Makowsky Friends

Saturday, January 20, 2007

Happy Anniversary



Well Folks, we are rapidly approaching our milestone 1st anniversary of the Makowskys Blog. Congratulations to us ALL. I think you'll agree so much has changed in the last 12 months for many of us. New chapters have been added to our 'Saga'. So much has been added to our lives.
"Let's Keep on ..Keepin' on"

posted by Rob @ 10:55 PM  

50 Comments:

  • At 1/22/2007 11:16 PM , Blogger LARRY said...

    Here we are 1 year later seeing if we can bring back some more magic.Do you think we can do it 1 more time?This is the thread to tell us what your thoughts are for the next reunion.Let's hear all your ideas of where and when we want to meet again.I hope this new thread will be as active as the sports one was.

     

  • At 1/23/2007 7:53 AM , Blogger Bob Hutt said...

    Larry after much thought I was thinking perhaps where you disappeared onto Rt. 209 chasing down that long flyball that they hit off of me at Sondak to protect and preserve my no hitter?

    Seriously I think a 7 day cruise to anywhere with all of you would be Camelot. Of course, the world might not be ready for us Makowskyites, but what the heck?

    Needless to say on the cruise there will need to be an hour per day set aside for Steve Kiviat to demonstrate his arts & crafts prowness to his fellow Senior Boys followed up by our normal immediate reaction to Steve of Dodge Ball, or as we preferred to call it, Cans Up!

    And can you imagine Hy orchestrating a Scavenger Hunt at St. Peter's in Rome? Somehow Hy will manage to get that last clue hidden in the casket where the Pope is lying in state.

    And then on to Venice for Stevie to do a little fishing!

    LOL

     

  • At 1/23/2007 12:05 PM , Blogger LARRY said...

    Hey Jodi, if we have to take the SS MINNOW you will be there.You were one of the first to be contacted so welcome aboard.LOL

     

  • At 1/23/2007 8:26 PM , Blogger Rob said...

    Thank you Jody , this is not work it's more like a labor of Love. The Blog has been 'payin dividends' for us all.

    It's the energy each person provides that keeps it going . Our Blog is the perfect medium , at the perfect time of our lives. I'm just the guy flying the 'kite'.

    Your Southern Host. LOL

     

  • At 1/23/2007 10:50 PM , Blogger steve kiv said...

    If we did do a cruise ............................................................

    would Vernon drive the boat???

     

  • At 1/24/2007 7:48 AM , Blogger Mitch said...

    Hey Kiv...

    As long as it is not Edward John Smith

     

  • At 1/24/2007 9:36 AM , Blogger Bob Hutt said...

    Stevie - Vernon? Last we saw of Vernon with his crew cut he was out hunting varmits for his fresh "road kill" of the day meal in the dense woods off of Rt. 209? I think the old yellow school bus is still sitting there by the side of the road.

    LOL

     

  • At 1/24/2007 9:54 AM , Blogger augie said...

    I'm just sorry i haven't hooked up at the many mini events around NYC. I'd love a simple Sunday noon brunch at a chinatown dim sum house or even centrally located dinner. A night of Disco bowling at Bowlmar lanes on University and 13th. St. Let's all wear Huckapoo shirts with the big collars

     

  • At 1/24/2007 11:32 AM , Blogger Mitch said...

    Jodi...

    You get a gold star!

    Augie...

    I was always partial to Nik-Nik

     

  • At 1/24/2007 9:01 PM , Blogger Rob said...

    Did we really dress like that ?
    Oh man.... 'shades of Mike Brady'

    Funny thing is , my son thinks 'his generation' invented ripped jeans. LOL

     

  • At 1/26/2007 10:59 PM , Blogger LARRY said...

    way to go Jodi,let's get everyone back and hear what they would like to do for the next reunion.

     

  • At 1/28/2007 9:44 PM , Blogger Rob said...

    Jack , answer me this , Do you still wear moccassons or have you switched to sperry topsiders?

    Rule was , my parents alloted me 1 pair each of these each summer .

