonograph records, they were not. If a Tape got caught in the tape deck and started to unwind, you were assured that you would need to buy a new 8 track tape. Because of the way the tapes were set up you could continuously play the same tape over and over again without touching it. The Tape was wound around a center spindle. From the inside of the spindle the tape would come and cross the tape heads to play the music. Then it would go back into the other corner of the cassette and get rewound onto the spindle. The Inventor of the 8 track must have thought he or she was a genius, they were not.
     Tapeville had every album ever made, it seemed. If You heard a song from some obscure group from thirty years ago and for some reason wanted a copy of that album, they'd have it. Rarely did they ever have to order it for you, but they could. It was an amazing store. When they were forced to move to another location because the stores were coming down, it spelled the end for Tapeville. Eight Tracks had been dieing the slow death for several years in the middle eighties because something new was on the horizon, Cassettes, then a little later, CD's the supposed answer to all our listening needs.
      In front of the Nanuet Mall, I don't remember where exactly was Beefsteak Charles. The Premier Steak place of the eighties, except for Steak and Stein. I was in my twenties and we were used to going out in large groups to have dinner, sometimes. A group of eight or so of us want to eat at Beefsteak Charlie's. We call to make a reservation, it is a packed restaurant and the owner or manager says he is not interested in have a large group like us because he can turn over our tables several times before we are done. Needless to say we never go back there and Beefsteak Charlie's doesn't last out the eighties in Nanuet.
      Steak and Stein over behind Caldor's was the best restaurant I ever ate in during the seventies and eighties. We get a call at Muller Dairies from them just before they open, they want milk delivery. I go over, I think and give them prices. The accept and it is the beginning of a beautiful relationship. For several years we deliver milk to them and they serve the very best steak to me. I go there with my friend and sometimes our girlfriend, we drink beer and eat steak. They have the first salad bar I ever remember. The Business has its ups and downs over the years eventually closing the location to my dismay. Consolidating to their original location up n Orange county.
     The Memories are starting to fade, but the taste of the steaks will never. We'd park our car in the lot and I'd judge from the amount of cars I saw to determine how long the wait would be. It wasn't scientific, it was long wait or short wait. Beer at the bar while we waited made the wait shorter. After a while We were told our table was ready. More Beer was ordered and they arrived in large frosted mugs with a little bit of water frozen at the bottom, making the beer icy cold. It was great. Occasionally the iceberg at the bottom of the glass would come loose and you'd get a mouthful of slush and beer. It was always overlooked. After ordering the salad bar would be attacked. Some of us would get some salad, others who were not fans would get bread and butter. Either way after some conversation, the steaks would arrive. During most of our times there the steaks were cooked great.          One Time, We were all in our early twenties, all dating, we went out to Steak and Stein. We had a great dinner and everyone had the same idea. Each one of us said good night and went to our cars to leave. Usually We'd hang out together. That Night I imagine everyone had their minds on something else. Do I really have to spell it out to you? We're all in our early twenties, dating.....dating girls! Plain enough? 
      Going further on Route 59 toward Spring Valley, under the rail road bridge, just past it on the left wa the Theater in the Round. It opened sometime in the seventies. I was young enough and old enough to enjoy it. I saw Man of Lamancha there, I saw Cheech and Chong, I saw a burlesque show there, plus several forgotten shows.
       Burlesque, in the early eighties was making a come back for some reason. Stripers, comedians and all that make burlesque famous was popular. I saw my first burlesque show on cable on HBO in my parents living room with both of them there. That was in the mid seventies. In 1981 or so The Theater in the Round advertised a burlesque show. I was so up for the show I purchased tickets for all my friend expecting they would all want to go and would pay me back. I think I bought eight, maybe ten tickets. As the show approached more and more of my friends said they couldn't go. On the night of the show, it was my girlfriend, Michele and myself. I think Michele asked her parents if they would like to go. I don't remember much about that night except the empty table we sat at and during the show one of the dancers got Michele's father to get up on stage and get involved in the act. Something to do with a fan. I remember his wife Joyce laughing so hard saying she couldn't believe he got up and did it.
