Tell me you are old...without telling me your age...
I had roller skates that you needed a key to tighten them on your feet...
.I helped my Mom squeeze the little red dot in the plastic bag of oleo to make it appear to be butter...
joyful 
CBGB 
MK I remember when the Dollar General was Kneckel Ford, A&P was in Patriot Plaza, Rockway Sales was located on Main St.
Eye4anEye When I was a kid there were still milk trucks /milk delivery men and metal boxes on the porch to put the returnable empty milk bottles in and to get the new order of milk .
97XBAM 97XBAM, there's still a milkman in our area that does that! Great product at affordable prices and extremely reliable.
https://www.longvalleydairy.com/
Mr. Resident 
Big Bob 
Jim KIngSome of my favorite Hackettstown stores were Helen's Toyland , Western Auto , and Newberrys . Before route 80 extended east the family would take route 46 to Two Guys in Dover and Rockaway Sales in Rockaway .There was the Big N in Newton and Majors department store in Flemington next to a John's Bargain store . Some department stores like Majors and the Big N had arcade games in the lobby with hot dog and hot pretzel sales . Main Street Newton had a multi-level department store called Britts and there was also a two floor Sears and Roebuck .
Howdy Doody with Buffalo Bob was my favorite show. Years later, but still young, watched American Bandstand religiously. The “ Sand Bar” and “Grove” were popular swimming holes. My mother had a wringer washing machine and dried clothes on a clothes line.
Dad mowed the lawn with a push lawn mower. I listened to the Sunday Funnies in the newspaper on the radio before I learned to read. Doctor Harmon made house calls and had terrible tasting lollipops!
Spring fever I had to dial my friends numbers (from my own memory) on a rotary phone. Always seemed to mess up the 6th or 7th number and take another minute to redial.
jnnjr David, Goliath, Gumby, and Pokey. Saturday morning cartoons. Stingray bikes, manually change the channel on the TV, $.10 popsicles from the ice cream truck, $.25 for a slice and a coke from Carmine's in Netcong, riding bikes on RT 80 before it opened (Netcong/Stanhope area). Could go on forever!!!
njhokiefan Way back when the Acme was where Dollar General is. I know that was my first job.
Favorite swimming hole was Saxton Falls out front by the parking lot.
Where the Hospital and school is I hunted and sleigh ride on the big hills there. I was born and raised in the white house across from the hospital.
Willow Grove use to be cement.
Old guy McPeat rode his horses and wagon everyday up to Bilby Rd. He farmed land there.
Bob K Ever wonder the stupid world we live in??….
ONLY IN This Stupid World ......do we leave cars worth thousands of dollars in the driveway and put our useless junk in the garage.
Only in This Stupid World ......do drugstores make the sick walk all the way to the back of the Store to get their prescriptions while healthy people can buy cigarettes at the front.
Only in This Stupid World.....do people order double cheeseburgers, large fries, and a diet Coke..
Only in This Stupid World.....do banks leave vault doors open and then chain the pens to the counters..
Only in This Stupid World ...........do we buy hot dogs in packages of ten and buns in Packages of eight..
Only in This Stupid World .....do they have drive-up ATM machines with Braille lettering.
Not In NJ Anymore 
Barbara 
eapos 
3wbdwnj @ Bob K: You are old...in fact so are we...possibly your neighbors back on Christopher St. and remembering all the things you did as well..
Robert Rowe I watched baseball games at Yankee Stadium, the Polo Grounds, and Ebbets Field. :-)
OnTheEdge 
Courtney1 S&H Green stamps
Gas was 29.9 cents a gallon
Party phone line and getting yelled at by the cranky lady on the phone to hang up
thehazguy 
JBJSKJ Joyful your right. Fred Almendinger at Cozy Corner.
I remember everybody who lived on Christopher St.
His wife made good food.
I went to games at Ebbets Field and the old Madison Square Garden. Was very disappointed that Wilt Chamberlain only scored 41 points the year he averaged 50.
rbilly 
Stymie I wore bell bottom pants in H.S. and went to Aunt Kate's bar in Byram. Loved to go to Bertrands Island.