    Moccassons ($3.99 specials at Fanns)
    Sneakers (cloth only)
    Thongs (AKA flip flops)

    If I lost any of them , brokem or destroyed them ...tough luck. By labor day all the soles were either wore down or torn off.

     

  • At 1/29/2007 11:35 AM , Blogger steve kiv said...

    I used to go to Miles to get summer sneakers for $2.99. I wanted Chuck Taylor Converse but my mother said it was just a waste of money. Even Keds in black with the big front bumpers (handball sneakers) were a no go.(Sneakers wouldn't help me catch a softball or capture the white flag.)

    So every summer it was my new Miles sneakers, my crew cut from Barley the Butcher in Accord and a few allergy shots from Dr. Bonnamo
    (I think) on the way to Kerhonkson and I was ready to go.

    Rob, you're right. By the end of the summer we just threw them out. I just had to make sure that my toes didn't stick out before Labor Day. Did any of you guys put duct tape on the front for a few weeks to keep them new???

     

  • At 1/29/2007 8:14 PM , Blogger Bob Hutt said...

    Jackie don't you be making fun of Shoeless Stevie Kiviat and telling lies?

    My favorite softball player of all was Little Stevie "Arts & Crafts" Kiviat.

    Why? Because although he was small in size (sorry Judy) he made up for it with his enormous heart.

    Seriously, nobody played the game larger than my little turkey Stevie. And, he made a great lanyard and ashtray while patroling the outfield.

    If you listen closely to the whipperwills, you can hear Stevie singing.

    Put me in coach, I'm ready to play... Centerfield!

    So there!

     

  • At 1/30/2007 8:04 PM , Blogger Rob said...

    Jodi , I seem to recall you spent most of the summer in bare feet and bandaids.

    Steve , Dr. B came first , then Dr. Toco in Stone ridge. Toco loved us , we were his dart board every summer.I think he was also the local vetenarian, volunteer fireman and taxidermist. I guess you can say he was 'well rounded' LOL LOL

    We've been hearing for over a yr on this Blog about Steve's exploits and expertise with Arts & Crafts. I have just one question? Whats wrong with Arts & Crafts? I loved it too , I might have stunk at it , but I loved it. As a matter of fact I used as many of these same projects while I was a Cub Scout Leader , and the kids and my son loved them too. So Steve, I raise my hand to you in my best Cub Scout salute and say " let them tease , you're not alone"

    Oh by the way, copper enameling anyone?

     

  • At 1/31/2007 12:35 PM , Blogger augie said...

    Did anyone mention PF Flyers? I mainly wore chuck taylors or Keds and loved thoses mocasins and remember me and Rob were the Moc guys in our crew. My mom loved to drag me to A&S in DT Brooklyn and bribed me with food(people were starving in europe)The A&S Basement had the best parfait sundaes and then it was off to the Automat for franks and beans unless my mom had to have her datenut bread and cc at Chock full of nuts. I remember my pre summer crewcut and the stick you used to push your front hairs up

     

  • At 1/31/2007 8:36 PM , Blogger Rob said...

    Augie , you are so right, I hated that wax stick , now it's 'grooming gel' without the wax. (I once used it for lubricating my B/Ball glove) LOL

    Of Course PF flyers, they "made you jump higher and run faster" as the AD would state.

    How about Bargain Town on Rockaway blvd , or John's bargain store on Churchill rd. Pennsey pinkies for .20 and a stickball bat for a buck

     

  • At 1/31/2007 10:30 PM , Blogger steve kiv said...

    Enough with the arts and crafts jokes Bobby. It's getting very tired!!

    Just because you couldn't paint a wall with a paint brush, don't keep picking on me!!! (LOL)

     

  • At 1/31/2007 10:40 PM , Blogger steve kiv said...

    Augie,
    my first job after college was working in the notions department for A&S. Our department was also in the basement and near the snack shop. For a break I used to get a cola float with peach ice cream for I think $ .50. I can still taste it and I even had them in the winter.

