This was the town where I spent the first 3 years of my life, and where my earliest flickering…read moreflashes of memory originate. We lived on Copley Avenue. In later life, I'd ask my mother, "That clock on the wall...didn't that used to be on a sun porch we had in Teaneck?" Yes. I also remember watching my father shoveling snow from our small driveway. Not much else.
I had more experience with neighboring Hackensack. My father had grown up there, and it was where some of his friends still resided. As an adult, I'd venture to Hackensack frequently on my own because I loved Womrath's Bookstore (long gone) and the B & W Bakery (still thriving). Never felt the urge to cross the small bridge over the Hackensack River and venture into Teaneck. After all, the only memories I retained of my first 3 years there were the clock on the wall and Dad shoveling snow.
As an older adult, my father's best friend was suffering from Lou Gehrig's disease, and I visited him in Holy Name Hospital (Teaneck) with my father. It was disturbing. My father's friend, always a very nice and friendly guy, could barely talk and had some kind of pulley contraption that moved him from the bed to a wheelchair. Not long after that, he essentially committed suicide, and who could fault him for that decision? Certainly not my father. Not one to show emotion, my father secluded himself in his bedroom for a long time after he got the news.
(Years later, after the re-union with my genetic family, I learned that my youngest half-sister had been born at Holy Name.)
Still later, as I've mentioned in other reviews, I became friendly at work with an older guy (Sam) who was an Orthodox Jew. When he retired, we'd meet frequently at Pizza Crave Restaurant in Teaneck, and that was really my first adult exposure to the town where I'd spent my infancy and "tot-hood." Cedar Lane is the main thoroughfare, with stores, restaurants, and a movie theater off to the side. Sam didn't drive, so he'd take the bus from his North Bergen apartment, and I'd drive over from my Basking Ridge residence, and we'd have lunch at the Pizza Crave (on Cedar Lane), because it served kosher food (I think it still exists, but has changed its name to Pizzalicious). There were several Kosher restaurants lining the street, which was my first awareness that Teaneck had a sizable Orthodox Jewish population.
We'd talk movies (he had been best friends with actor Richard Castellano, who had lived in Teaneck), or about what was going on at work, or politics, or just about life in general. Occasionally, we'd stop off at nearby Bischoff's for ice cream. Once, I drove him to Connecticut so he could gamble at one of the casinos; another time I drove him to a children's hospital in Westchester County where he had spent some time as a child (polio), and they gave us both a tour of the facility.
(When Sam was in a nearby hospital with terminal cancer, I visited him in the company of my birth mother, who had met him. I'm ashamed to say I couldn't stay too long because it was very unsettling to me, but my birth mother was her usual outgoing self, and asked, "How are you feeling, Sam?" Sam looked at her, perplexed, and said, "I'm dying." Just hours later, he was gone. Ardell Sheridan, Castellano's widow, called me with the news. I wish I had shown more courage and stayed longer. RIP, Sam. I valued our friendship.)
Some years after that, one of my oldest friends (since high school) moved to Teaneck with his wife. They have a very nice house off of Cedar Lane, but I usually see them when they return to Bernardsville to visit his mother and sister. In other words, I don't visit Teaneck much anymore.
So... those are my basic impressions. Not many of them and those I have are neither very favorable nor very negative. It seems like a nice, safe place. My friend likes it (of course, he lives within walking distance of his job-- what's not to like?). Richard Castellano liked it. My parents liked it, at least for the few years they lived there.
(I have to mention, even though I don't want to-- my late parents were good, intelligent people, but they were also products of their age and generation-- which means they had a tendency towards bigotry. My mother said they had once considered adopting an Asian baby before they were able to adopt me, but my father, who had been in World War II, couldn't quite deal with that. Teaneck had become a racially diverse community by the time we left, and I once asked them, "Was it because of white flight that you left?" They denied it, saying they needed a bigger house after adopting my sister. Ok...maybe...but I still had my doubts. When I started having lunch regularly with Sam, I learned that Teaneck has a sizable Orthodox Jewish community, and I again asked them, "Are you sure we weren't part of the white flight out of Teaneck?" Again, they denied it. Obviously, I'd like to think the best of my parents, but they were fallible human beings, and...I still have my doubts.)