Patti 
Guilty-Remnant Anyone recall the original store in the Hackettstown Mall, late 60's early 70's, before K-Mart? The store was actually built first and the mall added-on later. Remember store but not name, guess that means I'm old..
I think most of you have me beat, lol.
But I am old enough to remember rotary phones and party lines. If one of your neighbors were on the phone when you picked up the handset, you'd hear the conversation.
Cheapest gas I remember is about 50 cents per gallon.
And I do remember when there was a Shoprite where the Quick Check is on Main St. If I recall I think it burned down.
I miss the sporting good shop on Rt 46. The diner next door burnt down in the late 90's. I seem to remember the owners torched it, got badly burned, and eventually got arrested.
Rob Durana Ex-townie, it was Grant's. I worked there for a couple of months between school & my "real" job.
tmb6123 I remember going to the outhouse and taking a bath in a washtub next to the coal stove in the kitchen .
mac 
AJMS Stymie..
cute :)
PS You can still get Boone's Farm at Washington Liquor Store on Washington Ave 07882 !
Watching Uncle Floyd at 6pm on UHF, channel 68 WHT(Wometco Home Theatre- which by the way, days of yonder pre infiltration of cable TV, aired "adult" movies at night, albeit with a scrambled signal over the air.
Occasionally, very occasionally the scrambled signal would all of a sudden unscramble for a few seconds at a time, giving the viewer a peak of the "adult" content they were missing- a rather enthralling adventure of fortuitous happenstance for a young teen boy at the time).
If you don't know what the UHF band is or was on a TV set is, your probably too young to be on this thread! (put it this way, it involved a very intricate set of antenna settings to capture some UHF channels, which may or may not have involved putting your antenna in a toaster oven)
The Rhyme Animal Pattie. Do you remember the Stone House Bar. Just past Byran ShopRite . Better than Aunt Kate's.
How about the TV repairman.
TV would go on the “blink”.
Call “Da Man”.
He’d pull it off the wall, take the back panel off and set a mirror in front of the tv so he could see the screen while he fiddled with it and worked his “magic”.
Came with a big black case filled with tubes, wires and stuff.
And got the job done!!
Coal being delivered down a chute in the front of the house --- carrying out ash to the garbage cans
the milk man delivering to a box on the back steps
unicef boxes and collecting alone after dark - with no adults along]
hiding under desks or in the hall crouched down hands over head
yup I'm old as dirt
4catmom 
auntiel When I learned to drive and got my license at 17 gas was 21 cents a gallon. A 10 gallon purchase came with a free glass with a loony tunes character on it. My favorite was the daffy duck glass.
There was Jack's Auction House 0n route 46 in Oxford on weekends in the building where Lynch Trucking is now .You'd sit in movie theater type fold down chairs and bid on items brought up to the counter , they would toss bags of M&Ms to the kids . Route 46 out that way was concrete slabs and the drive there would go ka-thunk , ka-thunk , ka-thunk .
Also on weekends off 206 near Andover was the Springdale Farmers Market .Old building with a lumpy asphalt floor , muddy parking lot , old rotting wooden wasp nest filled outhouses out back , they sold a bit of everything . Produce ,vegetables with the price per pound shouted out by vendors ,cheap tools , a bakery ,furniture , clothes , shoes , comics with upper cover missing 3 for 25 cents , records , cheap no name electronics ,etc . The building was still there in the 90s used as a flea market , but far from the same minus the crowds and noise .Crowds of people in a dark dingy old building , many of them smoking , it's a wonder the place never burned down .
Reynolds/Kmart/a movie theatre where Lowe’s is now
Ponderosa where Hyundai is now
Jamesway where Dollar Tree is now
A bar was where Shoprite’s produce section is now
Come on man! When you could buy a small pack (2 Chiclets per pack) of Chiclets Gum for a penny in a vending machine in the NYC subway system.
Stewart Good one Stew!
Or if you took a cab, you could cram 5 in the back of a Checker Cab—kids fighting over the folding seats on the floor.
Before Ponderosa it was The Four Oaks until it burnt down. That was a very hot fire to fight !
Stewart's Root beer by East Ave and rt 46.
