ATTENTION: MY TRENTON AND JERSEY SPEAKIES

FELLOW BURGER LOVERS:

JUST SAW A SHOW ON THE TRAVEL STATION CALLED "BURGER LAND."  THE HOST VISITED AND ATE AT SEVERAL JERSEY LOCATIONS AND ONE WAS "ROSSI'S BAR AND GRILL" IN TRENTON.

THE NEIGHBORHOOD LOOKED THE SAME BUT WE DID NOT SEE OUR OLD HOUSE.  THE BURGERS LOOKED GREAT AND THE PLACE WAS CROWDED.  MY TASTE BUDS WERE GOING CRAZY WATCHING THIS SHOW.   THE BURGERS AT ROSSI'S LOOKED LIKE THEY DID 21 YEARS AGO WHEN I HAD MY LAST ONE THERE.

IF YOU GET THE TRAVEL STATION, I'M SURE THERE WILL BE A REPEAT OF THIS SHOW, SO CATCH IT.

AH THE SMELL OF HOT PEANUTS

Good Day Speakies and to Skip:

Well Skip today we go back in time and than come back to the present and talking nuts. I’ll leave the crazies alone for now and pick on them some other day. So now let JoeyZ take you back to the late 1950’s and early 60’s to downtown Trenton, NJ.

I remember going with Mom in the late 1950’s downtown to do our Christmas shopping, Trenton was a busy town. All the stores were open late and the streets filled with the usual hustle and bustle of Christmas shoppers. The cold wind blowing, the smell of hot dogs cooking inside the 5 & 10 cent stores but the most wonderful smell came from the Planter’s Peanut Store located on Broad Street near State Street. The aroma of the peanuts filled the air and the steam coming from the side walk grates made the craving even greater for a bag of hot peanuts. Mom never disappointed me we always shared a bag of hot cashews and of course being a Mom, I always wound up with the most to eat. I can picture it in my mind as if it occurred last week but that was over 50 years ago. Even in the 60’s taking the bus to granny’s house and waiting for it on Broad Street; I had to stop in the Mr. Peanut Store as I called it and purchase a bag of hot cashews. So there are my memories of nuts and now let’s list the nuts we love to eat.

I don’t eat very many nuts these days but my favorites are: whole cashews, pistachios already shelled don’t need the breaking open stuff, regular peanuts and being down South I acquired a taste for hot boiled peanuts. It must be because I come from the Southern part of Jersey Y’all. I love those Christmas nuts that we had as kids in a bowl, the walnuts, Brazil nuts, filberts, almonds and pecans. I’m not crazy for honey roasted nuts of any kind. So there you go Skip my thoughts and memories of nuts. I want to hear from my Speakies send your comments in; it’s easy and doesn’t hurt any. Have a great day.

THE OLD NEIGHBORHOOD OF MINE

MY BLOG FRIEND MACK POSTED A PICTURE OF OUR OLD NEIGHBORHOOD. I WANTED TO SHARE IT WITH YOU MY SPEAKIES. OUR HOUSE WAS THE BRICK ON THE LEFT. IT'S FALL IN NEW JERSEY FOR SURE.

THANKS MACK AND NOEL

Hi Guys and Dolls:

I wanted to make a special post of “THANK YOU” to my Blog Buddy Mack of Mack’s Truck of Wisdom for his post about my book and a very nice testimonial from Noel who read the book, truly enjoyed it and suggested a follow-up. I appreciate the post and the comments guys, thanks again. And by the way if you are from the Trenton, NJ area, read Mack’s Blog the link is located on my blog site. Great stories and pictures of a great neighborhood in Trenton that will live in our hearts forever.

BATTER BATTER BATTER

Happy Friday Morning Speakies:

That day all of us workers look forward to is here at last. For some of you it may be a pay day, some may start a vacation at the end of the work day, but for most of us it’s the weekend a coming. Those two fabulous days to putter around the house, be a couch potato or do the adventurer thing. I hope the weather will be in your favor, down here it will be hot, humid and those afternoon and evening thunderstorms.

There is a holiday this weekend we observe and that is “WIFFLE BALL DAY.” Now wiffle ball was big in my kid days. The original wiffle ball set included a narrow solid yellow bat and a wiffle ball that had holes all around the ball for proper air flow. As a pitcher one could deliver amazing curves, sliders and fast balls galore and as the ball was released a whistling sound filled the air.