    Rob, I think Dr Tocco was a snake oil salesman. Remember the "red medicine"?.........good for poison ivy, coughs, hang nails and taking paint off cars!!

    Also, Spaulding is selling stick ball bats again. No more broom handles. The sticks even have the name Spaulding hot stamped on them to make them look official like Louisville Sluggers. I bought one, tried to swing it and almost dislocated my shoulder.

    Augie, while I'm thinking about it, did anyone go to Nedicks for a hot dog and an orange drink?

     

  • At 1/31/2007 11:35 PM , Blogger LARRY said...

    Rob, that little stick for your hair was called Stephens wax stick.I used it as well back then, maybe that's why i have a problem now.

     

  • At 2/01/2007 8:55 AM , Blogger Bob Hutt said...

    Stevie it would be funny if what you said wasn't true. I was so bad at arts & crafts that I couldn't color within the lines with a crayon in a coloring book.

    Without Stevie helping, correct that, make that doing all the floats by himself, we would have been DQ'd by Hy from even being in the parade.

    And Stevie, if we had been DQ'd our lifetime record in Color War, well, it still would have been 0 - 5!

    Come to think of it, we should have told Hy to hell with it and simply gone fishing and try to catch Old Chesty.

    LOL

     

  • At 2/01/2007 9:16 AM , Blogger Mitch said...

    Jodi...

    They both were good, but I would have to say and Nona would agree that it was Steph!

     

  • At 2/01/2007 3:55 PM , Blogger steve kiv said...

    Bobby,
    Once they posted the teams I was always with you and against Phyllis. Bummer, we knew we'd lost before Color War ever started.

    HOWEVER, I wouldn't have wanted to change sides for anything. I love you my friend!!

    (By the way......at the reunion, Phyllis told me that she is STILL UNDEFEATED in color wars!!) As a counselor, and a teacher she CAN'T BE BEAT!)

    We lost to the best!

     

  • At 2/01/2007 5:12 PM , Blogger augie said...

    Nedicks and Orange were great when I got off the B train by 34th St to go to the garden ,the buns were the key and only non kosher dog for me. Also by the garden there were two great deli's one like a nathans and the other a regular deli,anyone remember the names? And Tad Steak house we loved. I tried to eat there about 5 years ago and got ill yet at 16 it was the best steak not grilled on a makowski barbeque

     

  • At 2/01/2007 9:17 PM , Blogger Rob said...

    As young teenagers Nedicks was home base . Danny & I would meet Ellen & Leslie there Saturday mornings and 'do the city' for the day. They were great times.

    There was this place on 6th & 31st that made fresh squeezed OJ and Hot dogs covered in kraut that crunched when you bit them. No seats , stand and eat only. My favorite snack before getting on the LIRR.

     

  • At 2/02/2007 10:45 AM , Blogger augie said...

    Rob, that's the Nedick's i was thinking of. i also miss the old Orange ade there and Nathan's in Coney had similar Ade which to me is the only drink better then a coke for a dog. But do remember the names of the 2 deli's near the garden.It's bugging me one was off the corner of 8th ave on 34th and one on 7th ave and 33rd

     

  • At 2/02/2007 12:48 PM , Blogger augie said...

    Bruce ,good to see you on the blog. I'm on the computer all day at work but the blog is the only non business I do great mini stress relief.I wish i could still use my student ID for the blue seats. Also i preferred Flame Steak over Tad's ,just remembered the name

     

  • At 2/02/2007 2:48 PM , Blogger steve kiv said...

    Augie, you're right!!
    Those orange drinks were the best.
    They were also sold on the beach by the vendors who used to walk around on the sand and sell orange drinks and Good Humor ice cream. The orange drinks came in a cone shaped holder. There was a little metal ring on the top that used to fall off. You had to be careful walking on the sand or you'd step on one and cut your foot. (now you have to be careful of medical waste.)

    Also, Rob the hot dog place on 31 and 6th was the best. They used Hebrew National franks. I thougt they were better the the Papaya King but that's still around and it's still terrific.