       When Cheech and Chong came to the Theater, I was not a big fan. I was and always have been a bit of a stuffed shirt conservative. I didn't approve of their type of humor about drugs and the counterculture. During the Vietnam War, a few years earlier I was for the government and blamed the protesters for all the bad things happening during the sixties. I had it a little backwards. Going to see Cheech and Chong in the late seventies, early eighties, I was still a conservative, but I went for Mike who enjoyed them. They were fun and despite myself I had to laugh and have a good time. After The Theater in the Round closed, Clarkstown wanted to make it a transportation hub but dragged their feet and a church bought it and as of 2019 they are there and thriving.
      Continuing toward Spring Valley, just past the Thruway entrance on the right side was a shopping center. In 2019 it is still there, but it will be torn down to make way for an other Motel or something like that.
       In the shopping center was the Route 59 Theater. I remember seeing ET there, having to stand outside the theater in line to buy a ticket. The first and only Dunkin Donuts in Rockland for years was there. When someone made the trip to Dunkin and brought home a box of donuts, it was considered a treat. The usual donuts bought home were glazed donuts.
      After Dunkin Donuts and the Route 59 Theater, I rarely went further west until I drove. In the Fifties Spring Valley along with Nyack were the retail hubs of the county. By the mid seventies, when I started delivering milk in Spring Valley, it was a place you wanted to get into and get out of. There were pocket of people who still remembered when Spring Valley was a great place, but they were getting fewer and fewer as the years passed. The only store I went to up that way in the 60's was Shopper's Paradise. It was over a bridge and at the top of the hill in Spring Valley, just before Route 45. I don't remember much about it, I was only there a few times. It closed in the early 70's. I think.
     Back in Nanuet was the Nanuet Mall. The building of the mall was welcomed by most people unlike the Palisades Center. The Palisades Center was voted on until the legislature of Clarkstown saw it the way of the builders. Through elections and the governor getting involved and the Palisades Center building illegally a few thousand square feet extra on the mall, which to this day they have not been able to rent. The Nanuet Mall was exciting and wanted. It opened in 1969 or thereabouts.
     Sears, which had only a small pick up location on Main Street in New City was opening a full size store. Bamberger, a part of Macy's opened a store. And all the little store between them.
     In the early 70's Mike and I made a plan to go to the Nanuet Mall. We were about fourteen and didn't know the bus system. We knew where the buses were at the mall, but not where to get one in West Nyack. So our plan was very simple, we'd walk to the mall, then take the bus home. We didn't tell anyone we were going to the mall, we just went. Remember it was the 70's, not the 2010's. We walked up Route 59, finding all sorts of interesting thing alone the road. I remember finding an adult magzine, flipping through it and getting a kick out of it. Things like nudity were not in your face back then like they are now. I don't remember who long it took to get to the mall, maybe an hour. When we got there we acted like tourists. We went around buying things that we really didn't need. I remember buying a pillow speaker from Radio Shack. It's exactly like it sounds. It was a speaker you plug into a portable radio and put under your pillow to listen to music while you go to sleep.
      A little about Radio Shack. In the seventies and eighties it was 'the' tech store. You could go there to buy all kinds of things you didn't know you needed. It was also the place that techie types could go to get things like circuit boards and all those little things that you used to find in the back of your radio. They sadly didn't keep up with the times. When Computers became popular they got into them, but I think they backed the wrong product and that weakened them. After that they seemed out of step and continued to lose money and market share until they went out of business in the early 2000's.
      We found the bus and took it home getting off it, I think in front of Klein Ave. It was a great adventure. I told my mom after we were back. I don't remember any reaction to the news.
       Later on Mike would find out which bus number we could take and at what time and where to get it. The next time we went we walked to the Clarksville Corners and waited for the bus to come. It made life so much easier.
       The price to take the bus was something like thirty-five cents. One time Mike hands the bus driver three cents by mistake. The Bus drive looks at it and says, "Three cents, where the heck do you think your going for three cents."
      In the early years of the Mall there was a movie theater there. It was small and located over near Sears in the back. Mike and I went to see 'The Exorcist' there. It has aged badly over the years. Back in the late 70's it was a scary scary movie. We went during the day and I was so glad to get out of the theater and it be light out. If it had been dark, I think I would have been so very spooked.
      Everyone was not always safe even though Mike and I would head toward the mall without telling anyone. Bad things did happen but they seemed to be the exception. Lisa Thompson, a teenage girl left the mall and went through a hole in the fence at the back of the mall and crossed over the railroad tracks. What happened after that is not known. Her body was found in the woods around there. I don't remember if she was raped or how she died. The news was spread all over the front page of  The Journal News. Several weeks went by and her death faded from the headlines and I don't think  her murderer was ever found.
