Hi Weeq-Memoirehistorians,
Phil Yourish (64) and Myra Lawson (70/WHSAA) share news of the passing of Newark activist:
The link, below, is the obit for Wilhelmina McNeill Holder, Weequahic Class of 1969, who was a dedicated community and education activist in Newark (Obituary for Wilhelmina Holder). She was very vocal during the previous public school administrations about keeping Weequahic open (as well as other schools). Myra & Phil
Fran Sekela Katz (6/54) advises of loss of her brother’s death:
So sorry to have to convey to my fellow alumni that my brother Jerry Katz, Weequahic class of June 1960, passed away. His obituary appeared in the Trenton Times at Link to Jerry Katz Obituary. Please note that our mother’s maiden name in the obit is misstated and should read “Dora Rosenbaum.” Fran
Fred Derf Goldman (6/62) recalls meet with WHS BB standout:
One last story (maybe?) about a good friend and classmate Allen Friedman. After moving to West Orange years ago, I used to go for coffee and papers in the morning to a candy store (that's what I called it). One day, as I was about to get in my car, I hear someone asking me, “Is that you Fred?” I turn around and try to see who was calling me, but I couldn't tell who this person was. As I got closer, he kept saying, “Yes that's you, Derf.” So, I knew it was someone from school. When I got right up to him, I recognized that it was Allen Friedman.
After a couple of minutes going over the old days, I asked what he was doing in West Orange. Allen told me he all ways came to buy food at the Kosher butcher shop which was right next to the candy store. Then he tells me that the owner of the shop also graduated from Weequahic; I think he said in 1954. His name was Lenny Wallen.
After that little reunion, we would meet and have lunch or breakfast a few times a month and always talked about are days growing up in Newark. Sadly, the owner of the butcher shop and Allen passed away. I still miss talking and meeting with a good friend. I'm sure he is missed by all who knew him. Fred
Everything on the bagel gets another airing:
Jac Toporek (6/63)
A few weeks ago, the Star Ledger did all of us bagel lovers a favor and helped answer the age-old question, “where to find the best bagel,” in New Jersey, anyway. Forty-four bagel bakeries/shops are presented as the top of the “shmearables” (cream cheese spreadable). Check out # 7, a tie to Watson Bagel, no doubt, at (Link to the Greatest Bagels Ranked story)
Perhaps, OK probably, as much as the “bagel” has had a great food-fest (in bagel-bytes terms) in the “WHS Note” over the last half-year, as the one who edits the weekly mailing, I am extremely grateful for your generosity of bagel blessings. Watson Bagels is but a small part of our Weequahic lore. So, if there is a specific theme or W-nostalgia you wish to make part of our weekly exchange, please feel free to submit for publication. Your Weequahic experience is our Weequahic experience.
And, I will start by setting the example. Recently scanned my TV Weekly and noticed that “The Breakfast Club” was to be shown on of the now existing hundreds of channels. One of my fav “coming of age” movies. Got me thinking that I never was the subject/victim of a “detention mandate” while at WHS. Were any of you? If so, let us hear all about it. But, as noted above, all suggested themes are very welcome. Jac
Wilma Bernhaut Pitman (57)
I live in Morristown, NJ now. I have discovered a bagel shop that is wonderful. My daughter lives in Manhattan and is a bagel snob, but agrees these bagels are really good. The store is called Time for A Bagel on Speedwell Avenue in Morris Plains (across from the train station there and down from Arthur's, to give you a reference). I'm not sure, but I even think the owner is a WHS grad and not affiliated with Watson. You don't have to travel too far to get a great bagel. Wilma
Clark Lissner (6/63)
To Janet Sakoff Kaestner (6/63, don't know your South Carolina address, but Charleston Bagels in Mt. Pleasant, S. Carolina (a suburb of Charleston) has an expansive menu featuring a wide variety of bagels and bialys at moderate prices. Clark
Natalie Susser Braunstein (56)
To Steve Radin’s (1/53) comment on bagels in California, here in Southern CA, we are lucky to have “I Love Bagels,” which I believe is a product of the Amster family. Natalie
Lorraine Larayne Rindzner-Deangelo (1/55)
I've been a northern California gal since 1974. I almost agree with the writer who doesn’t feature our west coast bagels. No, they are not an Amster or Watson bagel. We should be so lucky! We do have a small chain called Posh Bagels. Their garlic bagels are wonderful as are others they produce. We just took a bagful to San Francisco from outside Sacramento for my grandson and family. 2 &1/2 hours in the car with that smell. OMG! We held off till we got there and then with all the wonderful, lox and fixings we prepared to make our lunch.
At one time Cantors on Fairfax in Beverly Hills had wonderful breads, bagels and pastry. I haven't been there in eight years so I can't tell you how it is today. If my fellow northern Californian Weequahicites want to try Posh, I believe they'll be happy. Larayne
Sis Levine Gold (54)
Anyone in the LA area looking for “Watson Bagel” type bagels, look into The Bagel Factory. It is the closest I’ve come to them. There are four locations, Robertson, Sepulveda and National and two others somewhere in this vicinity.
The red-headed twins were in my grade (54) and were twirlers with me. Judy and Helen Schenkel were good ladies.
