Hello! As a young child, I lived on Grandview Ave. between Menahan and Grove streets. My father, who was born in 1943 and grew up in the same apartment, has distinct memories from his adolescence of summertime screenings at an outdoor theater just down the street. I offer this just as another bit of supporting evidence of the location and time-frame of the Grandview Theater.
Hello, everyone. I found this page while doing a Google search for some information on “the old neighborhood.” I lived on Grandview Ave. between Menahan and Grove, directly across from the Bohack supermarket. I was still in grade school when we moved “upstate” in the mid ‘70s; but even though I mostly grew up elsewhere, I still have a special affection for Ridgewood since I spent my earliest (and possibly most formative) years there.
My dad grew up in Ridgewood in the ‘50s and has shared a number of interesting stories with me over the years. For instance, he talks of buying pretzels from a factory located in some guy’s basement and reselling them on the street, at a decent profit. He says he’d walk with his basket of pretzels down Onderdonk Ave. intending to sell them on Myrtle, but he almost always sold out before he made it that far. He’s also shared some memories of singing doo-wop on the streets and running with a gang—I want to say “The Chaplains” but I might have that wrong.
My own memories include jumping around in the “sprinkler pool” in the little park across from Grover Cleveland high school; running after the Mister Softee ice cream truck for a bomb-pop or a double cone—or enjoying a soft-serve or “flying saucer” at the Carvel on Metropolitan Ave., with its king-sized cones crowning the building; pizza at Joe’s on Forest Ave.; and being dragged by my mother down to Myrtle Ave. for an afternoon of shopping. My mom worked as a waitress at the Fresh Pond Diner. I was grateful for the chance to see the diner one last time, prior to its demolition, during a 2003 visit to Ridgewood.
I’ve heard many speak of “the Brooklyn side” and “the Queens side” of Ridgewood, and I know that the ambiguity over which is which goes back many years. (Even in my father’s time, my grandparents were annoyed about having a Brooklyn address even though they considered themselves residents of Queens; I guess the bad rep for Brooklyn goes back even further than the Bushwick riots of the ‘70s). I was born at Wyckoff Heights Hospital and I’m never sure if I should say I was born in Bushwick or on the “Brooklyn side” of Ridgewood. I’ve looked into it somewhat and haven’t turned up a definite answer so far.
I know none of this has anything to do with movie theatres and I apologize for contributing to the level of off-topic chatter… but there seems to be more general discussion about Ridgewood on this page than on any other site I’ve come across during my web-surfing.
Hello! As a young child, I lived on Grandview Ave. between Menahan and Grove streets. My father, who was born in 1943 and grew up in the same apartment, has distinct memories from his adolescence of summertime screenings at an outdoor theater just down the street. I offer this just as another bit of supporting evidence of the location and time-frame of the Grandview Theater.
Hello, everyone. I found this page while doing a Google search for some information on “the old neighborhood.” I lived on Grandview Ave. between Menahan and Grove, directly across from the Bohack supermarket. I was still in grade school when we moved “upstate” in the mid ‘70s; but even though I mostly grew up elsewhere, I still have a special affection for Ridgewood since I spent my earliest (and possibly most formative) years there.
My dad grew up in Ridgewood in the ‘50s and has shared a number of interesting stories with me over the years. For instance, he talks of buying pretzels from a factory located in some guy’s basement and reselling them on the street, at a decent profit. He says he’d walk with his basket of pretzels down Onderdonk Ave. intending to sell them on Myrtle, but he almost always sold out before he made it that far. He’s also shared some memories of singing doo-wop on the streets and running with a gang—I want to say “The Chaplains” but I might have that wrong.
My own memories include jumping around in the “sprinkler pool” in the little park across from Grover Cleveland high school; running after the Mister Softee ice cream truck for a bomb-pop or a double cone—or enjoying a soft-serve or “flying saucer” at the Carvel on Metropolitan Ave., with its king-sized cones crowning the building; pizza at Joe’s on Forest Ave.; and being dragged by my mother down to Myrtle Ave. for an afternoon of shopping. My mom worked as a waitress at the Fresh Pond Diner. I was grateful for the chance to see the diner one last time, prior to its demolition, during a 2003 visit to Ridgewood.
I’ve heard many speak of “the Brooklyn side” and “the Queens side” of Ridgewood, and I know that the ambiguity over which is which goes back many years. (Even in my father’s time, my grandparents were annoyed about having a Brooklyn address even though they considered themselves residents of Queens; I guess the bad rep for Brooklyn goes back even further than the Bushwick riots of the ‘70s). I was born at Wyckoff Heights Hospital and I’m never sure if I should say I was born in Bushwick or on the “Brooklyn side” of Ridgewood. I’ve looked into it somewhat and haven’t turned up a definite answer so far.
I know none of this has anything to do with movie theatres and I apologize for contributing to the level of off-topic chatter… but there seems to be more general discussion about Ridgewood on this page than on any other site I’ve come across during my web-surfing.