To Les Sherwood- Early Parkchester

[Parkchester Guy]

Les,

I thought you might be interested in these photographs of Parkchester of another time.

http://www.parkchester.org/PhotoGallery ... index.html

[Les Sherwood]

To Parkchester Guy
Thanks for the great pictures.
I have many good memories of Parkchester and these pictures evokes some of these memories.
A few of them follows:
1) Duncan Yo-yo contests in back of Woolworth's on Saturdays. At 9 AM There would be ~20 kids lined up for the The Duncan salesman and he would run a contest for the kids. If you won you would get a "diamond studed "yo-yo-
2) Getting caugh by Parkchester cop "swimming " in the Oval one night . Also the Christmas trees in the Oval. And Santa' house in front of American at Christmas.
3) All the great movies we saw at the Loewe's American on Saturday .

One picture has a building with a statue onn side. It looks like the one my aunt in from 1941-1994 when she died.
All the best.
Les

[Marion Farrell Cronin]

Fantastic pictures of Parkchester. We hope to swing by for the anniversary festivities in May.

Cannot locate a picture of Santa's' House anywhere. We all have pictures of the inside, sitting on Santa's lap, but a photo of the exterior is elusive. Perhaps a photo will turn up during the anniversary festivities.

With all the people we knew who lived in and around Parkchester, not one, including ourselves, ever thought to take a picture of Santa's House!

[Parkchester Guy]

Those pictures were mostly from the 1940's - pre- during and after WW2. There are a few from the early 1950's. The Santa house across from Macy's only began (I'm guessing) around 1957 or later. As a small child growing up, I know there was no Santa house. I first recall it as a teenager around 1959. The May reunion has about 700 signed up. God knows where they'll all park.

[Marion Farrell Cronin]

Parkchester Guy: That's a good question about parking. I wonder if they have made any provisions? Let's hope so.

Parking has always been a hassle; now more than ever. We were over there the week before Christmas to look at the decorations in the oval. I like to show my kids the things that thrilled me as a kid and the oval at Christmas is one of those things. Anyway, we drove over and had hoped to eat in Pizzeria Uno (formerly Lerners - a place in which I spent MANY hours) so we drove up and down Metropolitan Avenue, up and down Unionport Road - Tremont to Westchester Avenue for about a half hour and simply could not find a spot anywhere. We gave up and went home - we live in Throggs Neck so it's not like we traveled for hours but it was just so disappointing.

If we go to the reunion, we will take the bus!

[Jo Rizzo]

Hey Les,

I know what you mean. But why not do what I do, go out to White Plains Road, Leland or Theiriot, park there and walk back in to Parkchester. Each time I go to Macy's or for other shopping, that's what I do. It beats looking for a spot. Besides, there are still some people that I know on Thieriot that are still there from when I was there. 15 years ago.

Jo

[patseith@verizon.net]

Can you give me the details for the Parkchester Reunion? Thanks a lot.

[Marion Farrell Cronin]

Pat, here is a link to the reunion website with a listing of all the activities that are planned:

http://www.parkchester.org/reunion1.html

[patseith@verizon.net]

Thanks so much for the information regarding Parkchester reunion. I did not live in Parkchester but hung out there as a youngster. I lived on Pugsley Avenue. I hope I can attend. Thanks again.

[Parkchester Guy]

Here's an update on Parkchester reunion.

http://www.parkchester.org/displaypublic.php

With almost a thousand already signed up, there are 4 weeks left for more to sign up. One lady with foresight commented, "What about toilets?"

The Loews American and the Oval will be the central places to congregate with a ~~ in the movie theater being shown every hour or so. Many signed up are from PS 102. You can sort the names by school year attended.

Ages are clustered around 55-70 with a few in their 80's and some younger ones. 10am to 5pm.

It's starting to get media attention.

[EDIT - the word deleted is "~~" - no idea why deleted]