Now there came a second sort of wiffle ball with a regular softer bat and solid plastic ball, but a true wiffle baller preferred the narrow bat for that was a hitter’s challenge to prove himself in the batter’s box. I remember when I belonged to the Boys Club in South Trenton, we played wiffle ball every afternoon in the summer. The counselor would choose 2 team captains and than we would pick our teams for a double header game. We played on a concrete lot with a big tree in left field and if the ball went into the tree play continued if the ball was caught after falling out you were out. We had very simple rules, over the fence a home run, a foul ball over the catcher and over the fence behind him was an out. Regular baseball rules applied for the rest of the game. JoeyZ is proud to say that one season I won the home run championship with a total of 50. A simple game with lots of fun and wiffle ball sets are probably still available today. Pick one up and have fun with the kids.

Going to say goodbye now. As for the weekend Guys and Dolls, have fun, be safe and stop by next week. Remember you can sign-up to be a follower of this blog, just follow the instructions and please feel free to post your comments it’s easy.

MORE BRUNSWICK AVE. MEMORIES

Good Tuesday Morning Guys and Dolls:

As I told you last week, my reader Skip filled my National Milk Chocolate and Brunswick Drugs post with other familiar places that surrounded our neighborhood mostly located on Brunswick Avenue. I’d like to thank Skip for filling in where my mind goes blank. Here’s a list of some of the places with a little JoeyZ comments:

Polonia Polish Restaurant – Not there when I was growing up but read reviews and the ratings are great.

Columbus School – We played baseball there in the summer too. Rubber or tennis balls only too many houses and windows.

Brunswick Sporting Goods – My Dad took me there to buy me my first fishing reel and pole, it was a bait caster and I could never get it to work right for me.

Stanley’s Tavern – Went there with my parents on hot summer nights, they drank beer and I polished off cokes and chips and played the juke box. Of course we had to sit in the ladies room in the back in those days. Came home on leave from the service and went to Stanley’s for those 10 cent beers every time. Long gone now.

D’Agostino’s Men’s Wear – It was originally a Buster Brown Shoe store and they had one of those foot x-ray machines to see how your toes fit inside the shoes. It later became Kushner’s Men’s Shop.

Servus Bakery – I spoke of those finger cakes filled with cream, but I don’t remember walnut lady fingers like Skip said, these were plain with powder sugar only and filled with cream. They also had great cakes, Danish and breads. I went to school with one of the sons.

Top Road Tavern – Great tomatoe pies and fish and chips. Cheap beer too.

Lisook’s Deli – Was the Jewish Deli owned by the two brothers I spoke of earlier, on Sundays they had bags of Kramer’s rolls and bagels in the window. You grabbed what you wanted and brought it to the counter. A hard fresh roll and butter with coffee after Mass could not beat it.

St. Michaels Church – Small but warm feeling Catholic Church.

Top Road Barber Shop – Use to get my hair cuts there, no longer exists now a Chinese restaurant and Realtors Association.

Mercer Savings and Loan – Just like Bailey’s in “It’s A Wonderful Life.” Roe and I got our mortgage there for our first house.

Ianni’s News Stand on Olden Ave. – Cigarettes, newspapers, Playboy magazines and other stuff. I was a frequent visitor as a youth.

Dominick’s Shoe Repair – Real nice elderly Italian guy fixed shoes like a pro and put those cleats in the heals so everyone heard you coming.

Schaffer’s Cleaners – The neighborhood pro’s at dry cleaning and altering. Had to take all of my uniforms there after basic training to get them refitted.

Reither Brother’s Garage on Spruce and Princeton Sts. – I started going there later, two brothers owned it after their father retired. Honest mechanics, don’t know if it’s there anymore.

Well there you go more Brunswick Ave. memories; fun to remember, write and read about. To those who lived there or knew of the area I hope you enjoy reading about the places and days gone by and maybe recall your own neighborhood memories.

Have a wonderful day Speakies.

THANKS FOR THE STORY SKIP

Good Monday Morning Speakies:

Hoped you all had a great weekend and welcome to the start of a brand new week. Late Friday I received an e-mail from my blog reader Skip with a funny memory of his growing up in our old neighborhood. So I would like to share it in this post for all to read.

