You Know You're From New York When...

[Ragin]

I've noticed there are a number of mb members who are native to the New York City metropolitan area. Not one to wander off topic , I thought I'd bring Joe Buff's post here. I enjoyed it and I thought others might too. Thanks Joe.

Originally posted by Joe Buff

You Know You're From New York When...

You're 35 years old and don't have a driver's license.

You ride in a subway car with no air conditioning just because there are seats available.

You take the train home and you know exactly where on the platform the doors will open that will leave you right in front of the exit stairway.

You know what a "regular" coffee is.

It's not Manhattan...... It's the "city".

There is no north and south. It's "uptown" or "downtown." If you're really from New York you have absolutely no concept of where north and south are.... And east or west is "crosstown."

You cross the street anywhere but on the corners and you yell at cars for not respecting your right to do it.

You move 3,000 miles away, spend 10 years learning the local language and people still know you're from Brooklyn the minute you open your mouth.

You return after 10 years and the first foods you want are a "real" pizza and a "real" bagel.

A 500 square foot apartment is large.

You know the differences between all the different Ray's pizzas.

You are not under the mistaken impression that any human being would be able to actually understand a p.a. Announcement on the subway.

You wouldn't bother ordering pizza in any other city.

You get ready to order dinner every night and must choose from the major food groups which are: Chinese, Italian, Mexican or Indian.

You're not the least bit interested in going to Times Square on New Year's eve.

Your internal clock is permanently set to know when alternate side of the street parking regulations are in effect.

You know what a bodega is.

Someone bumps into you, and you check for your wallet.

You don't even notice the lady walking down the road having a perfectly normal conversation with herself.

You pay "only" $230 a month to park your car.

You cringe at hearing people pronounce Houston street like the city in Texas.

The presidential visit is a major traffic jam, not an honor.

You can nap on the subway and never miss your stop. [/B]

[Ragin]

Originally posted by Joe Buff

I remember those commercials! He was out on Long Island somewhere, with stores all over the NYC Metro area. Did he have locations around here too, or is Ragin from Big Apple Land?
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Originally posted by RaginTaxpayer

I'm from Big Apple Land
Grew up on the Bronx/Yonkers border.

Where's your neck of the woods, Joe Buff?
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Originally posted by Joe Buff


I was born in Yonkers and spent most of my life in various communities in Westchester County (the "Golden Apple"), with about 6 months on Staten Island, prior to moving here with my wife nearly 10 years ago.

I was born in Manhattan, but later moved to Yonkers along the bronx boarder. We moved to a village in Greenburg, in my teens. After that I bounced around Yonkers from one apt to the next, a local village off the Saw Mill, back to the Bronx (Morris Park), and even lived across from Yankee stadium for a few months. Then headed back to westchester, prior to moving here 12 years ago.

What section(s) of Yonkers, Joe?

I probably lived in the same section at one point or another

[buffy]

you know you're from New York when someone mentions "western New York" and you are momentarily stumped as you think to yourself...
"oh......yea.....western NY"

[Ragin]

Originally posted by buffy
"oh......yea.....western NY"

LOL, you wouldn't have even gotten that much from me.

More like a "huh? never heard of it."

"Buffalo? yea I've heard of it. I don't know where it is, but I've heard of it"

"Niagara falls? sure I've heard of it. It's up there, way up there, near Lake Champlain."

[Joe Buff]

Originally posted by RaginTaxpayer
I was born in Manhattan, but later moved to Yonkers along the bronx boarder. We moved to a village in Greenburg, in my teens. After that I bounced around Yonkers from one apt to the next, a local village off the Saw Mill, back to the Bronx (Morris Park), and even lived across from Yankee stadium for a few months. Then headed back to westchester, prior to moving here 12 years ago.

What section(s) of Yonkers, Joe?

I probably lived in the same section at one point or another

I was born at St. Joseph's Hospital in Yonkers. (They don't allow anyone to be born there now--the only birthing hospital on the west side of Yonkers is St. John's.) It took me a while to get out of town, because my mother developed pneumonia and they wouldn't let me go home to Eastchester without her!

Later in life I lived on Warburton Avenue for about six years. The section was called something like "Lamartine Heights," not one of the better-known neighborhoods.

What was the village in Greenburgh where you lived? Was it Ardsley, by any chance?

[Joe Buff]

Getting nostalgic for Crazy Eddie! Try this link: http://pocketcalculatorshow.com/crazyeddie/

[Ragin]

Originally posted by Joe Buff
I was born at St. Joseph's Hospital in Yonkers. (They don't allow anyone to be born there now--the only birthing hospital on the west side of Yonkers is St. John's.) It took me a while to get out of town, because my mother developed pneumonia and they wouldn't let me go home to Eastchester without her!

Later in life I lived on Warburton Avenue for about six years. The section was called something like "Lamartine Heights," not one of the better-known neighborhoods.

What was the village in Greenburgh where you lived? Was it Ardsley, by any chance?

hehe .. this is great.
After Yonkers we moved to Hartsdale .. Crazy Eddie was there on Central Avenue.

I lived on Warburton for a year or so too. David Berkowitz's uncle was my neighbor.
Then I moved across the bridge from Ardsley, Dobbs Ferry.
I knew a firefighter in the Ardsley Fire Dept.
I know Eastchester .. Lord and Taylor's is there on Rte 22.
I sometimes drove home along Rte 22 after classes at Concordia.

[Joe Buff]

Originally posted by RaginTaxpayer
hehe .. this is great.
After Yonkers we moved to Hartsdale .. Crazy Eddie was there on Central Avenue.

