Block’s Luncheonette: vintage postcard from the library of Les Block
Les Block remembrances:
This is a picture of my families business. sometime in the 1950’s. They had boardwalk vendors selling the Drink You Eat With A Spoon.
And yes if you have ever been on a boardwalk when there was hustle and bustle the picture makes you smell the ocean and the boardwalk itself. Those were the days, no computers but I think we all had more fun interacting with one another.
What a wonderful photograph. All I know is boy do I want an Egg Cream.
Incredible photo! What is there now? You are absolutely right about the more fun interacting without computers. I grew up as a child in the the 70’s and my teen years in the 80’s so computers weren’t around yet at least not in the way they are now. Kids today stay home in their rooms playing Xbox or chatting on the computer and missing out on how much fun they can really have by just interacting with one another in the outside world. Computers and Cell Phones…. who needs them! Thanks for this amazing photo.
What is there now? NOTHING is there now — beachsand! This building burned to the ground in the mid 1970s. This postcard print was taken after the second world war — those lightbulbs positioned around the outside of the building signs are the give-away. They flashed in sequence like a movie marque. When the flasher device failed in 1948 — they didn’t bother to repair it. The bulbs stayed on all the time and got hot –and a cool evening sprinkle (light rain) made them all go “POP” — end of that idea! I saw this building for the first time in year 1952 — and Block’s was long gone by that time! The concession to the immediate right (out of sight) was the Jack & Lenny’s Skee-Ball palace. The entrance way to the apartments above the stores is between the two rentals. Great postcard! Great memories!
Love it. Made me think of a luncheonette on the north side of Edgemere Avenue, around Beach 35th Street. I remember they had a counter to the left and nuts and candies to the right. Don’t remember the name. At that counter I ate shrimp salad for the first time. Now, 60 years later, every time I eat shrimp salad, I think of that place.