WWW.QNS.COM RIDGEWOOD TIMES MAY 31, 2018 29
OUR NEIGHBORHOOD: THE WAY IT WAS
Looking back at a Ridgewood
Times issue from May 1994
BY THE OLD TIMER
EDITORIAL@RIDGEWOODTIMES.COM
@RIDGEWOODTIMES
Madison Square Garden rocked
as both the Knicks and Rangers
were fi ghting for world
championships. The Yankees were in
fi rst place but a baseball strike loomed
on the horizon. Queens soccer fans
were getting ready for the fi rst World
Cup held in the United States.
The date is May 26, 1994, and as
Walter Cronkite once famously said,
"You are there." Well, not really.
The Old Timer's DeLorean, purchased
from a California inventor, is
still in the shop due to a broken fl ux
capacitor. However, through the magic
of the Ridgewood Times archives, we
can give you a glimpse through the
headlines of that week's issue — the
43rd in the paper's 86th year.
Come with us now as we thumb
through the pages of local history:
• Our lead story featured the blaring,
bold headline "TEEN RESCUES
WOMAN FROM BUILDING BLAZE,"
and provided a dramatic account of
a Bushwick teen who disregarded
his own safety to save the life of a
38-year-old woman trapped in a
burning building. Eric Garcia, 18,
heard the woman screaming from a
second-fl oor window of a Troutman
Street building at 9:16 a.m. on May 17.
He ran up the staircase and found
the woman, but couldn't bring her
down the same stairs due to the fi re.
So he went to a rear window and, using
a ladder left nearby, lowered the
woman onto the roof of an adjoining
building before escaping. The woman
suff ered burns to over 40 percent
of her body but survived.
• As in previous and later years in
the issue immediately prior to Memorial
Day, the Ridgewood Times
featured a rundown of local parades
and ceremonies scheduled for the
holiday weekend. The front page
of this particular issue shows an
image from the United Veterans and
Fraternal Organization of Maspeth
vigil held on May 23 at the corner
of Grand Avenue and the Queens
Midtown Expressway. The vigil
honored the sacrifi ces of veterans,
prisoners of war and soldiers still
missing in action.
• Page 2 featured a story about a
bomb scare at Queens Borough
Hall. As former managing editor
Bill Mitchell wrote, "Hundreds of
persons were turned onto Queens
Boulevard" on the morning of May
18 "aft er police were notifi ed that
an unknown male had dropped a
canvas duff el bag on the front steps
and fl ed the scene." The NYPD Bomb
Squad investigated and didn't fi nd
an explosive device, but they did
fi nd an umbrella and a water pistol.
Borough President Claire Shulman
"was not on the premises at the time."
Business at Borough Hall returned
to normal at about 12:20 p.m.
• Page 5 featured a photo of the repainting
of the Forest Park (George
Seuff ert) Bandshell. Councilman Al
Stabile brought workers from The
Home Depot store in Ozone Park to
the bandshell to repaint the bandshell
just in time for the "You Gotta
Have Park" festival for the weekend
of May 20-21.
• Long before the smartphone
debuted and made all of our lives
easier, if you wanted to contact
someone right away, you had to
have a good pager. In a Page 15 advertisement,
P&A Paging and Auto
Sport Corp., located at 60-09 Eliot
Ave. in Maspeth, advertised Bravo
beepers on sale for $29.99. Of course,
you had to connect that beeper to a
paging service, and you could sign
up for Tri-State Beeper Service for
$9.99. Each pager had its own phone
number; a caller would dial it and,
aft er hearing several beeps, enter
their own phone number, which
would come up on a person's pager
so they can call them back later.
(Some friends and family members
worked out their own codes with
each other which they added to
their phone numbers so someone
could know who was calling just
in case they didn't immediately
recognize the number.) Cellphones
were just becoming popular then,
too, and you could purchase a
brand-new Motorola fl ip phone for
$49.99. The business also off ered
"free CellularOne activation."
• Of course, the back page of the
Ridgewood Times featured Queens
Wines and Liquors, located at 59-
03 Myrtle Ave. in Ridgewood. You
could pick up a liter bottle of Jim
Beam Kentucky bourbon for $9.99;
a 1.75 milliliter bottle of Finlandia
80 proof vodka for $19.99; and a
4 liter jug of Paul Masson (rose,
burgundy, Rhine or chablis) for
just $7.99.
• You hear a lot these days about the
blistering real estate market in
Queens, but turn the dial back 24
years and you'll see home prices
that, in retrospect, truly boggle the
mind. In the Ridgewood Times classifi
ed section on Page 47, a property
owner advertised two buildings on
Onderdonk Avenue near Harman
Street "for textile fi nishing or light
manufacturing" for sale. The buildings
were each 4,600 square feet
and had four apartments above
with three large garages. Asking
price? $550,000. (Those buildings
are worth millions now.)
• There were plenty of bargains to
be found for renters as well in the
May 26, 1994, Ridgewood Times.
Phillips Realtors in Middle Village
off ered a 2-bedroom apartment in
Maspeth for $700 a month; a 3-room
apartment in Forest Hills for $800;
and a 6-room home in Rego Park
— featuring three bedrooms, two
bathrooms and "plenty of closets
and fresh paint" for $1,100.
• The sports section was lined with
stories of school championships
as the school year was winding
down. On Page 69, the top story
was about Benjamin Cardozo High
School's recent victory in the PSAL
boys' tennis tournament — their
seventh-consecutive championship.
Meanwhile, Grover Cleveland High
School's baseball team stayed alive
in the PSAL playoff s, with a 5-4 victory
over James Madison High School.
* * *
Share your history with us by emailing
editorial@ridgewoodtimes.com (subject:
Our Neighborhood: The Way it Was) or
write to The Old Timer, ℅ Ridgewood
Times, 38-15 Bell Blvd., Bayside, NY 11361.
Any mailed pictures will be carefully
returned to you upon request.
link
link