Down a little was the Dairy Bar ice cream place. If you could finish a big bowl you got a pin saying " I was a pig at the Dairy Bar ".
I recall Shop Rite where Quick Check is now on Main Street, Reynolds & K-Mart at the Hackettstown Mall, the diner before it burned down,
The Rock Pile in Stanhope, Governor's Inn in Hopatcong, the Final Exam in Randolph (those were the days, the club scene, even before the Pandemic s-cks these days! I'm glad i was 18-25 in the days of FUN clubbing, I'd be bored to death if I had to find Single's places these days. And the fun nightclub with a band and another room w/ a dance floor at the Golf Course on Mountain Avenue.
I recall Dennis the Mennis, Lassie, Leave It to Beaver and Bozo the Clown.
This is a great thread for those 50+! Thanks!
MansfieldVillager My first job was flipping burgers at Stewart’s Root Beer for Pete and Pauline. Pizza burgers were a bit hit!
Route 46 was always a huge traffic jam on Sunday night as people were driving home from their weekend in the Poconos. They would stop in for burgers at Stewart’s
Ziggy I loved Bazooka bubble gum, individually wrapped with a corny comic inside. Cost $.01 cent. Aprox $5.00 worth of comics could get you a Bazooka shirt. I remember the taste of the gum would wear off in two minutes and the gum was like a rock. Now, my teeth are paying the price.
Remembering myself and my family being part of the "Bucket Brigade" standing out at corner of Rte 46 and Mountain Avenue collecting coins to help build a hospital in town..
CBCG's favorite song above by Woody Guthrie:
This just sparked something because Woody Guthrie was linked above. He was in Greystone Psychiatric Hospital from 1966 for a few years:
https://philipsturner.com/2014/03/23/remembering-woody-guthrie-greystone-hospital/
Hackresident Joyful. Do you remember the very old sign across from Cozy Corner that said " Future home of Hackettstown Hospital ". I don't know when it was put there but when I was a little brat the paint was faded and peeling off then.
I am sure I saw it, Bob K...as my husband and I have lived in town almost our entire lives and we are "old" now...Do you remember Carl's little grocery store on Mountain Avenue??
Joy- remember when the medevacs started landing at the hospital? The police and fire department had to be on site. Everyone on Willow Grove would come out to watch the show.
Yes Joyful I do.
When you turn on Christopher St from Pine St there were 4 houses on the right and I believe 3 on the left. I can remember everybody's name. I probably knew you ! The neighborhood kids played baseball in my field.
I pasted green stamps in a green stamp book for my mother, she'd cashed them in to get something we needed like an iron, toaster etc. Also I had a banana seat bicycle with racoon tails and road it in the parade with balloons tied to the wheels for great sound.
CBGB
Thanks for posting that particular song. I can see now how Arlo was influenced by his Dad with regard to his sped up vocal technique in "The Motorcycle Pickle Song" and "The Ballad of Reuben Clamzo" (in the key of "A", of course, for "A Clam is Coming").
Phil D. Hackresident, cool info about Woody.
Phil D. the song and others by Woody may also explain Arlo's fine sense of humor.
ah - you remind me - I used to listen to wbai radio while getting dressed in the morning and they played a TAPE of Alice's Restaurant often - I then was at the Newport Folk Festival the year Arlo introduced it there- and performed it at virtually every stage - Fabulous - may also have been the year Judy Collins introduced Leonard Cohen - ah the memories
theCoach Reading the old Burma Shave signs along the highways and the signs on 95 to Pedro's Place at South of the Border.
LD I remember 5 baseball cards and a piece of gum for a nickel.
My college computer class was a key punch machine.
Tom Sokalski 
DD WZZO in Allentown plays (played? I haven't listened to terrestrial radio in over a decade) Alice's Restaurant every Thanksgiving morning.
ianimal 
danny zucko Barbara your right. Was a big one but it was Williams & Hibler when it burnt. I lived across from the hospital and had ashes all over my car !!
rose 
iJay iJay. My first car was a 1965 bug. I used to put a rope through the windows and had two guys stand on the rear bumper and pull wheelies in the Dollar General ( was Acme back then ) parking lot .
