![]() ![]() He’s been living in JC since the late 1950s when he moved there from Puerto Rico. If you really want good JC stories, you should talk to my grandfather. Sometimes I would get my school supplies there. My mom and I used to go there almost every morning before school. Growing up between Wayne and Grove Street, it used to be a bodega. An example of this is the current restaurant Marco and Pepe on Mercer Street across from City Hall. I’m currently working on getting my photography book self-published about growing up in JC and showcasing which spots I grew up with that’s no longer around. Man, I could tell endless stories about growing up in Jersey City. I have wonderful memories of going to double features on Saturdays at the Loews, State, or Stanley theater and eating hot dogs at Boulevard Drinks. I am 65yrs young :D I was born and raised in Jersey City. Hung out on stoops and boys played stick ball… all good fun. 60s, 70s, it was safe, clean, and everybody left their doors open. Walked from downtown Library on Jersey Avenue to do homework, then to Journal Square. Excel Restaurant, now Hudson County Community College. Liss Drugstore, Blimpie on Bergen Ave, and the Canton… Danny Mac shoes, Rags to Riches, Cara Carson for dress wear. Grew up Downtown but Journal Square was the hang out. Monteleone’s bakery on Newark Ave, Laicos restaurant on Terhune, b/s-ing at Gary’s Sweet Shop… All still around! The hangout spot was Colgate when it was crack vials, not buildings, and a memory was a bullet hole through the passenger door lodged in the glove box. Before Foodmart, there used to be a Bradlees Dept. I loved shopping there as it used to be opened 24 hours. There used to be a supermarket called Foodmart International, where Target is currently located in downtown. My parents and their friends used it as a hang out, but they had a boat ramp and we used to fish and crab down there. A lot of people had shacks down there that they lived in all year round. They built it right around a phone booth so they could get phone calls there. When I was a kid my parents and their friends built a shack down Greene St to hang out in. Going to the theatre in Journal Square and playing video games in the lobby before watching a movie :) This was in the late 80s/early 90s. I think my Grandpa really enjoyed reminiscing with me, so thank you! Keep up all the good work! – Danielle H Photo courtesy of Wikimedia Commons. He played a huge New Year’s Eve show there. He was also a multi-instrumentalist who would perform shows at Casino in the Park and the Ukrainian Center on Fleet St. He loved the restaurants Robison’s (also in JSQ) Ilvento’s restaurant on West Side Ave (now a school) and White Mana Hamburgers (where girls on roller skates brought out your meals and you could get a steak sandwich for 30 cents). He said he used to love seeing shows at the Stanley Theater in Journal Square. He hung out a lot in Jersey City growing up, so it’s like things have come full circle now that I live here. ![]() My 86 year old Grandfather, Bernard Safner, was born and raised in Bayonne. ![]()
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