829 Southdrive

829 Southdrive

A New Jersey state of mind



Friday, May 11, 2012

Destiny




Go figure that I ended up in the hospitality/restaurant business.
Uncle Carl was my great grandmother's second husband, and the
 two of them ran a quite successful bar and grill in Irvington, N.J.
for years.  Coincidence?  Maybe, maybe not.
  
I'm thinking the guy crossing the street is lucky to be on foot 
instead of behind the wheel at this point.  Too many pickled eggs 
with his shooters and beers.  On the bright side, it looks to be 
early in the day. Hopefully he made the best of it.





Carl, on the left, was proprietor, while Gram was cooking (smiling
from the pass).  Check out the sparkling bar.  The back of a bar 
these days doesn't look a whole hell of a lot different.  He had every
 right to be proud of his establishment.  The Angostura bitters bottle 
has not changed.  A couple more familiar faces were in the crowd:
The man to the far right with fedora and wire-rimmed glasses
was Grampa, Mom's Dad, and her brother Don to his left, 
Mojo's Dad.  To this day, I have an oval platter from Carl's.
As time goes by, I use it less and less.  





In the twenties, Grampa coached the local Rahway football team.
Probably just a club team, they look too old to be High School
kids.  Again, probably no coincidence that I'm passionate about the 
sport.  Although he died when I was about 7 or 8, I have to believe
that he had visions of me playing ball.  The tall guy to his side 
is probably a good indicator of how I would have looked next to
 him.  Just not quite as narrow in the mid section.  It would have
been neat for him to have seen me play.  With a plastic helmet on.


17 comments:

  1. Better believe Grandpa had visions of you playing ball. Only one outta my seven grandkids is a guy. All I want is to live long enough to see him play shortstop or center midfielder.

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    Replies
    1. Actually, I should eat my words. After reading Phoenix Catholic school forfeits baseball championship game because opponent has female player, I cannot shortchange my grand daughters. Each one of them, except for the two cellists, could end up playing shortstop. (What was I ever thinking?)

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  2. Really enjoy your blog - just curious, though, when you enter the longitude/latitude from blog into Google Earth it shows 770 Princeton Drive instead of 820 South Drive.

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    1. KR: Those coordinates worked two years ago, but I guess the earth is ever-changing? Try the new ones or just type in 829 south drive, Brick, NJ. And thanks!

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    2. Touché. But that was a long , long time ago.

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  3. awesome. love the old photos and glimpses back into the life of Baydog. where did you play the pointy football?

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  4. Two of my four grandkids are guys.

    All I want is to live long enough to see them winning Olympic gold medals in sailing in the 2036 Olympics, (to go with the one that their sister won in the 2032 Olympics.)

    No pressure kiddos.

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    Replies
    1. 2032? 2036? They're going to have their Lasers before you die on yours? I'd say all the pressure is on you, Skip!

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  5. Yes Baydog, note the wide stance stance of the fellow in the top photo. He is asking himself how he just avoided getting clipped by that car. On second thought, maybe he didn't even notice.

    These are truly special pictures of family lore, especially the one with George and young son Don by his side at the bar. Now I don't feel so guilty corrupting our young'ns on OFD!

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    Replies
    1. You will also note that the driver of that car in the top photo ducked his head down just as the photo was being taken, so as not to incriminate himself.

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  6. Update on current Rahway Semi Pro Football. I think I spotted Tillerman in the secondary...

    http://www.alljerseyradio.com/profiles/blogs/ajr-exclusive-nj-battle

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  7. Who is Doug? Does he even have a blog? What is a secondary? Is there a thirdary and a fourthary?

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  8. Yes, Baydog I do hear and I have been thinking about what I could blog about, so far I have come up with two possibilities; Angry Birds or Hogan's Hero's reruns (my favorite is the episode they fooled Klink...)

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  10. There have been over 500 million downloads of Angry Birds, compared to 200,000 Lasers sold worldwide. That means the sport of Angrybirding is 2500 times bigger than Lasering.

    Go for it Doug.

    I expect you to have 2500 times as many readers than my blog in no time.

    ReplyDelete