    Augie, before the new Garden was opened, you could go to the old Garden on 8th ave and sit upstairs behind a pole for fifty cents and your GO Card!

     

  • At 2/02/2007 4:40 PM , Blogger Mitch said...

    Hey Bruce, say hi to everyone from me.

    I remember Deli City, but I seem to recall a place called The Brass Rail. Does anyone remember that?

    Also, when I think of Nedicks, Marty Glickman comes to mind. Before Marv Alpert did the Knicks games, Marty was the man and when the Knicks scored a bucket he always said..."It's good like Nedicks!"

    There probably are only a few people who read this blog that remember that...ughh!

     

  • At 2/02/2007 5:02 PM , Blogger augie said...

    the current blogs prove one thing to me, we need an informal reunion at Katz, we can all randomly show up ,the water is on me!!!Let's just do it on a sunday around noon then we can float off in splinter groups to work off the cholestorol

     

  • At 2/02/2007 5:13 PM , Blogger steve kiv said...

    Mitch, you know that I've never been a Giants fan but Marty Glickman and Al Derogatis could make a game come alive. Televised games were rare back then but those two were special.

     

  • At 2/03/2007 1:09 PM , Blogger Bob Hutt said...

    With Nedick's and some of the other old time favorite places and foods we enjoyed how about these?

    White Tower Hamburgers

    Adventurers Inn

    Alexander's Department Store

    The Polo Grounds

    Ebbets Field

    Krum's Ice Cream Parlor

    Jan's Ice Cream Parlor

    John's Bargain Store

    Robert Hall for suits

    Cherry Lime Rickeys

    Bunglow Bar & Good Humor Ice Cream Trucks

    Breyer's Chocolate & Vanilla Dixie Cups with the little black specks of vanilla beans.

    Babcock's Ice Cream Parlor in Kingston for ice cream where Milton used to take his counselors.

    Stewart's Root Beer Floats in the frozen glass.

    Small Coke's from the fountain in our favorite candy store served in a Bell shaped glass for six cents.

    Fleer's wax slab of gum with five baseball cards for a nickel.

    Pizza at 15 cents a slice from our favorite Pizzeria.

    Chocolate Egg Creams

    And the list goes on and on...

    Let's keep it going...

     

  • At 2/05/2007 5:03 PM , Blogger augie said...

    Jodie, everyone. No football I'm free any Sunday with a few days notice. Some Pastrami a walk around the now "hot" lower east side maybee a break for coffee and carbs...then we can all go to my Heart doctor together, he's doing a 2 for 1 special on stents!
    PS Jahn's was the best

     

  • At 2/05/2007 8:13 PM , Blogger Rob said...

    Emeril made NY style pastami the other night. On the show he had a guest who I believe is the owner of one the Lower east side establishments you described. When Emeril asked him what his secret was, he refused to reveal it and smiled. Great moment , Emeril turned red and side stepped it with a joke.

     

  • At 2/05/2007 11:02 PM , Blogger steve kiv said...

    The Bronx????
    Isn't that upstate. If it's not then you could have taken a nice bike ride to get there. Of course you could only use one gear back then unless you owned a cool three speed English racer from Rudge or Raleigh.

    Only in the Bronx could you take a great place like Freedomland and put up a huge apartment complex.

    Mission soda was the best. You could always use the bottle caps for "skelley"

    Jackie, you're right. One of the highlights of my weekend was going to the candy store with my dad to get the Daily News right off the truck. The only problem with this was that the edition was such an early one that they only gave partial scores to all the sports. (My dad didn't care though...he wanted to see the betting lines for the next days pro football scores.)

     

  • At 2/06/2007 9:28 PM , Blogger Rob said...

    Hey Jack , are you OK? Too much Coffee man ? You've opened up many flashbacks
    My memory banks can't take much more , I had a G.O. card , and a darn pin .

    Now that I think about it , I never cashed that account in . I calculate with interest I should be rich by now
    PS 221 where are you ?

     

  • At 2/06/2007 10:07 PM , Blogger steve kiv said...

    I still have my GO button.

