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JEAN VOORHEES WROTE:
Hi Tom,
Loved this weeks selection!!!!
Brought back many memories. My remembrances of Sy and Caesar Palombi and wife (name escapes me at the moment, are from the store in Hamilton on Greenwood Ave. on the corner of Joan Terrace and Greenwood. We lived on Dickenson Ave. at the time. They moved to Olden Ave. later. Unless it was Dad Palombi on Olden and I did not know about this store until Sy gave up the Greenwood Ave. Store.
Jean Voorhees
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Tom,
Right on the Cook's sign...great ice cream too. Sy Palombi’s wifes name was Lea, and Caesar was Lea's brother. I'll dig into my memory bank and dig up some things that may help w/the Bromley article....
Sy was very good to my family during the rationing days. They were hard times for all of us. The meat was wrapped in heavy waxed paper and then wrapped and tied in brown paper.
I don't remember meat hanging on the walls but I do vividly remember the wooden floor covered with sawdust to absorb moisture and any grease spills from the cut meat.
Another vivid memory was the ash buckets...I used to help sift through the ash and pull out any coal not completely burned to reuse. And most definitely remember removing labels from cans and bottles, washing same and inserting the removed lids from the cans and squashing them flat. Every thing had to be separated in different containers....There were no plastics at the time. The milkman picked up the washed used milk bottles and left fresh milk. I was always getting scolded for eating the cream off the milk in the winter when it froze and rose to the top of the bottle rim with the little cardboard lid on top of the frozen cream. Dad wanted that cream for his coffee...So much we didn't understand at the time. There was the rag man, the huckster with horse and wagon for fresh produce, the iceman and the chips of ice we "stole" from the wagon, old Mr. Hall our fish man who stopped every Friday....Mashed potatoes or macaroni and cheese, stewed tomatoes and fish , was our Friday fare. Also remember
the bread man from Freihofers, every Sat. p.m. We, all being animal lovers couldn't wait to spend time petting the slobbery horse. Seemed like the more slobber the better. Also how could I forget the truck that would stop at the little store on Johnston Ave. to pick up meat craps...UGH!!!!!!
I can still smell it on a hot muggy day. We always referred to the store as "Juniors", on the corner of Brookside Ave and Johnston Ave about five blocks up toward Greenwood Avenue from Atlantic Products, and one block down from Cook’s soda shop and Silk’s drugstore. The condition of that whole area brings tears to my eyes and an ache in my heart. Thank God for good memories.
May I remind you of my request to search your archives about Farmingdale School around 1945- or thereabouts. I remember the Circus parade up Nottingham Ave..past the school. Also remember "Old Man Moses" store across from the school where we could by penny candy when we had a penny. "Old Mose" was a very grummpy old man w/ a very bad limp. "Boots" our crossing guard was the best.
Well, Tom, Thanks once again for the Memories.
Jean Voorhees
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JEAN:
Many thanks for a splendid retrospectives to those long gone days of yesterday. I will be saving your letter and it will be part of my BROMLEY folder in the local history collection. It is a very lucid view of Palombi's and the era in general. I didn't forget your Farmingdale request. I have material on early Farmingdale, but there is not much source material for me on the later years in my newspaper collection. I will keep my eye open and advise. Also, somewhere in my files I seem to recall a beautiful photo of Cook's. As I recall there is an "Abbott's" ice cream sign on the front lawn of the building. If I find it, I will post it on www.glover320.blogspot.com.
Thanks also for being a reader of "Sentimental Journey." Stay tuned there is more to come,
XO
Tom Glover
FROM MY "POLICE, TRENTON" FOLDER, WORD COME OF THE APPOINTMENT OF WILLIAM DETTMAR AS THE CHIEF OF POLICE IN THE CITY OF TRENTON. NOTE THE EXCESSIVE HOURS PUT IN BY THE MEN IN BLUE. (TIME AND A HALF?)
THE SCHOOL REFERRED TO IN THESE POSTS REFER TO THE SCHOOL WHICH WAS LOCATED ON CHAMBERS STREET ON LAND NOW OCCUPIED BY THE RUSLING FIRE HOUSE.
THE DEEPER I DIG INTO THE HISTORY OF MERCER COUNTY, THE MORE I LEARN FASCINATING LITTLE FACTS LIKE THIS VERY OBSCURE INDUSTRY WHICH WAS TUCKED AWAY IN RURAL PENNINGTON, NEW JERSEY.
HOW I WOULD LOVE TO ATTEND ONE OF THOSE OLD VAUDEVILLE SHOWS FROM THE EARLY PART OF THE 20TH CENTURY. ONE OF THE THEATERS WHICH FEATURED THESE VAUDEVILLE PROGRAMS WAS TRENTON'S HISTORIC TAYLOR OPERA HOUSE. 
THIS 1999 PHOTO CAME TO ME COURTESY OF RETIRED HAMILTON POLICE OFFICER BILLY GRAY. SEATED ON THE LEFT IS THE LATE JIM SALT, ACROSS FROM HIM IS THE LATE LENWARD "LENNIE" BRANHAM, AND NEXT TO HIM, TOM GLOVER. OFFICER GRAY IS THE MAN IN BLUE.
EVEN BACK THEN, BEFORE NEW JERSEY BANNED THE SALE OF FIREWORKS, THERE WERE MANY HORROR STORIES ABOUT THE DANGER OF FIREWORKS IN THE HANDS OF CHILDREN AND CITIZENS IN GENERAL.
OLD ARTICLES AND PHOTOS FROM MY MANY PUBLICATIONS SHOW A 4TH OF JULY WITH YOUNG KIDS PLAYING WITH ALL KINDS OF FIREWORKS. EVEN AFTER ALL THESE MANY YEARS, THERE ARE THOSE WHO PLAY THE ODDS THAT THEY WON'T BE THE VICTIMS OF FIREWORKS EXPLODING AND DOING BODILY HARM.
JUDGE SCHROTH TOOK THE PART OF A TEACHER WITH HIS SENTENCE OF A BOOK REPORT FROM ONE OF THE JUVENILES WHO BROKE THE LAW.
FOR THOSE OF MY VIEWERS WHO ARE IN EWING, LAWRENCE, AND OTHER FAR FLUNG AREAS OF THE DELAWARE VALLEY AND WHO ARE NOT RECIPIENTS OF THE "HAMILTON POST," I HAVE DIGITIZED AND RESIZED A VERY FLATTERING ARTICLE THEY WROTE FEATURING NEXT WEEK'S START OF THE SUMMER KUSER FARM SUMMER CONCERT SERIES. THANK YOU JOE AND CHRIS, I AM TRULY HUMBLED.
