Movie Theater Near Stony Point Fashion Park

204th Street and Bainbridge Avenue – Photograph: Brian Kachejian

For so many, a Bronx style of life defines shared memories and experiences that only those who grew upwards in a specific section of the Bronx volition share. While growing upwards in a New York City civic will ultimately lead to universally shared experiences, every neighborhood and even every street is defined by its ain individual landscape and people who lived there. It's in that environment that is lined past mom and popular stores and shops that ignites the memories of a detail place and time. Sadly, in 2o21, many neighborhoods have been overrun by Starbucks and Dunkin Donuts and other corporate stores with no soul or middle. It wasn't like that many years agone.

This commodity takes a close up await at life along Bainbridge Avenue and 204 Street in the Bronx in the mid to late 20th century. Bainbridge Avenue and 204 Street played a major role in their lives of anyone who has ever lived and grown up in the Norwood section of the Bronx. It didn't affair if you lived on Webster Ave, Perry Ave, Hull Ave, Decatur Ave, Rochambeau Avenue, 206th, 207th or any other street in the neighborhood, considering in that location was probably a time in every day when yous stepped onto the streets of Bainbridge Avenue and 204 Street.

This commodity looks at this department of the Bronx  from the eyes of a young kid and then afterward on equally a teenager. Perspectives alter and of course so does your experiences as you lot grow up in a neighborhood that was so live. The neighborhood around Bainbridge Avenue has been in constant modify over the years, and then depending on when one lived in that location, memories will always be different to a point. As communities change, so do the people, the stores, the shops and the tales.

I grew up at 3186 Rochambeau Avenue in the 60s and 70s. I moved to Long Isle in the mid 70s, but found myself often coming back on weekends to visit my grandmother and to hang out with my friends on Perry Artery equally we all went through our mid to late teen years. In the 1980s I wound up working in many of the Irish neighborhood bars like French Charley's with my band Phase Four. Something always pulled me dorsum. Even just last summer in 2021, I interviewed for a educational activity job at P.South .fourscore. Is the neighborhood different now than it was in the 60s, 70s and 80s? Well, non for the people who alive at that place now and make it their home. That's the American Feel, neighborhoods change simply the memories remain and new ones are made.

For nearly people who may be reading this, those memories of the neighborhood are incredibly cherished. Only those who lived there can really understand what information technology was similar to be a 1 to two minute walk from the best slice of pizza or egg cream they would taste for the residual of their lives. But those from our neighborhood volition know what information technology meant to call for someone, or to yell at the top of their lungs for their mother to throw a dime out the window because Cubbie Cone or the Good Humor truck was coming downward the street. And of course many will remember what information technology was like to get their showtime kiss on a park bench along Mosholu Parkway or on a swing in the Oval Park.

This is the fourth in a series of articles I take written almost the neighborhood. The first three focused on the Oval Park, St Brendans and Life Along Mosholu Parkway. This one will only heart on Bainbridge Ave and 204th street and the world of stores and places that we all interacted with on most every day nosotros walked the streets of the Bronx.

Bainbridge Ave begins just north of the Woodlawn subway station intersection with Jerome Avenue before they split. Bainbridge Ave runs south past Montefiore Hospital and the Oval Park. It continues south until information technology meets 204th street and and then heads west across Mosholu Parkway. However, information technology's the area between the Oval Park and 204th street that we volition look at from the Bainbridge'south Artery perspective. Additionally, nosotros will go on our story on 204th street downwardly to Webster Ave and to the park we all knew as French Charlies.

Photograph: Brian Kachejian

For many of us in our community, Bainbridge Avenue really began at the Oval Park on the corner of Van Cortlandt Eastward and Bainbridge. As one ventures downwards Bainbridge Avenue they are met with many stores on the due west side. It was the sections between 207th street and 206th street where memories of so many classic stores begin.

