The O-town Scene - Oneonta, NY
Issue link: https://www.ifoldsflip.com/i/37616
A RETRO Word From Our Sponsors March 11, 1955. It may not have been the first commercially sold pizza in Oneonta, but the popular recipe for Mosca’s Pizza lives on at today’s Depot Restaurant. This was the Moscas first location when they opened in 1953, later moving to Broad Street. Jim Mosca came to the area from Utica during the Great Depression to work at the Civilian Conservation Corps camp in Laurens, and then settled here. An uncle from Utica, Eugeno Burlino, helped Mosca open his Oneonta restau- rant. Burlino’s pizza recipe is also still popular in Utica today, at O’Scugnizzo’s Restaurant. _ Mark Simonson Mark Simonson is the Oneonta city historian. These advertisements once ap- peared in The Daily Star, Oneonta Star or The Oneonta Herald. Nostalgia: Dreaming of Happy Days The other afternoon, when I ventured into America — actually, I only go out maybe once or twice a week, to 7-Eleven, if I get a hankering for a Slurpee and a Slim Jim — a complete stranger tapped me on the shoulder and asked if things ever would be the way they once were. “How’s that?” I said. “Better,” she said. Better? Like when Moses parted the Red Sea, effectively creating the first HOV lane? Like when Babe Ruth called his shot, pointing toward the center field bleachers at Wrigley Field and then hitting a home run to center field? Like when banks actually held on to your money instead of investing it in risky, unsecured mortgages? Like when you actually would borrow a cup of sugar from your next-door neighbor? Like when the Good Humor man would give you change out of that little contraption attached to his belt? Like when Roger Maris hit 61 homers one year in short sleeves and steroid- free? Like when the sublime Johnny Carson — rather than the subpar Jay Leno — was hosting “The Tonight Show”? Like when Don Rickles could kid and cajole every ethnic group in the audi- ence without incident? Like when Woody Allen — pre-Soon Yi — was making “Annie Hall” and “Manhattan”? Like when you’d wait for your father 18 O-Town Scene July 28, 2011 to bring home the afternoon newspa- per? Like when you could get a bleacher seat at Fenway Park for a buck? Like when flight attendants were called stewardesses and stewardesses at least pretended they cared if you had a pleasant flight? Like when the National Enquirer and the Wall Street Journal didn’t cover sports? Like when John Riggins drunkenly told Supreme Court justice Sandra Day O’Connor to “loosen up, Sandy baby”? Like when Ernie Harwell, Jack Buck, Bob Prince, Mel Allen and Chuck Thompson fashioned sweet sounds on summer nights? Like when people called you rather than texted you? Like when my mother and father wed — not even speaking the same language — and, 61 years later — still not speaking the same language — are still married? Like when Muhammad Ali was Cassius Clay, Prince was The Art- ist Formerly Known as Prince, Chad Ochocinco was Chad Johnson and Metta World Peace was Ron Artest? Like when you’d ride up to 7-Eleven on your bike and just leave it out front unlocked? “Things weren’t necessarily better then,” I told her. “They were just differ- ent — maybe simpler.” _ Norman Chad, The Washington Post