I lived on Warburton for a year or so too. David Berkowitz's uncle was my neighbor.
Then I moved across the bridge from Ardsley, Dobbs Ferry.
I knew a firefighter in the Ardsley Fire Dept.
I know Eastchester .. Lord and Taylor's is there on Rte 22.
I sometimes drove home along Rte 22 after classes at Concordia.

Small world! I knew Sam and his dogs. David went to the school in my parish (Holy Rosary), but that was before my time. The house I lived in when I called Eastchester home was just in from Lord and Taylor's site (it wasn't built yet when I lived there). And I know a guy who also attended Concordia--he lives around here; he never really lived down there except at school. And I bought some stuff in that Crazy Eddie's on Central Ave.

[Ragin]

You serious? You knew Sam and his dogs? Did they talk to you too?
My HS religion teacher played pool with him (David, not Sam) .. in some pool hall on Nepperham Avenue, I think.

My apt on Walburton was set down below St John's Hosp. I loved that place. It was highrise overlooking the Hudson.

When I was younger I babysat for Sam Zaro's kid, you know, the baker. . He ran Zaro's next to Pathmark on Central Ave in Hartsdale. they closed up and headed for Grand Central Station

I also babysat a kid, in a home behind Lord and Taylor's. Maybe it was you.. LOL ,

[therising]

I saw a girl napping on the subway one time. I recognized her, although we had never acknowledged each other. Inow she got off at my station. As the train pulled up, I realized she was in a deep sleep and probably not going to wake up.

I debated, Do I wake her up? Or let her stay.

My concern was that if I woke her, I'd look like some stalker; ie How does this guy know here I get off?

I let her sleep. Probably woke up in the train yards.

Oh well.

[Joe Buff]

Originally posted by RaginTaxpayer
You serious? You knew Sam and his dogs? Did they talk to you too?
My HS religion teacher played pool with him (David, not Sam) .. in some pool hall on Nepperham Avenue, I think.

My apt on Walburton was set down below St John's Hosp. I loved that place. It was highrise overlooking the Hudson.

When I was younger I babysat for Sam Zaro's kid, you know, the baker. . He ran Zaro's next to Pathmark on Central Ave in Hartsdale. they closed up and headed for Grand Central Station

I also babysat a kid, in a home behind Lord and Taylor's. Maybe it was you.. LOL ,

The kid you babysat was probably not me--I lived there BEFORE L&T was built; and my parents NEVER got outside babysitters: there were always plenty of built-in ones in our extended Italian family on the few occasions they went out.

No, Sam's dogs didn't talk to me. Sam ran a telephone answering service and I sometimes wondered if the dogs ever filled in. There's a dog in my current neighborhood who does talk to me, though. So you'd better keep an eye on me. Up to now he hasn't told me to do any weird things, but you never know about schnausers.

Lot's of neat apartments on Warburton, and lots of nice old Hudson River houses as well.

The main thing that pops into my head right now about Hartsdale is the Pet Cemetery. I knew the guy who was pastor of the Catholic Church across the street: he was called on occasionally to do committal services for deceased pets.

Do you ever get back to those areas?

[speaker]

NYC--don't worry too much about carrying an umbrella-if it starts to rain, you just buy one from the guy out on the street. $3.98.

In Brooklyn, if you had unwanted clothes, you don't bother with the Salvation Army-you just hang them out in front of your apartment house, they'd be gone in an hour.

Talk about food-eating Chinese was a fine point in itself. There was the good one in your neighborhood, and then all the others. And Asian food is as different and varied as spaghetti is from saurbraten.

[Joe Buff]

$3.98 for an umbrella on the street! Wow! The last time I found myself in a situation getting caught in Manhattan in the rain (over 10 years ago), the street vendors were asking $10 for an umbrella, and it was a "throwaway." That means, if it didn't get inverted from the wind, it wouldn't be worth keeping anyway after that day.

What you say about clothes in Brooklyn holds true for just about anything you would rather re-cycle than put in the trash, and it was true up in Westchester and Dutchess too. Put your sofa, your floor lamp, your stove, your washing machine out at the curb and it would be gone before the Sanitation Department came within a block. Some people pick the things up for themselves; others re-furbish them (I always hoped they did, anyway) and make them available to others (sometimes for a price, sometimes not).

Talk about food! The Buffalo area is noted, and rightly so, for being a real "eating area." But NYC is a veritable smorgasbord of everything edible from almost every ethnic kitchen you could dream of, including Klingon! And the myth that eating out is so expensive in the Big Apple holds true only if you go to the high-priced venues (as is the case just about everywhere in the world). Follow the locals, spy on the cabbies, ask the cop on the corner: they know where the really good food is and where you don't have to mortgage the baby to pay the check.

[speaker]

[QUOTE]Originally posted by Joe Buff
[B]$3.98 for an umbrella on the street! Wow! The last time I found myself in a situation getting caught in Manhattan in the rain (over 10 years ago), the street vendors were asking $10 for an umbrella, and it was a "throwaway." That means, if it didn't get inverted from the wind, it wouldn't be worth keeping anyway after that day.]

Well, you know, Joe, it wouldn't have been $3.98 anyway--that's a dept store thing--it would have been $3 and no tax! I speak of the late 1980's and I wouldn't take $1000 for those memories of those few years I lived there--but maybe $1,000,000?

[Joe Buff]

It's a most interesting city to live in or near. I preferred the latter: to be close enough to go there whenever I wanted to, and to be able to escape in the same way. There's so much to see, so much to do, so much to experience that I found it nearly impossible to relax within its borders.