Bainbridge Ave View from Van Cortlandt Due east – Photograph: Brian Kachejian

One of those stores is notwithstanding there on Bainbridge Avenue between 206th and 207th streets. Eddie's Delicatessen was a place none of us will ever forget. Eddie's Delicatessen was ahead of its time. It seemed to set the template for and so many more deli's that would come up along and open up upward all around the civic's and on the Island. Eddie was friendly with everyone. Eddie probably sold more beer and cigarettes than annihilation else. He wasn't the just delicatessen in the neighborhood, in that location was also Bedford's delicatessen that was on Bainbridge right earlier y'all hit Webster Avenue.There were others only these were the two I recollect the almost. Bedford's Deli was next to Volpps Bakery which was some other one of those special places. In fact, Volpps was almost everyone's favorite baker in the neighborhood along with Julie's Butter Block Bakery where my grandmother worked.

Eddie'due south Delicatessen – Photograph: Brian Kachejian 2017

The bakeries in the neighborhood e'er had not bad display windows that made you just desire to buy everything in the store. Those blackness and white cookies were to die for. No i makes them anymore like those bakeries did. They all gustatory modality fake at present compared to how those blackness and whites tasted in the 60s and 70s. The bakeries were always crowded, but Sun mornings were when they were the most crowded. People loved ownership those fresh baked rolls on Sunday mornings. The ones with a picayune powdered carbohydrate on top. Of course, all the cakes were so fresh too. The lines were always long on Sundays at those bakeries. Information technology was a very traditional trip to the bakery after Sunday forenoon mass. If you went to St Brendan'southward which and then many kids in the neighbored did, you better not miss mass. Sister Henrietta or Sister Cajetan would non be too pleased with you for missing church.

And speaking of Volpps…. correct next to that legendary bakery was the archway to Hoeing's Parkway's toy department. This was long before any of us had ever heard of stores like Toys Our U.s.a. or whatsoever of the modern toy stores that would come up and go many years later. For u.s.a., Toyland was Hoeing'south Parkway. Of course, to everyone else who was older than 10, the rest of Hoeing's Parkway' was dedicated to selling appliances and Television set's. The entrance to that function of the store was on Webster Avenue under the elevated train tracks, at to the lowest degree when the elevated train tracks were still there.

Across from Hoeing's Parkway on the other side of the street was the legendary Woolworths. Of form, Woolworths was not but a fixture in our neighborhood as they were all over the urban center and other parts of the county. Withal, it was a store that held special memories for many people in the neighborhood. I bought my first 45 rpm record at that store. I am certain I was not the only one to buy their first tape from Woolworths. That store had everything and it was all pretty cheap.

Newspapers and Candy Stores

In the 21st century there are fewer and fewer people who still read newspapers. Still, in the 20th century before the growth of the net, jail cell phones, tablets and even cable news, nigh people got their news from either the radio, local televised circulate news or newspapers. In the Bronx, nearly people read the Daily News or the New York Post. Both papers were very different papers back then. Interestingly, one newspaper a day wasn't ever enough for people.

The Daily News used to publish two papers a day. I remember this conspicuously because my male parent used to send me to the candy store on the corner of 206th Street and Bainbridge Ave to get him the Daily News "Night Owl," edition every evening. He wasn't the only one sending his kid the store to buy the night edition. It may be hard to believe, but on many evenings, there would exist a huge line of people but waiting for the newspaper to arrive. Imagine that….. a line of people lined up to buy a newspaper. I e'er wondered why my dad sent me in that location on so many evenings to buy a newspaper. It was years later when I discovered that he wanted the Daily News "Night Owl," edition to get the latest scratches for the race card at Yonkers.

It never bothered me going to the candy store to get the newspaper for my father. Information technology was the candy store! If there was ever ane place on Bainbridge Ave that holds the sweetest memories, information technology was the Candy Store. In reality, it was a 20th century traditional newsstand store. Nonetheless, everyone in the neighborhood called it the "Candy Store." For immature kids, information technology was the nigh wonderful place in the neighborhood. It's funny how nowadays nosotros take for granted the large candy rows in vii-Elevens and Walgreens and CVS drug stores. Withal, dorsum and so in the 60s, and 70,s it was that large section of processed bars and boxes in front of the register that was just and so mesmerizing.