“Joe, I just thought I'd share this memory of "The Circuit" and I know that you have to know the participants. A perfect storm for teens gone bad.Eddie Lisiecki's Dad had the funeral home almost next to Kalina's on Olden.George Salcewicz and I lived on Ellis and George worked for Winowicz Funeral Home in high school doing odd jobs.Eddie's parents went out for their usual long Saturday night fine dining and it was usually out of town.We are bored, it's Saturday night and Eddie is the class clown and always up for a laugh. He remarks that we should take the limo for the funeral service and he would don a chauffeur cap and ride around. Problem, we have keys but no limo. But, we do have a hearse. George notes that he just stacked a load of fresh off the truck caskets in the Winowicz storage garage. You can see where this is going? Too cool, three kids in a hearse complete with casket riding down State Street on Saturday night and the radio is up and, and, and, And we look over and to our horror, Ed's dad (Ed senior) and his mom are at the light at Warren. We race back and ditch the casket and Ed takes the car home.Next day he answers the door and Holy Cow, he has two shiners. Grounded for two weeks and ..Thought you might remember these guys. The other trick was we had two "One Star General" flags and would put them on the limo and drive through Fort Dix real slow and watch all the troops stop and salute while we howled in the back.This, I guess is as James Bond would say .. "For Your Eyes Only" .. or use it as you see fit.

Thanks Skip for this great story from the past now say 3 Our Fathers and 3 Hail Mary’s. Skip also gave me some other names and stores to recall from our area and I’ll be doing a post on them shortly. Glad to share this with you Speakies and now have a great day and be careful out there.

THANKS SKIP

Good Monday Morning Speakies:

Hoping to find you all in good spirits at the start of a brand new week. Looks like the country is in full swing with the summer heat according to the news reports. This morning here it was 82 degrees at 6:30 a.m. and highs today will be in the mid 90’s. I wish I could spend it by a pool or under a palm with a nice hammock and a gin and tonic being cooled by the breeze of fans held by two charming women in bikinis. Oh well only in my dreams. See what the hot weather can do to you.

Roe had to fix up my blog site, there were some site changes and she just changed it completely. The word Speakeasy is from the 1920’s dark and secretive, the new colors reflect it and I like it a lot. Thanks Honey.

I have received several comments on my blog from Skip. Skip lived around my neighborhood when we were young and we remember a lot of things growing up in North Trenton. The old 5 & 10 cent store Willett’s, but Willett’s had everything you needed, my mom and I could spend hours in there or as my dad would say as we got home, “What did you do, get lost.” I could still here those words today. There was a candy store across from the Catholic school we attended owned by two brothers who could easily loose their tempers if you did not know what you wanted. They also sold model planes it was a neat place but you better have had your choice of candy made and money ready or out the door you went.

I remember the bakeries my favorite was Service Bakery on Heil Ave. they had what we called finger cakes. It was a long cake donut filled with white cream and topped with powder sugar, that with a glass of milk or as I got older coffee what a breakfast. Mack and Tom Glover recalled similar donuts at Prior’s Donuts in their neighborhoods. We also had Eagle Bakery on Olden Ave., another great Polish bakery, great cakes and breads. Rye bread to die for. There was a batch of small stores on Brunswick Ave. between Olden and Spruce St. There was a Jewish Deli, can’t remember the name, good lunch meat, bagels and rolls on a Sunday morning after Church. There was a camera shop called Deal’s, Old Doctor Greenwald and later Dr. Moses dental offices. Harbourt’s Drug Store on the corner and two great doctors, the Drs. Franzoni. If you were too sick to come to their office, they came to you after hours. I know I got shot plenty of times in my butt with penicillin when I had the flu.

There was a great gas station and auto repair right across from my parents house an ESSO station owned by Ed. Very honest and I’ll just call him Honest Ed. There was an appliance store, a Food Fair, Stanley’s Tavern, Top Road Tavern, Top Road Dress Shop and a few other places I can’t remember.

In one of my future posts there was a favorite hang out of mine in high school called Brunswick Drug Store, a bunch of us hung out there. That’s for later.

Well Skip see what you did making me recall all those memories, love every minute of it. I’m sure you readers have memories too. Feel free to share them on this blog. Speakies have a great day and day dream of those fond memories.

