1950: WHEN TRENTON WAS OPEN TILL 9 PM

At this particular time in my life, the above photo brings very warm memories of the many Thursday nights I spent in my 1941 DeSoto waiting at the corner of State and Broad behind the bus stop for my future wife Judy Britton to exit Yard's after working another day in the infants' wear department. Officer Chet Hughes was the traffic officer on duty on most of those Thursday nights and he got used to seeing me wait in the same spot every Thursday evening and always looked the other way as soon as Judy got in my car and we moved on. Thursday nights in downtown Trenton was the subject of a number of the columns I have written and will write in the future. Trenton was a beautiful town back then. Most of my contemporaries who are on the computer will recall how we all piled into our cars and cruised through town on a Thursday night, eyeing all those good looking young sales girls as they exited Swern's, Gimbels, Goldberg's, Wilson's, and of course, Yard's where my delightfully beautiful Judy worked for so many years.

1940 (cA 1940) Tracy's and Hamilton and Olden

The photo at the bottom is the original black and white version. Above it is the same photo using software that allows for modifying the original to give it a more vibrant appearance. Colorizing a black and white photo is tedious and time consuming, but I consider it a work of art. I was happy to be able to bring back the familiar red Tracy sign with gold lettering. I even made sure that traffic was waiting at a red light. I had originally colored the traffic light green on the bottom. Thanks to Noel and my brother Bud, I was reminded that red lights are on the TOP. Another senior moment. Modern technology? Magnifico!

What memories this photo brings to my aging mind! This was "downtown" for those of us in the area who seldom made the trip to the real bus trip to "downtown" Trenton. If we could walk to the left of those 30's and 40's autos to the intersection of South Olden Avenue, we could make a leisurely visit to George Giberson's little hole in the wall deli. On the corner, as it is today, we would find Rittman's Bar. On the other side of South Olden Avenue, the Goeller Florist shop would hove into view as we wended our way to that charming sand colored church that served St. Anthony Parish before the huge cathedral we see today. The person who shot this photo was standing on the opposite corner and would have been right next to Mr. Schnur's "5 & 10." Ahh, the memories abound!