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Broad Channel In Days Gone By




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Dear Editor,

Why I could walk down the boulevard and say “Hello” to everyone, now forget it. All new people or perhaps grandchildren or great grandchildren of the people I remember. Some of them even have the same names.

Do you remember Gus Brudermann? He owned a restaurant between 15th and 20th Road, east side on the boulevard called “Gusses’ Rest.” Later sold and re-named, Harvey and Charlie Phillips rented the back room and called it “The Bay Club.”

Regardless, I’m still here baptized, confirmed, and married in the same church, Christ Church on Noel Road, by Bishop Arthur Brooks.

Still in the old Homestead on Cross Bay Boulevard, that my dad, William Berry, and his two brothers, Arthur and Charles, built in 1898.

I’m pretty good for my age, 90 in January, and I don’t know how I got old so fast. We had the greatest Drug Store here, “Whelan’s Drugs,” run by Dan O’Sullivan and his wife. Bill Morris would fill your prescription and answer any question while old Frank, a retired milkman, would make you a strawberry float.

Plus, just across the street was Colberg’s Hardware. And if you needed anything for the house, they had it. Also, Hartel’s Grassy Point down the road would leave you with a nickel in your pocket and everything you’d need.

Don’t forget that you could take a dip across the street in Broad Channel or a ride in the merry-go-round. Then there was “Weasel’s” if you wanted a burger or “Suntoys” for chow-mein.

It’s still good to see old Charlie Howard still around. And the memories shall always remain.

MURIEL STEMMANN



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