     

  • At 2/07/2007 2:17 PM , Blogger Bob Hutt said...

    Jackie your blog entry was a trip right down memory lane. What wonderful memories.

    As for my crush on Phyllis, if there was any opportunity for me, none of you would have survived. I would have become lost looking into her beautiful eyes, and along the way, somehow managed to lose all of you in the deep woods.

    Suffice it say that the beautiful girl has evolved into an even more gorgeous woman. Now don't get me going Jackie.

    As for the Bronx I remember the record store too but for the life of me can't think of the name. I went to a website and I was shocked to find this...

    The borough of the Bronx is coterminous with Bronx County. Although commonly known as "The Bronx"[2], the official county name does not include the definite article ("The").

    Named for Jonas Bronck, a Swedish sea captain and 1641 resident whose 500-acre (2 km²) farm between the Harlem River and the Aquahung[3] comprises part of the modern borough, the Bronx is the fourth most populous of New York City's five boroughs. Bronx County is the fifth most populous county in the New York Metropolitan Area.

    While the Bronx was considered the "Jewish Borough," which at its peak in 1960 was 62% Jewish, it was the "South Bronx" that was practically entirely Jewish, at 92% in 1963. However, that changed rapidly during the late 1960's and 1970's, almost all of the much-diminished Jewish population of the borough today lives in the Riverdale neighborhood in the northwestern corner of the borough.

    The term was first coined in the 1940s by a group of social workers who identified the Bronx's first pocket of poverty, in the Mott Haven section, the southernmost section of the Bronx. Originally denoting only Mott Haven and Melrose, the South Bronx extended up to the Cross Bronx Expressway by the 1970s, encompassing Hunts Point, Morrisania, and Highbridge.

    It was around this time that the Bronx was experiencing some of its worst times ever due to white flight, landlord abandonment and government indifference.

    Some landlords were motivated to burn their buildings for insurance claims. There was also heroin trafficking by Italian organized crime families that live in the area. The resultant chaos as related by the media brought the term "South Bronx" into common parlance nationwide.

    The South Bronx stretches perhaps further today than it did in the turbulent 1970s; today the neighborhoods of Tremont and University Heights are often considered part of the South Bronx.

    Some even argue that the Soundview section is part of the South Bronx, or even its eastern neighbor, Castle Hill. The northern limit of the South Bronx is commonly thought to be at Fordham Road. Wherever the South Bronx exactly is, it is thought of as an icon of urban decay, as shown in 1981's Paul Newman film Fort Apache, The Bronx.

    Any neighborhood that is not considered the South Bronx is automatically the "North Bronx," even if it lies within the southern portion of the borough, as does Throgs Neck in the Bronx's extreme southeast.

    During the mid-1960s to the mid-1970s, the Bronx went into an era of sharp decline in quality of life. Many factors have been put forward by historians and other social scientists. They include the theory that urban renewal projects in the borough (such as Robert Moses' Cross-Bronx Expressway) destroyed existing low-density neighborhoods in favor of roads that produced urban sprawl as well as high-density housing projects.

    Another factor may have been the shift by insurance companies and banks to stop offering financial services to the Bronx and other working-class industrial areas (the "Rustbelt") in favor of the booming suburbs in "the Sunbelt"—a process known as redlining.

    For a period, a wave of arson overtook the southern portion of the borough's apartment buildings, with competing theories as to why. Some point to the heavy traffic and use of illicit drugs among the area's poor as causing them to be inclined to scam the city's benefits for burn-out victims as well as the Section 8 housing program. Others believe landlords decided to burn their buildings before their insurance policies expired and were not renewed. After the destruction of nearly half of the buildings in the South Bronx, the arsons all but ended during the tenure of Mayor Ed Koch with aftereffects still felt into the early 1990s.

    On a positve note I recently had business in the Bronx and was glad to see that a revival is now taking place.

     

  • At 2/08/2007 9:52 AM , Blogger augie said...