I SCREAM, YOU SCREAM, WE ALL SCREAM FOR ICE CREAM

Happy Friday Guys and Dolls:

With summer in full force and the temps reaching in the 90’s down here and I’m sure where you live too, my thoughts turned to ice cream. I love ice cream but my urges for it comes and goes for weeks at a time. I was thinking about the good old days and the types of ice cream I enjoyed as a kid and I’m sure you’ll remember yours too. I remember going to Carl & Mary’s Candy Store on the corner of Home Ave. and Beatty St. many times at night for a great vanilla milkshake. Carl made it nice and thin with a great vanilla flavor. Sometimes I drank it so fast I suffered a brain freeze. We also had a place called the Burg Dairy on Home Ave. that made the best homemade ice cream ever. They had a great variety of flavors and my favorite was the Walk-Away-Sundae. It was made for one person but believe me you could share it with a friend and be stuffed.

Besides enjoying ice cream in the true parlor fashion, we also enjoyed those fast treats. You know the ones I’m talking about, either from the ice cream truck man or in those freezers you had to bend over and pick the type you wanted. Let’s see what I remember. We had:

Dixie Cups with the small wooden spoons.
Twin Ice Pops – my favorite flavors were root beer and vanilla.
Dreamsicles and Creamsicles – tasted the same to me.
Fudgesicles – one of my favorites, but it could get messy.
Ice Cream Sandwiches – that chocolate always stuck to my fingers.
Rockets – that red, white and blue pop.
Vanilla Crunch Bars – had that little nutty crunch stuff on the chocolate covering.
Nutty Buddies and Drumsticks.
And finally one of my favorites still today frozen custard. Now if any of you Speakies remember any you enjoyed as a kid send me a comment, don’t be shy. I enjoy reading your comments and thoughts.

I’m going enjoy the weekend, my grand kiddies are coming to visit and I haven’t seen them for a few months and plan to enjoy and spoil them to death. To all of you have a great weekend and be careful out there.

THOSE WERE THE GOOD OLD DAYS

Good Monday Morning Guys and Dolls:

Hoping you all had a nice and relaxing weekend and are feeling bright-eyed and bushy tailed to start the new week off “NOT.” Well let’s try anyway to make the most of this day so smile it will make you feel better.

Last week I mentioned a holiday Yo-Yo Day and my Blog Buddy Mack made a comment how his Dad picked up a gift yo-yo one Christmas. He started playing with it and sure and behold the old tricks came back to mind and he amazed everyone on his prowess of the days of old. So I’m thinking not smelling any smoke burning yet what simple toys or games I played when I was young. Now here I go writing them down, so don’t laugh, kids then had to use imagination, especially me I was an only child. Let me see what I remember deep inside my memory.

Yo-Yo’s of course, I could only go 3 times up and down and could never do the other tricks.

Thumb Tack Races – Get a few of those metal tacks and a couple of buddies, put that tack between your thumb and middle finger, give it a twist and let her ride and see who’s tack spins the longest. The kitchen table was the field of battle.

We flipped baseball cards to match and win or fling them to see whose came closer to the wall. I lost many a good card and probably a few Mickey Mantle’s in my day.

Match football, I’m sure everyone knew how to play this game, I remember my cousin Tommy and I would play that on a cold night at my grandmother’s smoking a few cigs and drinking coffee. (We were teenagers then and smoking was fashionable).

My parent’s house had a shed, actually it was a room where Mom had her stove and kept all her appliances and canned goods. It had a door that separated it from the kitchen. At night instead of watching TV, I remember playing sock basketball. I’d put up a box with no bottom securing it with tape to the wall rolled up a pair of socks tied with a good heavy rubber band and the teams played. One shot for your team and one for the opponent. First team to reach 60 was the winner. My Day got tired of hearing the sock hit the wall so he bought me a rim and net and screwed it into the wooden stair case in the cellar. I had just enough clearance to make baskets from all angles, man I felt like a pro.


In the summer I would pitch against the brick wall in our backyard pretending to play a regular baseball game. If the ball got by me it was a hit and with more hits came the runs and the game. Now we had a few guys in the neighborhood and we would get together after dinner and when the local Food Fair store closed use their parking lot to play baseball. Now with all the houses around we had to use a rubber sponge ball. A homer was across the street.

Well there are some of the nostalgic games or toys I played with, send me yours. Don’t be shy you readers can make comments and they would be appreciated. Have a great day.

OH THOSE MEMORIES, AND LET THEM BE MEMORIES

Good Afternoon Guys and Dolls:

Now for those of you who purchased by book “I Hate Everybody” (And Other Things), there was a section on how when it snows in Trenton, NJ and after you shovel your parking space it is sacred and must be protected. This protection comes in the form of garbage cans, chairs or anything that will not blow away. The picture you see is proof of what I wrote. Have a great evening and be careful Trentonians driving in that snow, ice and slush. Keep Warm also.