In the 1960s, a box of candy or a processed bar averaged about seven cents a box. The popular candies at the time were Hot Tamales, Chocolate Babies (long gone) Babe Ruth Bar, the Reggie Bar (in the mid to late 70s) and and so many more.  So of course in that location were the Bazooka Chimera Gum pieces with the comic within. The price of one piece of Bazooka Bubble gum was actually half a cent. Y'all would get two pieces of Bazooka Bubble gum or its rival Double Bubble for a penny. Candy just seemed to taste and then much sweeter back then. Was information technology the candy itself that has changed or is merely old age that does non allow united states to sense of taste food the same way we tasted it as kids?

While we cherished the Processed Store for its welcome onslaught of candies, there was so much more to this magical place. Continuing at the top of the list would have to be the Egg Creams!  In the dorsum of the store was a counter where yous could sit and order an Egg Foam. They fabricated the most incredible tasting egg creams on the planet. Either chocolate or vanilla, they both were heavenly. I can still hear Charlie stirring that long spoon in the glass as he poured the seltzer and syrup into that large glass and so added the milk. You could go ice foam sodas or merely ice cream, but the egg creams were the number one choice. How in the name of the god of deserts has the residuum of the world never caught on to this magical drink? It is that experience that only those of united states of america who grew up in the neighborhood as well as many of the other boroughs tin ever really appreciate. The Bronx Bail begins with the "Egg Cream."

The Candy Store also hosted a great section of comics. If you wanted to buy a mag or a comic this was the place to become to in the neighborhood. Kids would frequently only stare at the comics for long periods of time pretty much annoying the guys who worked in the processed store. Next to the comics were a pair of one-time phone booths that had windows in them that you lot could stare out onto 206 street. I would notice sometimes people in those booths for long periods of fourth dimension. And of class, I tin't shut out this processed store department without mentioning the pretzels. The Processed Shop had the traditional pretzel sticks in those large circular glass containers. Yet, the ones that were so amazing were the oversized soft pretzels that were ever hot. I have never tasted pretzels like that since.

Along the Artery…

As one walked down Bainbridge avenue from 206 street they would be greeted by the Daitch Supermarket. There were two major supermarkets in the neighbood in the 60s and 70s. The Daitch Supermarket was the most modern ane. The Met was located correct beyond from the Bainbridge Theater on 204th street. Almost people shopped at both stores depending on sales I gauge.

Only before Bainbridge met 204th street was a host of other stores that were favorites of the neighborhood. Most kids would agree that ane of their favorites was Mr Tee's Dairy Queen. Many of us becomes friends with Michael Tee who was in our grade level. In that location was nothing ameliorate than going to the multiple birthday parties at Dairy Queen that Mr Tee had for his two sons Michael and Dexter. He too had a much younger girl. Unlimited access to all the ice cream one could eat was unremarkably a major part of those altogether parties. Dairy Queen would get a part of the neighborhood for a long time. How could you lot non love Dairy Queen and those slushy sugary ice drinks I retrieve they used to telephone call Mr Misty's. Ten times improve than slurpees.

The Pizzerias

We all had a favorite pizza place in the neighborhood. Mine was Sal'southward Pizza on 206th  street. I wasn't the only one who loved Sal'due south Pizza the all-time. Sal made the best cheese slice of pizza I have always tasted in my life. I have been searching forever to discover a pizzeria that made a slice of pizza that tasted like Sal'southward. It has been a futile and hopeless search. The closest I take ever came was a pizzeria in Kings Park on Long Island called Napoli's that had a similar taste to Sal's. When I mentioned that to the pizza maker in the Kings Park shop, he just looked at me kind of funny and said "yeah well I used to piece of work at Sal'southward Pizzeria on Bainbridge Ave. It seems that somewhen Sal's Pizza on 206 street moved to a bigger location on Bainbridge Ave just effectually the block.

