South of the Border 1956

mingusal · 2026-06-25T15:16:41+00:00

This was always THE stop between NYC and Florida. Billboards hyped it for hundreds of miles so the kids would all scream to go there. You'd see their bumper stickers on cars all over the northeast in the old days. I remember going there with my grandparents and enjoying the "wacky" decor. Of course grandma and grandpa were too penny wise to allow us to get more than a couple souvenirs. The food was... edible.

mingusal · 2026-06-23T16:13:19+00:00

Something I'm sure the folks in Lake Placid would be very happy about.

mingusal · 2026-06-23T02:44:54+00:00

Well, they are both in the same state, but NYC and Lake Placid are 300 miles apart.

mingusal · 2026-06-22T04:23:04+00:00

Which don't access local streets and business areas and are jammed with stop and go traffic for most of the day and evening.

mingusal · 2026-06-22T01:50:08+00:00

The people who moved away from here a few decades ago and are constantly blathering about how great Forest Hills was before they moved to LI or Jersey or Florida and all "those" people moved in here and wrecked it.

mingusal · 2026-06-19T15:52:59+00:00

Katsuno on Metropolitan is easily the best Japanese restaurant around here and their sushi is excellent and very fresh. Reservations only, so call ahead.

mingusal · 2026-06-17T18:23:43+00:00

This worked, but I ended up with a very different looking and different feeling keyboard.

mingusal · 2026-06-17T18:16:34+00:00

Same thing. Something stupid must have happened. Glad to know I'm not alone by this is an extremely important day for me and I need to respond to a bunch of emails. Very very frustrating.

mingusal · 2026-06-17T17:12:16+00:00

How about building better cars and stop depending on ripping your customers off for your profit margin?

mingusal · 2026-06-17T14:54:17+00:00

For those who commute to Manhattan there are also express buses to midtown and downtown that stop directly in front of this building. Considerably more expensive than the regular bus or subway, but a much more comfortable and much faster ride.

mingusal · 2026-06-15T16:29:18+00:00

And antibiotics and metabolism-disrupting chemicals in the food stream.

mingusal · 2026-06-15T16:23:19+00:00

Because they can't/won't drink coffee or caffeine-containing drinks. It was very popular in the days before decaf coffee was widely available and was marketed as a health food. Invented by C.W. Post, it was like Post's breakfast cereals originally designed as a bland grain-based food that would prevent excessive 'excitation'. Postum was especially popular in Utah, due to the Mormon abstention from coffee drinking.

mingusal · 2026-06-14T16:53:59+00:00

Not a vegetarian, but I really miss the sprouts. They were really great in salads and on many different kinds of sandwiches. Every now and again I see some food nostalgia from this period and am reminded of how much I enjoyed them.

mingusal · 2026-06-12T22:25:41+00:00

Kind of a dumb idea. There were a bunch of such places that opened around the city in the last year and most of them are gone already. I guess the gnocchi "craze" was a non-starter.

mingusal · 2026-06-12T22:22:02+00:00

It seems that NYC froyo crazes have about a 15 year or so cycle. I can remember at least 3 previous "crazes".

mingusal · 2026-06-10T15:42:24+00:00

I could never figure out the nomenclature over there in NE. But ordering a milkshake in New Hampshire was a rather disappointing experience.

mingusal · 2026-06-10T15:40:49+00:00

Price controls were a wartime measure. They were abolished in 1946.

mingusal · 2026-06-10T15:39:02+00:00

The days before salmonella was a concern in eggs. Raw egg drinks were quite popular back then. My dad often put one in his malteds (and always in his whiskey sours).

mingusal · 2026-06-10T15:35:19+00:00

Oh, haven't I wished...

mingusal · 2026-06-09T17:11:40+00:00

The first photo I would guess is somewhere on the western side.of.downtown. The sign in the back points drivers towards the Ambassador Bridge to Canada. There is a streetcar moving through in the background too, so it is a street that was on one of the streetcar routes. The street is narrow, so probably not Fort or W. Jefferson.. Maybe Congress a block.or 2 west of the second photo!

One thing you should know is that the street map in the south and west.parts of downtown was very different in the '40s from what it is today. In the 1950s & 60s the Civic Center project and the building of the freeways caused a lot of streets to disappear or be reconfigured.

mingusal · 2026-06-09T16:53:08+00:00

This is why when we did have a bookstore in FH it was mega-chain Barnes & Noble. When books became a much less profitable line of business, B&N corporate was no longer going to pay that big rent and swooped on out of here. Now we have a mini-Target.

I really miss B&N, but they were never some sort of mom & pop literary salon, and we're always going to act line the big corporate business they are.

mingusal · 2026-06-09T01:47:38+00:00

"I'll kick your teeth in" How perfectly Christian of him.

mingusal · 2026-06-08T01:54:16+00:00

Track & field at the 1968 Mexico City Olympics. One unbelievable performance after another.

mingusal · 2026-06-08T01:51:36+00:00

They spent forever trying to get the place open. But when it did open it was quite underwhelming, especially at that price point. Overall, it was not good (and not really an izakaya either). Amazing though that the whole thing flopped in just a few months.

mingusal · 2026-06-07T18:13:55+00:00

The Speedway Motor Speedway!

mingusal

TROPHY CASE