Remember the Park theatre well, especially the free dishes! Sis
Norman Nibby Barr (6/54)
"Western Bagels" in Los Angeles makes very good bialys, as well as excellent bagels of multiple choices such as garlic, onion, plain, salt and “everything.” They have multiple retail outlets in the area. In addition, they also make a range of bagels to cater to their customers such as “jalapeño, cheese, etc., all of which I have never tried. Nibby
To Sondra Kurtz Newall (6/63) in reply to her note on Schleifer Park:
Jack Lippman (50)
To Sondra Kurtz Newell (6/63), Pfc. Louis Schleifer was killed at Pearl Harbor on Dec. 7, 1941. The park on Elizabeth Avenue at Bigelow Street carries his name. The street in Hillside might also be named after him. Jack
Marvin Kaleky (Hillside 55)
Yes, Max Schleifer was once the Mayor of Hillside and the street Schleifer Rd was named for him. I knew Max very well, as I operated the Hillside Yellow Cab Co. Mayor Max and I had many times been in contact. Marvin
Linda Heyman Halperin (Irvington 55)
In regard to the comments regarding Schleifer Road in Hillside, I want to clarify that it was named after my uncle, Max Schleifer, who was the Mayor of Hillside (probably in the 50s). He was my mother's brother. Linda
Warren Bratter (1/60) is once more parked in town and takes us on a personal journey:
Here I am, once again parked in front of 439 Clinton Place. It’s been several years since I’ve returned to our Weequahic neighborhood. I am not dreaming. I am wide awake and it is a late summer afternoon in 2008. I have just delivered documents downtown to the Newark Court House for one of my immigration lawyer sons and decided to head back home to Weequahic. I had taken Interstate 78 into Newark, which like the Cross Bronx Expressway in New York City, had displaced and decimated our neighborhood. So, returning home became a bewildering dislocation of my hardwired memories of streets and familiar landmarks along which I used to go on training runs with track teammates, the legendary Bobby Mack (6/60) and the intrepid Tommy Krueger (6/60).
Miraculously, I found Elizabeth Avenue and followed it until I began to see, in rapid succession, familiar street names; Lyons, Weequahic, Pomona and Goldsmith. I knew what the next block would be. Mental muscle memory helped me make a right hand turn up Vassar, my eyes slowly scanning the still tree lined street of large homes as I drove to Clinton Place.
Although there’s a fence now by the driveway side of the house, if I closed and opened my eyes for a moment and then, closed and opened my eyes again, the remembered images and the actual images of a childhood home looked just as they did before Dottie and Harry, my mom and dad, moved to West Orange from our home of 15 years. My sister Ellen, a too-young widowed mother had also left long ago. Looking up at the roof’s Vassar Avenue side, I noticed that, unlike my last brief visit here several years prior, the life-sized barn owl carved and realistically painted by one of my mom’s Newark Museum artist friends was missing. It had been affixed to the side of the house just below the roof’s gutters to ward off squirrels that might get into the attic. One more piece of irretrievable memory was gone.
After a few minutes of quiet, floating reverie, I headed south to the stop light at the corner of Clinton Place and Chancellor. To my right was a child’s playground. The DQ was missing. All those rites of passage: Friday and Saturday night adolescent memories of the people-packed parking lot, of “blizzards,” chocolate-dipped cones, HFSs and the taunting words with guys from outside the neighborhood who always came in search of Weequahic gals--now just revenants of an elapsed world. I was there, by the way, at the DQ, the night that Tank (Jerry Tannenbaum) drank four chocolate blizzards.
Turning right now, moving up Chancellor to the Weequahic High School, I drove past other pieces of memory shoals that had long since sunk beneath the waters of my consciousness. The YMHA is now the Early Childhood Center South. The Talmud Torah, on the corner of Aldine and Chancellor is now the Greater Life Community Outreach Center. Stopping for a moment at the curb by the now one-way Aldine Street sign, I glanced over at the monumental high school building. Still there on the first floor, though now encircled by a light fence, is the balcony where Danny Levy and I would bring our Boy Scout sleeping bags and stay overnight, having told our parents that we were at each other’s houses.
As we recollect:
Herb Trinkler (55)
Norman Pharmacy was owned by Norman Sacharow, who bought the pharmacy from Werner Drugs. Norman went on to higher education and became Dr Norman Sacharow and practiced in Orange, NJ for many years until his retirement. He was my doctor. Herb
Leonard Moshinsky (1/45)
This might be your answer. Norman Sacharow and I graduated Rutgers Pharmacy in 1949. He later bought Werner’s Pharmacy there, then built a new store across the street. Later, Norman kept that store and got a medical degree in Europe and practiced as an orthopedist in Newark. Great guy!
I lived on Jelliff near Watson. It’s all beneath Rt. 78 now. From Elizabeth Avenue, between Hawthorne and Watson, the cross streets were Johnson, Hillside Belmont, Ridgewood, Badge, Jelliff, Peshine, Hunterdon Bergen! Leonard
Michael Kessler (1/60)
My father owned Kessler's Pharmacy on Watson & Jelliff. When we ran out of something, we “KOed” (kindly oblige) it from another nearby drug stores. We often went to Norman's, Schuster’s or Rubin Bros. Michael
Arnie Kohn (56)
In response to Marty Friedman (1/47) who wrote that the” Weequahic Diner opened in 1943 on Frelinghuysen Avenue about two blocks south of Hawthorne Avenue,” the Diner was off Elizabeth Avenue, not Frelinghuysen. Arnie
Mady Bauman Barna (56)
Let’s clarify! The Weequahic Diner opened in 1938. My dad Leo purchased a Kullman prefab dining car. Prior to that he owned the Colonial Grill on Broadway across from the Rutgers Pharmacy School (or dental; I’m not sure, but I have a picture in front of him holding me).
The Weequahic Diner was on Elizabeth Avenue in Newark. Dd brought Morris out of Hitler’s Europe and put him to work and they worked together to build the greatest diner ever. Then came the Claremont. Read Nat Bodian’s history of Newark very informative (Link to Newark Memories - Diners). Mady