       The first time I ever ate pizza from  Nanuet Restaurant, I think I was maybe twelve or so. Mike's mom or maybe it was mike who ordered a pie from the restaurant. I don't know who ordered it, but a small pie was ordered. Now a small pie from Nanuet Restaurant was a SMALL PIE. It wasn't enough for several people. Ordering a pie from Nanuet Restaurant any time of the day usually took an hour and a half. The Pie was supposed to feed Mike, Me and Mike's brother, Kevin. I don't remember how we ended up with the pie in front of his house, but when Mike sees the size of the pie he decides that we should eat it outside without letting anyone in the house know it was here. Needless to say Mike's mom got angry after we finished the pie and she ordered Kevin a pie to eat.
      When we got our license, Nanuet Restaurant became THE restaurant we'd go to. When I opened my video store in 85 I got into the habit of ordering a pizza and taking it up to Stony Point to eat. I'd get a large pie with extra cheese and when I got to Stony Point, I'd eat the whole thing. I think it was every Sunday or every Wednesday, maybe every Thursday. I don't remember, but I did have a day each week where I'd get a pizza from there. In Nanuet Restaurant, the owner would mostly always be there. Every time I came in he'd ask, "what ya gettin?", I'd say, "large pie, extra cheese". I don't ever remember him saying anything nice, like have a nice day, or, "Hello Muller, what can I get for you?"
I think once he called me Muller. The only time I ever saw him smile was after he died and they put a painting of him behind the bar and in it he had his accordion and was smiling. I guess when you had the best pizza around you didn't need to be sociable. After his death, his kids took it over and survived. The Pizza was not the same and business suffered. They did things the way he did, but time and minor changes caused the quality of the pie to suffer. He died in the 90's and the family sold the place in 2017-18. The new owners closed the place for several month, renovated and reopened proclaiming the return of Nanuet Restaurant. I went to try it several months after all the hoopla had calmed down a bit. In the old Nanuet Restaurant you could drink beer and not have to take out a second mortgage to pay for it. The new Nanuet Restaurant was not like the old one.
      Every year, going back for I don't know, ten years or more years, Mike, Rob, Louie and I set aside a weekend to go to a Yankee game. Sometimes We'd try to go to two games, but that never seem to work. The night before the game we'd meet at Nanuet Restaurant. We'd all throw down some money on the bar and drink beer.Then we'd get a table and have pizza and some more beer. I was used to throwing down a twenty for beer and a twenty for pizza or there about. So 2018 comes along and the new Nanuet Restaurant is open several months. The hype has dropped off somewhat and the four of us are going to try it out. I am shy a full time job so I only bring forty dollars with me. I get to the restaurant and Mike and Louie have already set themselves up in the back room, which has been fixed up to look amazing. Before it was kind of a school lunchroom decor, now it is warm and inviting. The new owners have added a fireplace and a bar in the backroom which is where I find Mike and Louie. Rob doesn't make it to Nanuet Restaurant this night, his daughter needs his attention. I plunk down my twenty and notice neither Mike or Louie have ordered a pitcher of beer. They are drinking mugs, so I order a mug and sit down to get caught up in everybody's life. A few hours and a few pizzas later two of Louie's kids join us. Kids!, MEN join us and when the bill for just the pizza and beer comes it is over two hundred dollars. We'd paid for our beer at the bar earlier and that tab was over fifty dollars. To add insult to injury the pie is poor. The crust is like cardboard, thick and firm. It is a poor imitation of what Nanuet Restaurant used to be like. Lately I'd been going to Nanuet Hotel, across the street and down the block after Nanuet Restaurant had closed to renovate and that is where I continue to go. The atmosphere in there is not as great as the new or old Nanuet Restaurant, but the pie is almost equal to what Nanuet restaurant used to be. Rumor has it that Nanuet Hotel was started by people from Nanuet Restaurant.
      I only ever went to Pearl River to go to the movies. There were two theaters on Central Avenue up until the Palisades Center AMC opened. Both Theaters were nice. I have memories of walking into one of the theaters, the small concession stand on the left, you'd then go up a dark hallway, your eyes slowly adjusting to the dark. You could at some point climb a set of stairs off to the left and right to go the the balcony, if it was open, but who'd want to, I wanted to be closer than that.
     









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