• Your mom often took you to get a hot dog and a Coke at Woolworth’s in Eastchester if you “behave” while she ran her errands.
• You know that “Mikey” from the Life Cereal commercial didn’t die from taking a sip of soda while eating Pop Rocks, because Mikey (whose real name is John Gilchrist) was a classmate of yours in New Rochelle.
• You and your dad went to see Joe Namath and the Jets practice at Torpey Field in Peekskill.
• You saw The Jackson 5 at Memorial Field in Mount Vernon.
• You and your steady “necked” at the Starlight Drive-In in Croton.
• You remember who had the high score on Space Invaders at Cook’s in Mamaroneck.
• You got your first cool two-wheeler—a Schwinn Sting-Ray, with a banana seat and “sissy bar,” if your memory serves—at Miller’s in Mamaroneck, where “Mr. Miller” (who was actually Eric Morely) was happy to help you.
• Your mom’s cardiologist, “Scarsdale Diet Doctor” Herman Tarnower of the Scarsdale Medical Group, was shot and killed by Jean Harris.• You saw Janis Joplin at the Capitol Theatre the night she co-wrote “Mercedes Benz
You were there when Cookie Puss and Fudgie the Whale first appeared at the original Carvel location in Hartsdale.
• You were mortified by your parents’ “Nixon Now” button, which they proudly wore as they waved to him during his reelection campaign visit to Yonkers in 1972.
• You remember standing in line as a kid to borrow books from the Yonkers Library Bookmobile.
• Every week when you watched Maude on TV, you hoped to see actual scenes of Tuckahoe, where the show was set.
• You remember when Rob Reiner’s dad, Carl, who lived down the block in New Rochelle, used the name of his real street, Bonnie Meadow Road, as the address for Rob and Laura Petrie on The Dick Van Dyke Show.
• You know that in “American Pie,” written by your one-time Iona Prep classmate, Don McLean, “the sacred store” was a reference to the House of Music in New Rochelle, where McLean bought his first guitar.
• You remember when Westchester’s first mall, the Cross County Shopping Center, opened—and you loved going to Adventurers!
