People who grew up in Hoboken in the 1950s never tire of nostalgia, if Bobby Slezak is any example. He sent me this picture from the collection of the Hoboken Historical Museum last week, with the following comment: This pic of Jack O Dine's is worth a post IN THE ICE CREAM AND ROSES BLOG SECTION. Jac-O-Dine's is where the Demarest football players and cheerleaders did their dancing. No, CAN'T FIND ANY PIX OF ABELS, sorry to say. I LOOKED FOR IT. Allen Freed WAS THE KING OF ROCK AND ROLL, not Elvis...ALLEN FREED ROCK AND ROLL SHOWS PLAYED AT THE Fabian in 1956. HOBOKEN OFFICIALS WERE NOT HAPPY ABOUT THIS. They soon after banned rock and roll in Hoboken and Jersey City. We all know that the ban did not stick.
We did play TOMMY DORSEY RECORDS IN ABEL'S...SO RARE was played a lot. Mr. Abel opened up a dance section for us to dance, when we could not go to the St. Michael's Dance. A GREAT PLACE IN HOBOKEN HISTORY, gone BUT NOT FORGOTTEN...that was another great place.
ABEL'S will always be my favorite place.
The Jac-O-Dines is an old picture BUT IT LOOKS THE SAME AS WE REMEMBER IT.
Dennis (The Rabbi) Maloney, wrote this of Abel's in a post about Abel's a year ago: When we first went into Abel's the soda was 25 cents and it was a big glass. There was no dance floor and it was always packed in the back. People just didn't want to sit in the front on a stool, I guess.
Abel's is where you went to meet girls or girls went to meet boys, whatever! Abel's had those wall jukeboxes at first. Twenty five cents let you play three songs, I think. There was always popular songs
on the juke box.
Mr. Abel was a very patient man. He used to run the place with his brother, who later opened a place out in Newark, N.J. I think he had the other place on Market Street. The Hoboken store used to make up this real big ice cream dish that the three of us could never finish, and it cost a reasonable price. I think Mr. Abel got a kick out of seeing us trying to eat all that ice cream and getting sick.
Later on he added the dance floor by removing the wall from the store next door and charged for the dancing. Then he put a limit on the time you could spend in the store, or you could reorder another soda or whatever you were having. He actually hired a bouncer named Eddie the Criminal. This guy was a real nutcase. He thought he was a real big shot!! I would like a nickel for all the times he almost got kicked on his butt by someone. He knew who was impressed with his role and who was not.
Eddie really got married and spent his honeymoon in Abel’s!! Yep, the day he got married, he brought his new found wife to Abel’s for all of us to meet. Told you there were some weird people back then.
If you're a visitor from old Hoboken, you might enjoy this post or the one called "Days of Ice Cream and Roses" that the Hoboken Kid, Slezak, referred to above. You don't have to be b-n-r to enjoy these stories--they were coming into the blog from old Hoboken a year ago. and if you don't know what b-n-r means, there's a post about that too.
4 comments:
HEY ML READERS--send in your memories...the jac-o-dines is an old picture BUT IT LOOKS THE SAME AS WE REMEMBER IT.
The humor of Hoboken. Hoboken always had a sense of humor no matter what the problem was. When downtown flooded, after a good rain, the comments were, "Now we got a lake in Hoboken!" The former Judge DeFazio had a great sense of humor on the bench. When we were children we used to go and watch him. He was related to the Marottas and the Montesano families. Charlie the barber used to have his shop across from city hall on Bloomfield Street and used to play the mandolin when he had no customers. He only gave one kind of haircut to us kids. Hey! For 25 cents it was a good deal. Back to da Judge ... one tine we were in the court room and he was having a hard time understanding some seaman. The seaman spoke some kind of Italian that the Judge did not know, so the Judge asked the cop on duty if he knew anyone who knew Italian. What does an Irish cop know about Italians? The cop said," Yeah, Patsy the street cleaner is Italian." The Judge sent for Patsy who happened to be around city hall. He asked Patsy, "Do you speak Italian?" I guess Patsy was scared to answer so he only grunted what sounded like a yeah. Judge Defazio asks Patsy to ask this seaman what is his name. Real calm, Patsy turn around and says, "Whatsa you name?" The Judge threw Patsy out of the courtroom and gave the seaman a $50 fine for being drunk.
Needless to say there was a lot of laughter in the courtroom, even the Judge laughed!! The Judge never forgot about that seaman and later on in life as I saw him sitting on a bench on Washington Street, I asked him if he remembered it. His reply was, "Whatsa you name!" Yes he remembered!
More humor. Ever see the game that people play with the street cleaner? When the street sweeper is approaching you hear a whistle and the street is clear of parked cars. Right after, immediately, the street if filled with parked cars. Don't ever try to take a parking space!! Some people lay claim to one! You hear,"Hey! That"s my spot!" Like people have spots given to them to park their cars. I used to see a neighbor drive around for hours looking for a parking spot. Is it really worth the hassle to own a car in Hoboken. Then you have to worry about it being there in the morning, because somebody might take it. Washing the car is a thing of importance. You have to have your car nice and shiney. The thing was how many coats of wax you had on it, like it really was going to protect your car! Most popular color car downtown was black and a black car really does look well if it is kept shiney. BUT one shower and the car is a mess. I used to work downtown at the old Hinde & Dauch Corrugated Box Company and in the winter, walking I would beat people to work. They would spend a couple of hours digging their car out of the snow. Never knew how they got a parking spot at night. Hoboken seemed to have this saying," If G-d put the snow there, He will take it away." The rain was another thing. Like I said downtown Hoboken turned into a lake. Now they had to walk thru that nasty water to get to their car. Have to say the language was very colorful, when I asked how their boat was? I meant the cars.
The double and sometimes triple parking we will leave alone. I value my life! Ever see someone get "Lucky" on the street, stepping in something that should not be there? You have to see a guy double park his car and run into a store only to come out and step into "IT" before he gets his car. I think he cusses out the whole world. To me, who is smart enough to watch where I step, it was pure humor. OH! There was a cop giving the guy a ticket for double parking. Now that is adding insult to injury!
Went to the TV Rental store today to rent a movie. The guy there used to live in Hoboken!!!! We both had some laughs about Maxwell House Coffee. He is a in betweener. That means he is in between my time and the new Hobokenites. I refuse to call them Yuppies. Thru Google, I walk the streets of Hoboken and I can see all the new things and new buildings. Have to say, it sure cleans up nice.
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