Don't know if they have been mention
but the Orange Pit, Host Diner, Mansfield Inn, the bar after Manfield Inn I think it was Ogden's something.
I remember Holmes Sporting Goods, Tank Town, Bobs Hobby Shop, Westren Auto on Main Street. Rockaway Sales in the mall. Getting a bottle of soda at the police station on Washington Street and looking at all the cool patches on the wall or counting the fire horns to see where the fire was. Good old Hackettstown
Earnhardt Who can forget Jenny's Doughnuts across from the Knights of Columbus on Liberty Street. Every Sunday morning after church we'd stop there. Best doughnuts ever !
Playing baseball with Bob K. In the field behind his house, you know when kids actually played outside!
Richard Chamberlain Rose, we would sneak out to LEO’S from the middle school when hamburgers and fries were
15 cents each. Geez that’s old! Lol
First TV was black and white and we have 5 channels. And I am a year older than your lovely daughter ;)
LVMomOfBoys @ LVMomofBoys.....And... Your sister is the same age as my daughter and.I am just about the same age as your Dad!!
The first 45 I ever bought for myself was "Saturday Night" by the Bay City Rollers.
JerseyWolf 
rudyk 
Roywhite The old Amoco gas station across from Dollar general had a tall blown up man like Paul Bunyon. I can't remember what it was advertising.
Radio. Saturday morning “No School Today” with Big John and Sparky.
The Lone Ranger, Gene Autry, Roy Rogers. Their theme songs.
Millie 
mattnyd When NJ license plates were black with orange numbers/letters.
When phone numbers had a combination of four letters and or numbers. I still can remembers our number 171R.
Aaah, when writing checks was the convenience feature. How about when they actually returned your physical checks!
PBM 
EVV EVV if my memory serves me right but at this age I don't know but Reingold Beer's wearhouse was on Mountain Ave where Berks furniture is now.
Bob K, you are correct - Rheingold Beer was located on Mountain Avenue where Berks Furniture is now. I have family members who worked there many years ago.
Neezy Tins of Charles Chips delivered to your door!
Original Looney Tunes (yes!) and Godzilla dubbed in English.
Going with my mom to the laundromat on Willow Grove Street to walk uptown to buy comic books at Knapps/Thorps/Jigger Shoppe .
Where the old Hess Station was use to be a Dairy Queen and a small laundromat facing Main Street.
friendly mcface When driving at night, press down with your left foot on a switch on the floor to turn on and off your high beam headlights!
TU Wacky cards
Penny candy
Chutes and Ladders
Rock'em Sock'em Robots
Wooden Airplanes
Punch Balls
5 & 10 stores
Rockaway Sales /Two Guys
Marine Boy
Chiller Theater. etc.
Smoking, in high school, in a designated area, no less! We only got in trouble for smoking in the bathrooms instead of the designated area, regardless of age.
Tom Terrific. you would order ant they sent you a plastic screen on your tv screen and you could draw with tom on your tv
Phil Donaldson 
Lonesome Dove I had a U.S.history teacher in Hackettstown High who told us students people would get so frustrated with the government they would elect a dictator strong man to straighten things out . And in November 2016 that prediction came true .
97XBAM… did your teacher happen to mention if it would happen a second time?!;>)
Of course not . But that teacher and the "Cool as a Moose" biology teacher were the two most memorable teachers I had in that school .
Keeping things vague can keep a post from being deleted - like the name of the dictator strong man which would surely have gotten that post nixed .This site is a very good resource of helping people in the area and receiving help/advice in kind .It's not the same as 5 years ago when politics got debated on a daily basis , but there are other sites for that .
I'm so old, I remember watching The Colgate Comedy Hour with my family on Sunday nights.
Parental+Unit 
mike+l I remember seeing an ice delivery man delivering a block of ice in NYC, remember seeing a large portable bathtub in my grandmother's neighbor's house in Brooklyn that didn't have a bathtub or shower yet, and remember hearing people talking on party lines.
Susan 
thehazguy Didn't play cowboys and indians (can I still say that?), we played Vietnam and had our own Ho Chi Ming trail in the scrub brush.
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