HOLIDAY MEMORIES

Hello Speakies:

I was just thinking with the Thanksgiving and Christmas Seasons upon us, we all have memories of things we did, family traditions, things we remember or foods we ate or something so small it was a special part of the holidays for us. I’m going to write mine down so wake up those brain cells and send me yours. Let’s see if we have some of the same in common.

My grandmother’s homemade Lekvar and nut cookies.
Those different hard tack candies in the glass jar that was at everyone’s house you visited.
Every night you went out to visit or had company over your house.
A very traditional Polish Christmas Eve dinner at my grandmother’s, Christmas was the favorite time of the year for my grandfather, I'll never forget his face at the table.
Breaking of the Christmas wafer before dinner.
My dad setting up the train tracks and my big American Flyer train.
Polish Midnight Mass at my church back home, candles lit, with the choir singing traditional Polish Kolendy.
Shopping downtown not at a mall.
Each of my son’s first Christmas.
Hiding their toys in the attic or bringing them over to the neighbor’s house to hide.
Remembering the night they found all the toys in the attic and we had to make up a fast excuse.
Snow on Christmas Eve.
My wife’s Christmas fish stew, the best ever.
The one Christmas Eve I was up till 4 a.m. putting together a He-Man Fort and some other space station. Well there are some of mine, take some time out and add to the list.

2 FAVORITE EATING PLACES

Speakies:


I'm posting 2 of my favorite places I use to eat at back home. One is the Casino and the other is DeLorenzo's Tomato Pies. At this point I want to make my son's mouths water. Enjoy the pictures guys. Thank you Mack for allowing me to use them from your post. Mack can vouch for the food here and I'm sure all his reader too.

DeLorenzo's



Casino

HOME TOWN FAVORITES

Speakies:


My blog buddy Mack is always posting photos from our home town of Trenton, NJ, in particular a great neighborhood called "The Burg". His photos are of places that bring back lots of memories to a great deal of people who lived there. My favorites are the restaurants and food, so today I'm going to play the match game with you. I'm posting the restaurant and along side the food you will find served there. So if you ever travel to the area stop in for a real feast.





DeLorenzo's Tomato Pies
matches this to eat inside













Rossi's Tavern
matches this to eat inside





Hope it made your mouth water. Have a great night Guys and Dolls, talk to you tomorrow.

TOMATO PIES AND A BURGER

Speakies:

You have heard me speak of DeLorenzo’s Tomato Pies and hamburgers from Rossi’s in some of my posts. My blog buddy Mack recently posted pictures of the tomato pies and hamburgers served at those 2 places I miss. I told Mack I was borrowing the pictures for my blog to show my Southern Speakies what a real tomato pie and burger look like. Also for all you Jersey transplants, I hope your mouths are watering like mine. Enjoy the pictures and just dream of sinking your teeth into those two delights. Mack, as Bob Hope would say, “Thanks for the Memories.”

PICTURE FOR JOE AND JEFF

HEY GUYS: Here's a picture of your old grammar school back home from Mack's site.

REMEMBERING THE OLD JOB, FRIENDS AND CUSTOMERS

Guys and Dolls:

My blog pal Mack and I were corresponding about a gentleman we both knew, Nick Tomasulo, a realtor from my home town. I was sorry to hear he passed on about 9 years ago according to Mack. I sold men’s wear at a specialty shop called Frank’s Big and Tall for a number of years. Mack thought it would be a good idea to remember the customers I had and the people who I worked with. Mack’s Dad was a customer if I could only remember his face I would know him off the bat. Nick was also a customer of mine. I told Mack, when it comes to names, my grey matter does not function in overdrive. I have some stories to write about the place, but I think I can add some pages to my second book with those. As for the people, Al was the owner of the shop along with other stores throughout New Jersey with his brothers Hy and Marty. They were very nice people to work for and they rewarded their employees for the services rendered. Some of the people I worked with were Gary, Steve, Alan, Frank, a wonderful girl named Susan, Tom, Ken, Abe, Lou, Max and how can I forget Boris the Tailor.

