As a teen, I worked in Lobel’s (children’s clothing store just down the hall from the theatres). Most memorable films seen there: Monty Python & the Holy Grail, and Young Frankenstein.
Steve H. here. Yep, sounds like we were practically neighbors! 45 would have been up between Merle and McLeod? We were #25 – last house on the dead end. Remember biking thru the ‘pit’? Tons of old wrecked cars to play with! What were our parents thinking when they let us loose like that? Ah, different times.
OK, to keep this drive-in related, we took our kids to the Roosevelt Drive-in on Friday night for Kung-Fu Panda and Indiana Jones. We are striving to keep the remaining ones in our area open!
I don’t think there was any connection between White and Waldbaum’s. My dad knew something about one of the founders, but I vaguely remember the details. The store in Massapequa was one of two that started in the 50’s, and they expanded in the late ‘60 thru the early 70’s around the NY area. The original store that fronted Sunrise Highway was torn down around 1972, and the new store built way off the road on the site of the Massapequa Drive-in. White originally ran the food market, but later contracted it out to Waldbaums.
My college girl (still my wife) is from Monticello, and I remember the White store all the way out at the edge of town. I think there is a Sears Surplus store there now?
I lived adjacent to the ‘Sunrise Mall’ site on Northgate Rd., having moved there in the summer of 1964. The 74 acres, which included the sand pit was property owned by the NY Water Board, IIRC, and supplied parts of Massapequa (Carmen Rd to Park Lane). The land was sold to the mall developers, and construction began in 1972. I was part of the first wave of teen hiring late in the summer of 1973. There are two or three pump stations in the mall parking lot, along with recharge basins (“sumps”) surrounding it. This site is North of the LIRR & Sunrise HW.
Now back to the South side of Sunrise: I started at Berner HS in Sept 1971, graduated in June 1975. There was a small foot bridge over the Carmen Creek (?) from the school land over to the back of the Whites property. I never walked the long way along Carmen Mill Rd – always cut around the Park-&-Shop bldg, around the old zoo, and the construction zone of the new Whites building (site of the Drive-in). So I still disagree with Don slightly on the timeline, but now we are only down to a 1 year or so discrepancy.
Just to get back on track on the topic of drive-in’s, I live in Dutchess County, NY. We still have two viable theatres, and I took my kids to see Prince Caspian and College Road Trip at the Overlook last weekend!
She really is a grand old hall. I have had the honor of singing on stage a number of times as part of a community choral group formerly associated with the Hudson Valley Philharmonic. Whenever possible, I would steel away and get lost in the catacombs under the stage/auditorium, or up top and back from the loft. I attended the Wurlitzer unveiling some years ago after the restoration of the famed pipe organ.
New here. I actually came to this site looking for information about the playground at the Rt 110 Drive-in to prove to my sister that it did indeed have a train! Having validated my memories, I figured the next place to look was the Massapequa site.
I remember the timeline a bit differently from what is posted (thru the late ‘70’s) in the header. My folks took me to Frank Bucks in the mid '60’s, but my mother couldn’t stand the smell of the monkey area, so we never went back! Out front on Sunrise was a big old wood frame building 'JA Rodes Park & Shop’, which burned down in the very late ‘60s or so. Just down the street was the original “Whites of Massapequa” building. Now here is where it gets a bit vague for me, but by the time I began walking to Berner HS in the Fall of 1971, they were well underway with construction on the new Whites building (late comers to the town would know this as the Sears building). Wasn’t this either partially or completely on the Bucks and Drive-in site? That would have made the demise of these establishments around 1970??
As a teen, I worked in Lobel’s (children’s clothing store just down the hall from the theatres). Most memorable films seen there: Monty Python & the Holy Grail, and Young Frankenstein.
Hi Don,
Steve H. here. Yep, sounds like we were practically neighbors! 45 would have been up between Merle and McLeod? We were #25 – last house on the dead end. Remember biking thru the ‘pit’? Tons of old wrecked cars to play with! What were our parents thinking when they let us loose like that? Ah, different times.
OK, to keep this drive-in related, we took our kids to the Roosevelt Drive-in on Friday night for Kung-Fu Panda and Indiana Jones. We are striving to keep the remaining ones in our area open!
I don’t think there was any connection between White and Waldbaum’s. My dad knew something about one of the founders, but I vaguely remember the details. The store in Massapequa was one of two that started in the 50’s, and they expanded in the late ‘60 thru the early 70’s around the NY area. The original store that fronted Sunrise Highway was torn down around 1972, and the new store built way off the road on the site of the Massapequa Drive-in. White originally ran the food market, but later contracted it out to Waldbaums.
My college girl (still my wife) is from Monticello, and I remember the White store all the way out at the edge of town. I think there is a Sears Surplus store there now?
Sorry guys, I haven’t dropped by here in a while!
I lived adjacent to the ‘Sunrise Mall’ site on Northgate Rd., having moved there in the summer of 1964. The 74 acres, which included the sand pit was property owned by the NY Water Board, IIRC, and supplied parts of Massapequa (Carmen Rd to Park Lane). The land was sold to the mall developers, and construction began in 1972. I was part of the first wave of teen hiring late in the summer of 1973. There are two or three pump stations in the mall parking lot, along with recharge basins (“sumps”) surrounding it. This site is North of the LIRR & Sunrise HW.
Now back to the South side of Sunrise: I started at Berner HS in Sept 1971, graduated in June 1975. There was a small foot bridge over the Carmen Creek (?) from the school land over to the back of the Whites property. I never walked the long way along Carmen Mill Rd – always cut around the Park-&-Shop bldg, around the old zoo, and the construction zone of the new Whites building (site of the Drive-in). So I still disagree with Don slightly on the timeline, but now we are only down to a 1 year or so discrepancy.
Just to get back on track on the topic of drive-in’s, I live in Dutchess County, NY. We still have two viable theatres, and I took my kids to see Prince Caspian and College Road Trip at the Overlook last weekend!
She really is a grand old hall. I have had the honor of singing on stage a number of times as part of a community choral group formerly associated with the Hudson Valley Philharmonic. Whenever possible, I would steel away and get lost in the catacombs under the stage/auditorium, or up top and back from the loft. I attended the Wurlitzer unveiling some years ago after the restoration of the famed pipe organ.
UPAC up in Kingston, NY is another treasure.
New here. I actually came to this site looking for information about the playground at the Rt 110 Drive-in to prove to my sister that it did indeed have a train! Having validated my memories, I figured the next place to look was the Massapequa site.
I remember the timeline a bit differently from what is posted (thru the late ‘70’s) in the header. My folks took me to Frank Bucks in the mid '60’s, but my mother couldn’t stand the smell of the monkey area, so we never went back! Out front on Sunrise was a big old wood frame building 'JA Rodes Park & Shop’, which burned down in the very late ‘60s or so. Just down the street was the original “Whites of Massapequa” building. Now here is where it gets a bit vague for me, but by the time I began walking to Berner HS in the Fall of 1971, they were well underway with construction on the new Whites building (late comers to the town would know this as the Sears building). Wasn’t this either partially or completely on the Bucks and Drive-in site? That would have made the demise of these establishments around 1970??