Staten Island divided by North Shore (1), Mid Shore (2) and South Shore (3).
The Map below depicts the neighborhoods in Staten Island, But Us original Staten Islanders pretty much considered the South shore the other side of the Island from South Beach to Tottenville.
Click here for my personal Wolfe's Pond Park Blog
Click here for Tottenville Conference House Blog
I was born and raised on Staten Island, way before the influx of people that settled in after the Verrazano Narrows Bridge was officially opened. Most of the non-native Islanders settled in on the South shore.
Back in around 1960 only two hundred thousand people resided on the Island which was double from the 1920’s.
With plenty of growing up space, us 1960’s and 70’s dudes gallivanted through it all.
Back in the 1970's many neighborhood's had their hanging out spots and In Sunnyside we hung out on the corner of Clove and Victory. There were also hot spots like at Hylan boulevard and New Dorp Lane that many guys showed off their street hot rods in the lot of Island Chevrolet.
One year in the 1970's Hot Rod magazine had an article that out of every state they visited that year Staten Island had the hottest street rods.
By the Nineties population doubled and that was when I moved off the Island.
Revisiting from time to time I've seen massive changes to a place that seems unrecognizable today to my eyes with its over grown population. By 2020 the census was like 500 thousand.
Staten Island is only 14 miles long from end to end but they keep on coming.
Even though I've moved, I cannot but reminisce of my upbringing remembering so many life experiences and the way I remember it.
I'll share some of it as I navigate through a few topics. So take a ride with me down memory lane or learn about some of the past you might be very well standing on.
Lets start here:
I spent eight years of my youth from the 1960's into the 1970's growing up at the beach, in a family owned business working what used to be the old food concession at Wolfe's Pond Park.