Main Street --- the 60's
Not exactly Hackettstown. Instead all small town Main Streets and what is different. On my Main Street, there was:
1 No Chinese take out or restaurant.
2. Pizza only at the bowling alley.
3. Pay Phones with doors like Superman used.
4. a Butcher Shop.
5. a Fish Shop.
6. a Department Store with somebody's name who lived in town...
7. No skate boards.
8. Nothing for the handicapped
9. No video games, just pinball.
10. People taking to the sky, but we called them crazy :>)
strangerdanger Less than 1/2 the amount of Police Officers patrolling Hackettstown
Streets as there is today.
JJ Newberrys Store on Main St.
Clarendon Hotel "The place to be" for best food and fun..
Bach;s & Kerrs Drugstore
Hackettstown Hardware Store
LeMaster Cleaners
Henry Monetti Real Estate
joyful Lipton's (department store, not soup LOL)
Woolworth's
Kresge's
Carvel
Two movie theaters
A record store
A pet shop
Shoe stores
Stationery store
A florist
Hair salons
Jewelry stores
Superman phone booths
Buses to anywhere you needed to go
Kids walking everywhere without parental supervision
Calico696 Adding a few more to Calico’s list
Two arcades
Mandees
Annie Sez (sp?)
Willies Diner
Mary Dunham’s (sp?) Chocolate Shop
A huge bank in the center of it all
Blimpies
Positive Positive - Yes!
Also....
Rite Aid
Pizzerias
The Feedbag
Tom Fleming's Running Room
Grand Union
Arthur Treacher's
The Getty
Lynne's Nissan
Hoffmann BMW
Watsessing Park
Short Stop Diner
Remember the guidelines.....the sixties. And what wasn’t there is great too.
Like we only called long distance if we had to; too expensive.
Blimpies and Rite Aid in the sixities? Possible, one started in Scranton, the other Jersey City I think...early sixties for both. But may have only been a few dozen locations by end of sixties.
Arthur Treacher’s founded in 1969....Ohio....think that’s the 70’s for us.
Pizza— that’s funny that my Main Street didn’t have it. Guess it was slower to Western NY.
Moved recently from Katonah, NY where there is still a thriving hamlet:
1. Cobbler
2. Mom and pop Hardeware Store
3. Mom and Pop old time department store: (shoe section, clothing, kitchen supplies, small appliances. Can get your knives sharpened too)
4. Indie bookstore and cafe
5. Indie cafe
6. Mom and pop men’s store with shoe section for family
7. Mom and pop pharmacy
8. Butcher
9. Bakery
10. Stationery store
11. Toy store
12. Jewelry store
13. Pizza shops
14. Flower shop
15. Nail shops
14. Unisex walk-in hair salon
15. Post Office
16. Small supermarket
17. Train Station
18. Gourmet deli
19. Bike shop
20. Service Station
To name a few... and all walkable from our little home. Children were safe to walk alone. Hackettstown may get there someday, if the strip malls do t suck the life out of Main Street.
Robin When I was a kid, I vaguely remember always going to the same old gas station. It was located about where the jeweler is, next to the First Hope Bank, across from the Hyundai dealer. Same little old lady worked there, every day. Always had a bowl of lollipops for the kids.
JerseyWolf The Jigger Shoppe, where kids would stop on the way home from school for candy and comic books.
JJB Sorry SD, I realized I screwed up after posting.
Since I was born in 1966..my recollection is based from mid 70’s to late 80’s
I think it's great that y'all are reminiscing about what Hackettstown used to be like, but the fact is that time marches forward, and change is inevitable.
Hackettstown is still an incredibly safe town (coming from someone who has lived in Philadelphia, Seattle, Chicago, and Newark). You can walk the streets here at night without any serious fear that there is a threat to your safety, aside from the few minor crimes that occur here (that are generally a result of the opiate epidemic that has effected every town in the USA). Children are still safe to walk alone. There is nothing to worry about in this still quaint little town, that has many good hearted passerbys and an over-funded police force. Spend a few nights in the city and you'll be thankful you live here.
