Essence of Nostalgia

Sunday, August 30, 2009
I am sitting in our car, in the Fairview Plaza Parking Lot, Hudson, NY.
My husband is making a deposit in a local bank. It's about 8:45 p.m.
If I close my eyes, I can not only see but smell the scenes of my youth
as clearly as if they were just outside the car.
It's not too difficult as all my senses go on a journey into the past.
Two doors down from the bank is a small Chinese restaurant storefront.

The aroma is not overpowering but the smell of heated oil, being
pumped out of the vents makes it seem as if I am back in Matawan, NJ,
heading into the Strathmore Bowling Alley for ballet class.
I can't actually remember if there was a Chinese restaurant in that
particular strip mall, but the snack bar could also catch your attention with
the scent of frying french fries emanating out of the kitchen.
Across town, by the railroad station there also
was a Chinese restaurant but it started out serving either Italian or American cuisine. Dutchies was the name. Now it's Sultan's Wok...I think. There has been one or two other incarnations.

And there was a Chinese restaurant in the "other" shopping center, where Grand Union
was built as a local competitor to the original Matawan Shop-Rite. My parents
were happy when the Lloyd Road Shop-Rite went up since it meant they didn't have
to drive over to Rt 36 any longer to do their weekly grocery shopping. Later on I'd
walk to the store to "get some exercise." It was about a mile up the road. Hudson Plaza also has a Shop-Rite. It looks almost exactly like the original Matawan store before it became "ginormous", selling literally everything from soup to nuts. And God knows what else. If you go in these days, make sure you are well hydrated, have a full stomache and plenty of time to do your shopping. People don't shop anymore, they go on excursions. And if I close my eyes, I could be standing in SR, located on Lloyd Rd., Matawan or Aberdeen. Whatever you want to call the place. It's a combination of the bakery, coffee, and well, Matawan.

If you drive down Fairview Ave., (here in NY) about a 1/2 mile, there is another Chinese restaurant, more of an eat-in establishment, with a bar. Eating there always induces memories of going to the place by Grand Union. They served really good food there,but I think they're gone, succumbed to the end of the originals era.
The Matawan Card & Gift Store, The Cheese & Chocolate Shop, The jewelers, Drug Fair, all long gone.

Next to the Hudson restauarant sits a movie-plex. Cineplex. Whatever. There are 2 locations in the area showing movies. But again, if I close my eyes, I find
myself walking across the Strathmore Shopping parking lot headed toward the Strathmore Twin Cinema and I'm about to see American Grafitti. Or the Apprenticship of Duddy Kravitz. Now that was an interesting movie. My friend and I went to see it because Richard Dreyfuss was the "star." A fairly young Richard Dreyfuss. And we were in completely over our heads. We thought we'd be seeing American Grafitti - The College Years but it wasn't to be. So naive.

Thanks to the impact AG had on me, coming at about the same time I discovered do-wop, I became a hard core fan of early rock & roll. My neighbor, a guy who was a classic car afficionado before he was 14 would work on his muscle cars day & night. He had older brothers so perhaps that influenced his taste in music but I can hear WCBS-FM 101.1 as clearly as if it were on the radio at this moment. That was the station he would listen to as he washed and polished his cars until you could see yourself in them. Cliche but that's what he did. He cleaned with the doors and windows open and the harmonies drifted right over the lawn to catch my ear. I began listening to Cousin Bruce and Don K. Reed when I was 13, 14. This of course was after Cousin Brucie & Harry Harrison left WABC due to format change. But I don't have to rely on my daydreams to bring me back to those moments of listening to Ben E. King, the Drifters, Frankie Lymon, or the other street corner harmonizers. Now a days I can tune the car radio to 100.9 out of Albany. Thanks to their Sunday night broadcasts, I can hear the original rockers...and real Golden Oldies. When WCBS went off the air, then came back on but only playing memory music from the 70's on, that was a jolt. I have no problem with change but no do-wop, anywhere? Of course, having moved to upstate NY, I could only hear WCBS when I went back to Jersey to visit family & friends. I know I could access them on the internet but it's not the same.

So, tonight, I time traveled back to age 11, 15 & 17. I walked through
the parking lot and up and back along Route 34 stopping at Dunkin' Donuts/Burger King, the movies, Hess Gas Station. Ben E. King sang, "You Know That You Lied/Don't Play That Song." There's a diner too along this particular route but no jukeboxes. No opportunity to drop a coin in to listen to favorite tunes. Yes, there are Ipods, MP3 players and all manner of other music devices. But no sharing the music. I remember when Paul insisted we listen to the closing riff of "Layla." I still listen for it.

But, yeah, I know, I know, I know, stop the whining. Hey, I'm reminiscing here. I'm not saying I want to go back to those days...yeah, not at all. But it's funny how the threads of those times seem to be as fully present in the tapestry that's being woven today. The anachronism at this moment is being able to do our banking at 9 p.m. on a Sunday night, in a storefront, in a strip mall along the local 2 way highway that used to be the site of the local farms that sustained the town (they call it city) of Hudson. Farms - a stream - dirt roads. No black-top, no eating establishments, no entertainment centers or grocery stores.
Hmm, I wonder what the farmer's wife, sitting in the wagon would see. hear and smell in her memory banks as she waited for him to make his deal with his neighbor?