Huckleberries: Blogging down memory lane

It started with a brief comment by Huckleberries Online regular CodaDave: “I noticed that little barbershop building at the corner of 4th and Annie Avenue, which had been there since at least the 1950s, is now gone. Lots on that block are being vacated, and it’s just another slice of old CdA that’s now but a mental figment of memory in the minds of those who’ve been around here awhile.” Someone responded that the block is being cleared for a Thai restaurant. But the comment launched a thread about MIA landmarks. OrangeTV recalls Topper, Too? “They had onion rings like no other place in the history of the world, and the ugliest girls ever worked there.” Gibbs Tavern. Cove Bowl. Playland Pier. Wilma Theater. Woolworth’s and J.C. Penney’s. County Clerk Dan English recalls working at the lunch counter of his uncle’s eatery, The Viking, across from the old junior high on Seventh (now Phippeny Park) for 35 cents an hour, plus a free hamburger and cherry Coke each day. The White Pine was next door. Jane Q. Citizen remembers the White Pine as the place where “the hoods” congregated to smoke. Later, the old shops were converted into homes along the street and the old high school torn down. Before it was torn down, commenter Bent and his friends claimed the old school for a clubhouse. “We used to swing across the stage on a big rope (Van Halen style). … We skateboarded on the track around the top of the gym. It was the sweetest place to play hide and seek.” Memories. See what you’re missing by not reading Huckleberries Online?