(click to enlarge photos)
Sunday, August 12, 2007
Boardwalk 116th Street Rockaway Beach, Queens, 1977
(click to enlarge photos)
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
(click to enlarge photos)
About Me
Sitemeter
(click to enlarge photos)
18 comments:
Wow! great pictures!
That sure brings back memories.
We had it a little easier since we could grab a Green Lines bus at the 'junction' in Brooklyn for the ride out to Riis Park and sometimes to 116th St.
Other times we hitchhiked down Flatbush Avenue or when I was younger we'd ride our bikes to the beach.
It was always exciting going downhill on the Marine Parkway (now Gil Hodges) Bridge in either direction. One time my chain fell off and I was well past the toll booths and had lost about a quarter inch off the soles of my sneakers before I could stop!
Another time we were sitting behind the bus shelter (it was wooden with a roof) outside the entrance to Floyd Bennet Field when we noticed a roaring noise that was progressively getting louder. We couldn't see anything around us causing it and were trying to figure out if we were in an earthquake when suddenly a HUGE four engine propeller transport plane took off right over our heads! That was the first time I was ever that close to a plane in flight and I felt much like the kid in the movie "Empire of the Sun" cheering on the P-51 fighters as they flew over their prison camp!
Rockaway Playland was also a favorite destination near 116th St., we'd go out there and play the games in the penny arcade, ride the roller coaster and watch the fireworks. It was the first place I ever had cotton candy.
Thanks for posting those pictures, UI, they certainly bring back great memories.
Dan
Is this near Coney Island?
Because those pics just make me want to say:
Waaaaarriors!!! Come out and playyyyeeyaaaay!
And which of them are you?? I wonder.
HI St. Blogustine,
This is in Queens so it is kind of far from Coney Island in Brooklyn.
I'm not in these. I was taking the pictures. These were some of my friends. Many of them are no longer living last I knew.
Hey UI,
My reference to "The Warriors" was certainly not an attack on your friends' character, but merely a humorous dig at the clothing styles of the day. I'm truly sorry that many of them are deceased. I wonder what happened to them.
Am I correct in assuming that Rockaway Beach is near Kennedy Airport? If I'm right it looks like 5 miles apart to me. In Chicago that would be a 15 min ride on the el train.
I sure hope I didn't offend you with what I said earlier. I happen to enjoy both your blogs and think you do great work.
Have a great day!
St. Blogustine,
None taken. They weren't angels, that much I know. Drinking and heavy drugs will do it. Those were different times back then. But it brings back memories.
OH MAN!!! I remember the first time you shared these pictures with me. I loved them then and love them now. You really (and I mean REALLY) have an uncanny ability to capture the moment in time as it existed. And, THAT is a priceless gift!
Wow, these are excellent, UI! I don't think I am brave enough to post any of me and my friends back in those days, but I might conjure up enough guts to personally e-mail you one or two. All periods had their turmoil and dangers, those times included... but we were also without so many of today's overwhelming concerns. The memories are frequently sweet and our biggest worries then would be so welcome now, eh?
Thanks for taking me back!
I have a ton of pictures like this, as I grew up in Rockaway Beach. It certainly has changed a bit. lol
Wow those photos brought back memories...... we were all such hippies back then!
Onanite
Who's the hot blonde in the bikini first pic?? Wow how does she look today?
My family used to rent a summer bungalow during the 60's around the 44th-45th st area. I loved those summers. Sometimes we'd go up to Playland. I remember there was a McDonald's somewhere in the 90's - it was the only McD's I knew of at the time. I kind of looked like your friends in 1977That was the year we all went to see Zeppelin at The Garden (I was 16). Thanks for the memories...
St. Blogustine,
Yeah, geographically close, but people tend to stay where they know. A local native would view Rockaway and Coney Island as very different places, but a visitor would probably think they're very similar.
hardyandtiny,
I saw Zeppelin at the Garden in '77 too! I was 15.
Great memories.
And ya, Coney Island and Rockaway are two very different places. You aren't a real New Yorker unless you summered as a kid in either of those places.
Thanks for coming by!
UI
Interesting to know.
In 1977 i was just a kid. This persons make me remember my uncles in those days, with long hair and denim clothes. They like to listen Crosby Stills Nash, and Joni Mitchell. Now, i like this kind of music also.
i love 116th street but it is a bit rundown and the unsaviory people who come down to visit just destroy the beach with garbage on a daily basis its just sad.
this is a great site here. im originally from west 33rd street coney island but moved to middle village queens in 1964 then glendaloe. i hitched to rockaway for years but hung on 108 and 102 streets. in 1977 i got clean from all the drugs from the 60's and early 70's and yeah man thats what my boys and i looked like to. the boys from east new york were doen on 116 street (fulton&rockaway)i love this blog man good work and thanks for the memories i have mant from rockaway. imagine the broad channel bridge being 10 cents...wow!!! peace my friends and good health to all.
b116th is a rundown business district unsavory crackheads everywhere begging for money or drinking in the gutter by far the worst shopping experience ever
Post a Comment