Sal's pizzeria was more than simply a pizzeria, it was a hangout for many of the younger kids in the neighborhood. That's considering Sal had a pinball machine in the back. Sal never minded having a bunch of kids in the back of his store playing pinball and hanging out. He was such a friendly guy.

I still call back the pizza prices in the sixties being 25 cents for 1 slice and ten cents for a soda that was served in a paper funnel loving cup held upright in a light brown plastic holder. The vivid memories I take of these days merely seem to define just how special information technology was getting a piece of pizza at Sal's. It may seem ridiculous to someone not from that neighborhood or even time flow, merely I think those who experienced it will sympathize.

Eventually Sal'due south brother Angelo opened another pizzeria in the neighborhood simply called Angelo'south . This was a big deal. Whenever annihilation opened in the neighborhood it was a big bargain. More on that later. Angelo'due south Pizzeria was located on the corner of 207th Street and Bainbridge Ave. It was about a minute's walk from Sal'due south. Angelo's was a much bigger pizzeria. Angelo's was split in half with the right side being a restaurant and the left side a pizzeria. Both sides were divided by a wall. This was an amazing place to eat. My father used to accept me in that location all the time to eat in the restaurant. Memories I will cherish forever. St Brendan's was just down the cake, and the pizzeria would e'er be packed after CYO and scouting events. It was a corking location for the eatery and the customs served its well as they did Sal'south.

I of the other much-loved pizzerias in the neighborhood was Napoli'southward. Napoli's was another traditional Bronx pizzeria with the large open window on the street where you could just walk upward to the window and guild a piece, fold it in half and then walk away eating it like you were the Pope of Bainbridge Ave. Napoli's was a pizzeria that was open late at nighttime. When I was a teenager, I used to go to Napoli'south with my friend Kevin Minahan and Fran Diemer late at dark for i of their amazing Sicilian slices. This legendary identify was located on 204 street right adjacent to the Bainbridge Movie theatre. And speaking of the Bainbridge Movie Theater……

The Bainbridge Movie Theater

Every time I hear the music of Herb Alpert and the Tijuana Contumely, I am brought back to the Bainbridge Picture palace. Now one may inquire what does Herb Alpert & The Tijuana Contumely have to practise with the Bainbridge Movie theatre? The reason that music reminds me of the theater is that they used to play the music of Herb Alpert & The Tijuana Brass in the theater earlier they would show the moves. They did this for years ever playing the same Herb Alpert songs. I'm not sure if anyone reading this will also remember that from the 1960s, but music is a powerful medium that tin can bring you back to a certain place and time instantly.

The Bainbridge Theater was an old school movie theatre. It was not an elaborate theater like Lowe'due south Paradise or the Valentine Theater on Fordham Road, but it was a very special theater to all of us who lived in the surface area. It was ane large single screen for a very long time. Information technology eventually divide I am told, but in the 60s and 70s and the decades before that, it was still the classic single screen theater. The lobby was separated from the theater by a pane of glass. And so, the theater was never really that night because the lights of the foyer always shined through the glass into the theater. But that actually didn't bother anyone and the keen office about it was you could nonetheless watch the movie while waiting online to buy some popcorn.

The theater had a smoking section on the right side which was ridiculous when you think about it every bit if merely a few feet was going to split up the smoke from those who did not smoke. But everyone accepted it. I never remember seeing anyone fighting with people who were smoking. That's simply the way information technology was. A lot more people smoked dorsum then. My friend Fran Diemer's mother worked at the theater and then a lot of u.s.a. saw many movies for costless. It was never really that expensive anyways. Anyone who went to the theater in the 60s and 70s will remember that they ever showed two movies. It would usually be a brand-new movie paired with a moving picture that was released a few months before. Its difficult to drive down Bainbridge Avenue and see that the theater is gone. The Bainbridge Theater was a very special place in the neighborhood for people of all ages. I started going there when I was a infant as my mom loved the movies. It was the great escape and a community bonding experience equally at the aforementioned time. It is one of the places in the neighborhood that many of us miss the near.