I'm sure it was great to live in Norman Rockwell's dream. I, too, would love to see this town full of more small businesses and less chains. However, I've seen many small businesses attempt to thrive here... off the top of my head I can name the few breweries we have, the pickle store, Wyrd Lily (gift shop), the soup shop, the candy shoppe, and the game store. Even a few unique restaurants such as James on Main, Toscana, Sizzle, etc.
So, to sum up what I'm trying to say... it's not the 1960's anymore. It's 2019. Things have changed. Change is good. Reminiscing is good. But this town is still safe, still attempting to thrive, still accommodating to the "mom and pop" shops you mention. Many of the things you've mentioned have fallen to the wayside for a reason.
Ride the wave, comrades.
HarmonySun Yeah, time moves on, but what I am amazed at is how many things I had, my kid’s kids have never heard of and many things today were just not invented.
Sure cell phones, pc’s, that’s ez, but just amazing orher things there and not there.
It started when I asked my sister if we had Chinese in our town. Nope. Today, that seems impossible. No pizza shops. And you’re right — no malls; strip malls were just starting, mostly family stores.
Not about good or bad, just about how in a lifetime, things change so much that our kids can’t remember what was commonplace for us.
Take that back one more generation to my sainted FIL, born in 1912 - no or not many commercial airlines. My grandmother in 1912 took months to travel to America.....and she wasn’t dawdling :-).
As I age and things slow down, I am amazed how fast they went.
Reynolds;
Walmart;
Junk Food Alley (but not as many food chains;
Pizza Hut;
The Nook nightclub;
that other nightclub up Rt. 57 in Port Murray (?);
wasn't there a supermarket where Shop Rite Liquors is now (off Rt. 46)?
Ice Skating Rink;
Roller Rink;
Fried Chicken place on corner of 57 and Mt. Avenue.
Shoe Store where Dollar Tree is now.
Hackresident My family came to Hackettstown in 1961 and lived here since:
Our Main St. Hackettstown at that time did not have a restaurant that sold pizza either yet, strangerdanger... Had my first taste of pizza in Sparta, NJ
That was Golden Skillet and I think the shoe store was Marty’s. The supermarket was Shoprite, burned down years ago.
I remember Jamesway, great store. Not sure if it was there in the 60’s
Not Main St, but 46 West..I think it was called The Junkie Store. Not for junkies. Lol. They sold a bunch of used items. Not far from Herbies.
We moved here in the early 70's and there was a pizzeria on Main St. It was a few doors down from the Strand movie theatre. It was called Luigi's. The owner loved my husband. They would talk and tell each other jokes all the time. We would get an order and of course pay what he charged. Our neighbor would get basically the same things we did and he would be charged 1/2 again as much as we were charged. It made our neighbor so mad. Then one day Luigi's was gone; no notice, just gone. We never knew what happened to him.
Parental Unit Ty Joyful. My sister and I really thought we were crazy, or deprived by our parents, and must have had a pizzeria.
As to the rest.....Walmart? Really? They didn’t leave Arkansas until 1968..... Sixties Dude, sixties....
Sigh....
We had Snowshoes, a 50’s Mels-like burger drive-in with in-ground trampolines. Great chilli. And instead of McDs, we had Carrols, looked the same but teal (like the LED) instead of yellow. The first probably got liability bankrupt, the second got McD’d.
Guilty-Remnant I remember tv was black n white only, no cable. Channels 2-13. Ma Bell was the only phone service. Rotary only, no push buttons yet. Mr. Potato Head was a popular toy, so was the hula hoop, jump rope and playing hop scotch. Bikes with banana seats!
I miss the Chiller movies every Saturday night. Will never forget the killer tree and the killer tomatoes.
No microwaves then, Jiffy Pop popcorn on the stove was the way to go. I really loved our cardboard fireplace at Christmas..wonder if they are still around.