    My wife grew up as only jewish girl in the South Bronx as her father wouldn't abandon his old hood. She speaks fluent Spanish and eats as much rice ,bean and plantanos as I eat italian food. We do on occassion go to City Island which is most unique neighborhood in NYC proper. Good food, nice views

     

  • At 2/08/2007 4:10 PM , Blogger Mitch said...

    Jodi

    Unfortunately, the only thing I remember about Wappingers Falls is that Tawana Brawley lived there.

     

  • At 2/08/2007 7:35 PM , Blogger Rob said...

    This Blog makes me hungry ..Yo Augie , you want real arroz y frioles ? Come down here ...Mucho Gusto!!

     

  • At 2/11/2007 8:26 PM , Blogger Rob said...

    Jack , Ellen's whole family were from the Bronx. Fordham Rd , Mosholu pkwy , Grand concourse, Jerome ave. & others
    I guess you can say they were a true 'D' train Family.

     

  • At 2/11/2007 10:54 PM , Blogger Mitch said...

    For me, the "Bronx" is a place over the Throgs Neck Bridge to the Cross Bronx Expressway to The Major Deegan and then on to Exit 4,5,or 6 to the "ultimate venue" in professional sports. I'll be sad when they knock it down.

    By the way, the Bronx Zoo, and Dominicks at Arthur Avenue are not too shabby either!

     

  • At 2/12/2007 10:03 AM , Blogger Bob Hutt said...

    Jackie you are very PERCEPTIVE and wise indeed. When I was growing up in the Sedgwick Housing Projects off of 174th Street & University Avenue next to the little Washington Bridge that separated the Bronx from Washington Heights (Manhattan) there was NO CROSS BRONX EXPRSSWAY.

    As a matter of fact I have never shared this with hardly anyone but we did not have Little League when I was a boy (now I sound like my father). Where the Cross Bronx Expressway stands cut through rock below the Sedgwick Projects is exactly where I started playing baseball.

    When they built that monstrosity and boy is Jackie ever right, it destroyed the Bronx and MY BASEBALL field. From there I had to play softball in the school yards as I had no dirt field to play on.

    I'm telling you Jackie I could have been the next Mickey Mantle if the damn Cross Bronx Expressway wasn't built; ran like a jack rabbit, switch hit with power with a rocket arm, and I weighed more than 125 pounds soaking wet!

    LOL

     

  • At 2/13/2007 9:12 PM , Blogger Rob said...

    Does anyone from this group still live in the Bronx? How many decent areas are left?

    BTW , anyone interested can go into Live Windows and get an unbelievable aerial views of their old 'hood' , it is truly amazing. Easy to use

     

  • At 2/14/2007 12:12 PM , Blogger augie said...

    Riverdale still great, i have one friend there. Matt's HS football team 's league was mainly the Bronx and those HS' were pretty scary: Truman, South Bronx, Clinton,etc

     

  • At 2/16/2007 1:18 PM , Blogger Bob Hutt said...

    Hey watch it Augie as I went to De Witt Clinton HS.

    You're right it is scary. Whenever the black kids saw me walking they crossed the street and said, "Watch out for the Jew!"

    I scared the living shit out of them. All 125 pounds of me!

    LOL

     

  • At 2/16/2007 3:52 PM , Blogger augie said...

    Matt's breakout game in JV was at Clinton in the rain and mud, one of only natural fields left. i have great picture on my desk of him, mainly headshot after victory,he's intense looking with dirt and sweat everywhere.Got the game ball too!

     

  • At 2/16/2007 3:52 PM , Blogger augie said...

    Matt's breakout game in JV was at Clinton in the rain and mud, one of only natural fields left. i have great picture on my desk of him, mainly headshot after victory,he's intense looking with dirt and sweat everywhere.Got the game ball too!

     

  • At 2/20/2007 1:51 PM , Blogger augie said...

    Watch out I had 2 big O linemen in my car yesterday. Their very smart QB is the NYC to Troy driver via Yonkers ,which is actually much nicer then I imagined.
    PS vote for the QB's dad. Mr Robertson (where's Ann Bankroft)is running for Mayor.

     

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