Perry Avenue

Right south of the Bainbridge Theater was Perry Avenue. On the corner of Perry Avenue and 204 Street was and yet is McDonalds. Now for most people in the modern world the mention of McDonalds means cypher at all considering there is one commonly inside a half mile of wherever y'all are on the planet. Yet in the early on 1970s, the arrival of McDonalds in the neighbored was ane of the biggest events that always happened in the history of 204th Street. Eventually it would go merely a typical McDonalds as anybody got used to it, merely when it first opened, the lines seemed to never end. And once again, those burgers seemed to taste so much better back so.

Photo: Brian Kachejian

Perry Artery was a very special place equally was every street along 204th Street. People hung out with the people who ordinarily lived on the aforementioned street. Of class, we accept to count Mosholu Parkway E that was lined with apartment buildings. Those who lived in those buildings hung out with the people who lived on the adjacent streets like Perry Ave. Hull Avenue and Decatur Avenue. No matter which avenue you hung out on, we all used Mosholu Park for various activities day and night!

Photograph: Brian Kachejian

I will never forget the friends I fabricated on Perry Avenue like Fran Diemer, Kevin Minihan, Mary and Rosie McKenna, Tj Healy, Wayne Kelsey, Bobby Taffin, Jimmy Gallagher, Claude, Andre and Adrian Guerreros, Kay O'Leary, Barbara Gleason, Kevin, Terry, Jeannie and Patty Byrnes and many others. Nosotros were a tight group for a while playing football games against other streets in the neighborhood on Mosholu Park'southward center divider and then hanging out at night. That was our field of dreams.

We went to concerts together at the Garden all the time seeing bands like Led Zeppelin, Queen, and then many great bands putting out music we idea was never going to cease. We took the D train to Yankee stadium all the fourth dimension. Nosotros talked about music, sports and each other and all the trouble that somebody had gotten into only somehow gotten out of.  We all did a lot of stupid stuff. My friend Fran Diemer'southward older brother Richie Diemer and his best friend George Werdann would always yell at united states of america for doing stupid things. George Werdann became a police officer and sadly was killed in the line of duty in the early 1980s. George was such great guy. It was such a tragic loss. There are so many more stories from Perry Avenue that so many of u.s. could write books about.

Perry Artery view from Mosholu Photo: Brian Kachejian

Hull Avenue

Many people that I went to schoolhouse with at St Brendan'southward also lived on Hull Avenue. This was a group of kids who became teens only like us on Perry Ave that would form a tight bond between themselves. A lot of the kids who lived on Hull Artery were known equally the Hull Boys. The group played a lot of sports together in neighborhood leagues in sports like softball and football. But information technology wasn't all near sports, information technology was about hanging out together just like information technology was for every neighborhood street kid. However, for the Hull Avenue boys and girls, there was a special place where they hung out besides Hull Avenue or Mosholu Park. That place was a luncheonette on Hull Artery just south 204th Street that was owned by Joe and Olga Gallo.

Joe and Olga Gallo luncheonette  was a in one case in a lifetime identify, a hang out that served as a coming-of-age experience betwixt boys and girls and an possessor who cared about the neighborhood and the immature people trying to discover their mode. Nonetheless, equally they were trying to find their mode, they knew they they could always find each other at Joe Gallo'south

Brian Hayes remembers Joe Gallo as a human being who was and then thoughtful and caring that he allowed Brian and his Hull Avenue crew to make a clubhouse in the basement of his luncheonette. In that special place everyone would play card games and pinball while listening to the jukebox. Those one-time jukebox machines meant a lot to teens growing up in the mid to late xx century. Everyone memorized the jukebox record number to certain songs and played them over and over again.