I vaguely remember Nixon and Ford, but really liked Carter. Heck what did I know at 11 years old.
Boy I’m old....
You are not old....Positive. I had a newborn baby in 1961!!!
Main St. Hackettstown also had the Strand Theatre showing the latest films of the time
Endicott Johnson Shoe store
Leeter Dept Store (employed there for many years)
Dad and Lad clothing for infants and young children
Leo's Hotdogs
Nerbak and Plate Jewelers
Cavanaughs (the town "watering hole")
The point is many family stores proudly displaying family name. No pizza! No Chinese! Much less Columbian, Thai, Mexican, and no way Vietnamese.
It is remarkable given corporate America that Main Street not only survives, but thrives! That has not changed! With internet sales, it may even surge ahead as Main St reaches the world easily today.
Bananna seated bikes with clothes-pinned playing cards for sound effects, skateboards a novelty, maybe with steel wheels, black n white tvs with Ed Sullivan and Bonanza (is that right?) on Sunday night. Remember tranistor radios like the size of four packs off cigarettes.
For us in da North, black toggle coats collars-up for the winter, Peters wind breakers for the Spring. That was stupid for sure.... Cool guys were called “hoods.”
Again, I am not yearning for the good ole days of old, just remarking that things I grew up with have disappeared in less than a lifetime. I like internet ordering via smart phone for rapid pickup at BottleKing :-) And while we are indeed old.....its only our bodies that are aging, my mind still wants what it wants and remembers almost everything......if you give me enough time to recall ;-)
Positive - I'm with you. Where I grew up in the part of the sixties I was alive, I hardly remember much of Main Street at 4 years old. We lived out on a farm and other then the Victory in town, the local library and thrift store are the only things I can remember of a town. Then again when there are 1200 people there, and it's considered a medium sized town in the area...
It wasn't until summer of 1969 that we moved to all a town of 4500 people. Then I can actually remember a Main Street since we lived in town right next to the middle school. We had pizza then, the department store with someone's name and yes, mom even worked at the Newberry's for a while. And the bowling alley was attached to the motel - what a happening place. In late 1972 a huge multi-alarm fire destroyed a whole 1/2 block of a Main Street that only had 4 blocks anyway. Particularly since they had gotten a Jamesway (BIG TIME!!) before that, the Main Street never really recovered.
As for TV? Who had that in the sixties? We only got it right before we moved in 1969 to see the moon shot. 13 channels?? How about 3 - and even then one of the three didn't even come in well.
GC "lived on a farm." well, that's a change from folks today right there.....
Hmmm, hard to believe we were early on for TV, certainly didn't have color forever....but Sullivan started in 1948....Bonanza in 1959.... That is a difference for sure.
Our pizza/bowling alley was owned by a friend's father sparking my early brush up with "the man," as in being caught for skipping elementary school to spend the day bowling and eating pizza. For awhile, I could really bowl.....
Oh, oh, oh...…..we had a Boy's Club too. That's where I learned to swear and shoot pool. Guess it kept us "hoods," off the street :>) Ah, the memories are still coming back.....slowly.... I guess they still have Boys Clubs some where's but we had them in the sticks......
Back in the 60's in Hackettstown the big thing for our kid's recreation was either the Girl or Boy Scouts.
The local newspaper also would post any special event you or your family were involved in : Birthday's, Anniversaries, etc. and if my memory is correct WRNJ was around back then too!!
Also remembering with my young child in my arms running out of our home in Kenwood Village gathering in a circle with the other young Mothers on our street crying the day we learned our then President John F. Kennedy had been killed...
Our daughter was one of the first students at the new Hatchery Hill school. There is a capsule buried outside the school to be opened (maybe already has) with her name on it.
"over-funded police force" maybe that is the reason we still have a safe town....BTW police deserve every cent they earn. I grew up in NYC so I am well aware of the difference. And no I am not a police officer, nor is anyone in my family in law enforcement just think we do not give police the credit and respect they are due....Just my opinion....
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