Roy Rogers- 1974

 Roy Rogers was one of our favorite places to go out to eat when we were kids. This one was located in Cranford. It eventually became Pizza Hutt and currently the eye doctor's office that my family and I go to is there. In the 1980s, we also sometimes went to the one in Clark which is now a Wendy's. I recently read that there are 5 left in NJ, 3 of them are at rest stops.

  

December 12- Childhood Food Memories-Part 1

-Fast Food/Chain Restaurants– Roy Rogers, Burger King, Kentucky Fried Chicken, Wendy’s, White Castle, Stewart’s (good root beer), Chick Fil-A; Bonanza, Ponderosa, The Rustler, and Ground Round (near Aunt Ann’s house).

-Restaurant– Alipertis’, Spiritos, Big Stash’s, Coach and Four, Cock n’ Bull at Peddler’s Village, P.A. and the Smithville Inn. JFK Airport had a good buffet style one that Mom, Mike, Pat and I went to before my trip to Germany in 1989.

-Diners – The Rustic Mill, Parsonage Road, The Cavalier, Galaxy, Westfield,  Mastoris, Sleepy Hollow Inn, Woodbridge, Reo, Mark Twain, St. George, Betty Lind, GM, Scotchwood, and Macedonia (now Wisdom).

-Mastoris –They have delicious sweet cheese and cinnamon breads. The pancakes with strawberries and whipped cream are yummy. We used to go there sometimes when visiting Aunt Ann and Uncle Joe.

-Mom and I would sometimes split our meals at diners. We liked getting liver and onions. Mom enjoyed the chopped liver at their salad bars too.

-Special birthdays -13^th and 16^th – Our parents took us out to the diner or restaurant of our choice. I picked a seafood place down the shore but I forget the name of it or even where it was for my 13^th. I was wearing a white hand-me-down dress from Fran.

  We went to the Fulton Restaurant in Rahway for my sweet 16. Mike chose the Sleepy Hollow Inn for his 13^th but I don’t even remember where we went for his 16^th- maybe nowhere.

-Alligator Bread – Mom went to The Three Little Bakers Dinner Theater in Delaware with her friends/co-workers in the mid-1980s and brought back a bread shaped like and alligator. I took a picture of it before we ate this. It was so cool.

-Pizza – This was a Friday or Saturday night treat for us (and sometimes our friend Kelly) in the late 70s – mid 80s. We’d get it from Venice in Linden. Other places we liked over the years were Tony’s, Two Tony’s and Rosario’s, which is near our Aunt Ann’s house.

-The Butcher Block –We used to go there a lot in the 1980s for our lunchmeats, some meats, rolls, rye bread, bagels, potato salad, and coleslaw. We’d also sometimes get sub sandwiches and party platters.

1974- Roy Rogers

 

1978- Betty Lind

My 13th Birthday

Mike's 13th Birthday

Sleepy Hollow Inn

 

 

My 16th Birthday- 1985-Fulton Restaurant

Mastoris

Mastoris' Cinnamon Bread

Mastoris' Cheese Bread

 

Peddler's Village- Cock 'n Bull

 

Spiritos-Elizabeth

 

 

 

2013

 

Reo- Woodbridge

 

Scotchwood

 

Parsonage Diner

 

 

Rustic Mill-Cranford

Coach and Four- 1980s

 

alligator bread-Three Little Bakers

Three Little Bakers-Delaware

 

 

1977

White Castle-Rahway- 1973

 

 

Rosario's Pizza- Bordentown

 

Venice Pizza

 

The Butcher Block

 

 

Note-some photos are from the internet- pizza places,The Butcher Block; fast food except for Roy Rogers; Diners and Restaurants except for our 4 family photos, Sleepy Hollow postcard, Three Little Bakers, and Coach and Four

                                     

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

                                  

 

 

 

Dreamtime

April 19, 2014- An Autograph Show

I was at an autograph signing show but it was in a different type of setting. This really big space had tables set up flea market style. Some of these had merchandise on them.

    I didn’t know who the guest stars were yet. I was alone now but later I would find out that my brother, Cousin Tony, Mom, and Dad were here too.

   I noticed an area that had nearly all of the “Happy Days” stars, including Ron Howard- as if he would ever be at one of these events. I overheard a lady saying that she was disappointed that Scott Baio wasn’t there. Nearby was the actress who played Julie on “The Love Boat”.

   I saw my brother coming towards me. He asked me if I had seen Lee Majors yet which I had not. We went to his table for his autograph. I was a little worried that Mike would say something that would embarrass me but luckily he didn’t.

   He told him that we had recently gotten into his show “The Big Valley” and that we had seen his costar Linda Evans at another show. That did happen in reality. He mentioned that we enjoyed his other shows “The Six Million Dollar Man” and “The Fall Guy” too.

   After this, Mike went with Tony to look at Godzilla merchandise. They also were going to meet two of the Bond girls, Maud Adams and Tanya Roberts.