The customers were the true characters of the shop and I’ll try to mention a few I remember. There was Sam Blumenthal, who owned Dave’s Bar on Centre St., really comical guy and when I delivered something to him at the bar after work, a drink was always on the house. There was Nunzi, an Italian gentleman who always told me if I didn’t get it right he’d break my legs. I never knew if he was kidding or not. Karl Duven, he worked for PSE&G and tended bar at E.J.’s over the weekend, super guy. Carl Weike, a pleasant gentlemen we became friends and he had dinner and drinks a few times with my girlfriend and me. He passed away while I still worked there. There was Jack the butcher from West Trenton who was a very funny guy and he use to mock me out in Yiddish. I’ll try to remember some more names but there you go Mack for a start.


A picture of the men's shop courtesy of Mack's photo collection. Thanks Mack for the use.

THE ITALIAN HOT BY ROSEMARY

Speakies:

My blog buddy Mack posted a picture Saturday of a Casino Italian Hot Dog. If your not from Trenton, NJ I can hear you saying "What is a Casino Hot Dog?" The Casino is a small hole in the wall restaurant serving their special dogs for years along with other tasty food, but the hot dog is what they are famous for. As I remember 2 hot dogs on a Italian Torpedo Roll, peppers and onions, fried potatoes and topped with mustard. A true belly delight. Now as I stated, Mack posted a picture of it, and our mouths started to water. I ran over to our local grocery store, secured a loaf of french bread which is the closest thing to an Italian Torpedo Roll down here, a green pepper and a nice sized baking potato. My Rosemary than proceeded to create her own Italian Hot Dog, I shall name it the "Roe Dog." Needless to say not a morsel was left on our plates. Posted below is the "ROE DOG." Guys beg your wives to create you one and have a nice cold brew with it.

To my sons, you move, you miss.

MEMORIES OF TRENTON

Good Morning Guys and Dolls: Hope you all had a pleasant Monday night and a good nights rest. Today, August 4th, we celebrate the following holidays:
National Chocolate Chip Day
Coast Guard Day
Hooray for the Kids Day – Let the little ones have fun, school is just around the corner down here in Sunny Florida.

I have been having fun with a fellow blogger Mack and some of the great guys on his site. Seems we are always on the subject of good food. We discuss burgers, tomato pies, cannoli’s and one of our favorites pork roll. My mouth waters with every comment posted, see I miss those great burgers from Rossi’s and our own Trenton, NJ tomato pies. Pork roll I can buy that here in Florida so I'm safe. So Mack and my fellow foodies, posted below is a great dish I enjoyed yesterday at Rosemary’s Italian Kitchen, along with a nice glass of red wine. For those who are asking, it's Linguine with Hot Italian Sausage. I'll be enjoying the rest at lunch today. Thanks Dear for a wonderful dinner.

Alright Speakies have a great day and if anything pops around here you'll be the first to know.

MEMORIES LIGHT CORNERS OF MY STOMACH

Hello Speakies:

I started this blog from my wife’s suggestion, but find myself enjoying writing about different subjects. Some are serious most of them just funny tidbits of my human nature. Last night Rosemary and I were watching the Travel Channel. They broadcasted three shows about hotdogs, hamburgers and places to eat. We both grew up in Trenton, NJ, the home of the finest food around as far as I’m concerned. For hotdogs we had the “Casino”, a small hole in the wall place who gave you hotdogs on an Italian roll with peppers, onions and fried potatoes.

Pizza we call it Tomato Pie and there were several great places like DeLorenzo’s, Papa’s and one of my favorites growing up was Sam’s LaRoma. Pies are made with less cheese, more sauce and a crispy crust. You’d pick up a slice, crack it in half and watch the oil drip down. That’s a pie. We liked Nino’s Pizza on Chambers St. for their Sicilian pizza or a great cheese steak with peppers and onions and a side order of fries, wrapped in paper. Always greeted with that same phrase, “Watta You Want Boss.”

For a great burger you went to Rossi’s Bar and Grill or Ernie’s Tavern near Rt. 130. Rossi’s is a great neighborhood bar and grill and has seen it’s share of great major league players like “Joltin” Joe DiMaggio, Mickey Mantle and boxer Jersey Joe Walcott.

In a section called “Chambersburg” there must have been at least 20 Italian restaurants in it's prime all equal in fine cuisine. Mom and Pop bakeries, deli’s and the like filled the Burg. I guess what I’m trying to say is I have to stop watching the Travel Station and start my own Cheese Pork Roll Stand or maybe just hope Moms and Pops start opening up businesses again.

So if you are ever heading to the Trenton, NJ area, try the food out and if you pass me on the way home, bring some back.