Joe Gallo was like a father to the boys. He showed everyone how to make egg creams and more. Brian and his friends would often help Joe out behind the counter of his luncheonette taking turns as needed. As everyone began to get older, Joe Gallo who was also a bookie would take sports bets from the Hull Boys. Information technology was a coming-of-age story in many ways. Those who hung out at Joe Gallo's included Peter Kennelly, James Conlon Brian Hayes, Bobby Cavigliano, Jimmy McKeever, Sean Quinn, Kevin Morrison, Neil McDaid, Denis McDaid, Dennis Dillon, Paul Kurzyna, Paul Gibler, the tardily Frank Deluca, Bob Brennock, and my good friend Kevin McDonnell. The girls included Barbara Casey, Valerie Healy, Donna Furlong, Janet Dillion, Laura Moran, Donna Hamburger, Cathy Wencak, Jeanne Whelan, Rose Sinon, Kathy Cecchetelli Annie Walsh and Mary Joyce McGlauklin.

As the teen years began to wane and everyone started to hang out in bars, Joe Gallo's luncheonette would be the get-go identify everyone would visit afterward closing the bars down at 4:00 in the morning time and before going home. At times they would go go Joe at his apartment on Decatur Avenue. There was e'er that i individual or one couple in every small section of the neighborhood who made a departure for a certain set of kids. For the Hull Artery crew that was Joe and Olga Gallo who were like a mom and dad to so many of the Hull Artery crew, and to this day…… it's a pretty certain bet that non one of them will always forget Joe and Olga.

Joe Gallo

Joe Gallo and his brother behind the counter

The Bars

The story of the neighborhood bars is one that is too epic for an commodity like this. It'due south a story that deserves a book for those who stayed in the neighborhood into their 20s and across. Of class when writing a story about life on Bainbridge Avenue ane tin't leave out the confined similar The Green Isle and The Derby to mention just a few. Fifty-fifty though I was gone by the time I was in my 20s, I had returned to the neighbored with the rock band I began working with in the late 1980s. During that time period, the neighborhood experienced some other heavy moving ridge of Irish gaelic Immigrants. There were so many Irish gaelic bars in the neighborhood. These were bars that loved alive music. Anybody loved those bars. My band was always treated great playing the Irish gaelic Bars. The owners always let the bands drink for free and paid the states really well. Many of the owners really cared most the neighborhood. Some even lost their lives like James Kevin Ahern while running their bars.

James Kevin Ahern owned the Derby Pub. Many reading this will probably remember James. Mr Ahern had brought the bar in the 1980s and put his whole life into the bar. Everyone loved him. In 1996, he was shot outside a liquor shop on Fordham Road while ownership a few cases of liquor for the bar. Another tragic loss as the neighborhood lost some other man that was giving his entire life to making everyone's day and night a better one.

The Great Migration

Throughout the 1970s and into the 80s and beyond many people began to move out of the neighborhood. Some of course have stayed and I know people who I grew up with that still live there, and that's wonderful. We all have special memories of growing up, of the first places we lived, no matter where that may exist. Yet, for those of us who grew up in that neighborhood we share a special bond that anyone who has never grown up in a urban center neighborhood could ever understand. It's funny how everyone always talked about moving out so once they did, couldn't cease talking nigh how much they missed it. We all understand why.

Special thanks to Brian Hayes my old classmate from St Brendan's and Kevin Minahan my dear old friend from Perry Avenue that contributed heavily to this story.

This article is dedicated to my mother June Kachejian and my father John Kachejian, two incredibly loving and caring people that I know and then many people who are reading this article knew from the neighborhood.

This is our story To anyone who e'er lived in the neighborhood, please feel gratuitous to reach out to me if you want to add to the story, or even add pictures, let's proceed this story alive…..

Email me at Musicparty@yahoo.com

Brian Kachejian hanging out on a Mosholu Park Bench 1978

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