    I saw a table with Duran Duran stuff. I bought a couple of nice photos of John Taylor. I wasn’t even thinking that one or more of the guys from that group would be here. When I looked at the table next to this, I saw Simon Le Bon sitting there.

    I was a bit nervous but did go over to talk to him. I told him that I couldn’t afford his autograph because I was trying to save up for a trip to Toronto to visit my friend Sharon. He said that this was alright and to have fun when I do go there.

   I did better with him than I did when meeting John Taylor. It still seems surreal that this actually happened.

   Roger Taylor was at the table next to his but a few girls were chatting with him so I didn’t bother approaching him. Maybe I would go back there later.

   It was odd but good that this there wasn’t a big crowd at this event. I hadn’t seen Mom and Dad yet. Mike had told me earlier that they were getting lunch in a cafeteria style place.

   I spotted Mike talking to David Gilmour. It was interesting that we both got to meet music stars that we greatly admire.

   I saw the 3 actors from “Riptide”- Perry King, Thom Bray, and Joe Penny. I used to have a crush on the former. I was too afraid to go over to their table.

   Mike and I went to meet two “Battlestar Galactica” stars, Dirk Benedict and Richard Hatch. He already has the latter’s autograph. He shook our hands when we met him for real. I was a little ashamed for thinking that I was more impressed by John Taylor’s handshake.

    He was excited to see the former; he missed out on the opportunity to meet him at a show a couple of years ago. After getting his autograph, we met up with our cousin, Mom, and Dad. They were at a Western items table.

   Mom showed us a photo of Roy Rogers that she had purchased. She actually met him at a rodeo in MSG. I forget when, maybe the mid or late 1960s. She would be adding that to her scrapbook with other Roy Rogers stuff. She probably had a crush on him.

   Just as Dad was about to show us the autograph that he got, the scene began to fade quickly. It would have been nice if I could have chatted with Roger before this fascinating storyline ended.

The Love Boat

Happy Days

Lee Majors

Riptide-Perry King (right)

Roger Taylor

Simon Le Bon

Richard Hatch & Dirk Benedict

 

Note- photos from the internet- Richard Hatch and Dirk Benedict

 

1974

I was only on a horse 2 times in my life - the first was in 1974 at the Turtleback Zoo which mom took a photo of. The second time was in 1982 in Virginia on a girl scout trip. Our family enjoyed eating at Roy Rogers - my brother and I look like we were having fun on the horses there. The bottom lefthand photo is of mom, Mark, Grandma and I in front of our town's new fire truck. It's a shame that grandma got cut off in it though. Dad took the photo of us at Newark airport the day that we took a tour of it and also a TWA plane. Mark and I got TWA pins then which I still have.

Memory Lane

I was driving along Central Ave. the other day and remembering how it used to be there - Bradlees, Bonanza, Clark Lanes, Howard Johnsons and Roy Rogers. Now these places where they were - Target, McDonalds, Bally's Fitness Club and Rite Aid, Shop Rite(which used to be down the road a bit but now is Barnes and Noble) and Wendys.

My mother worked at Bradlees in the late 70s - late 80's. My brother worked there for 7 years starting in 1988, I think. I even worked there a couple of times for 5 months in 87 and I forget how long a couple of years later- less than 6 months.

Dad would take us to Bonanza and Roy Rogers sometimes. My brother left his King Kong figure at the former in the late 70s but when we went back for this it was no longer there. He was upset about that. I felt bad for him. I still have my membership card for the Roy Rogers Buckaroo Club from back then. I'm pretty sure that my mom told me that she saw Roy Rogers in person once.

Part of my birthday party in the late 70s was at Clark Lanes. I was never really that good at bowling. We didn't go that much. We did watch the professional bowlers on TV with our parents sometimes. I think that there was a show called Bowling For Dollars that they watched too.

When I took my dog to the groomers yesterday on Raritan Road I thought about the Carvel and Stewarts that used to be nearby. Now a Portugese and Japanese restraunts are there. We loved Carvel ice cream. My favourite flavor was maple walnut and my brother's mint chocolate chip. We'd get their cakes for birthdays, graduations and our First Holy Communions. I loved the root beer in the frosty mugs at Stewarts.

Route 1 and Route 130 changed so much over the years. We'd travel that way to get to my Aunt's house in South Jersey. Many shopping centers, businesses and homes are now there. No more Ford and General Motors plants on Rt. 1 though which is sad and also makes me angry that our country is outsourcing alot of jobs esp. in manufacturing. My Dad used to work in GM for 23 years up until he took the buyout in 1987.

Sometimes I get that silly sci-fi fantasy of my spirit traveling through time and being in my body in my childhood. I'm in the car with my family seeing how things used to be and going to those places again. I'm only there to observe. I can't change anything that my younger self does or says. That would be okay. My trip down memory lane is over for today.