![]() ![]() Harvey piped Lite FM through the speakers. If there were a soundtrack to the mezzanine, it’d be the waka-waka of Pacman and the theme song to the movie Arthur (“ When you’re caught between the moon and New York Ciiiiity…“). This mezzanine that overlooked the store housed a row of video games. Upstairs was the most important part of Harveys. Thanks a lot, Slime manufacturers, for that “MAY STAIN FURNITURE” warning. Other important items displayed there included:ĭay-glo posterboard AKA oaktag for science projects dolls, which were more my sister’s thing yo-yos the Yo-Ball, which was like a yo-yo with training wheels (it snapped back automatically) Kerbangers, which someone said were lethal, so after I bought them with my own allowance, my mom put them on top of the refrigerator where she thought I couldn’t reach them Slime, which my mom also tried to confiscate. In the aisles were all the essentials: namely, the aforementioned stickers. Harvey, always the trend-savvy marketer, added a Dannon frozen yogurt machine in the mid 80s. Harvey had a big porn mustache, which is really a misnomer since in the 70s and 80s that mustache was just as suitable for running a family card shoppe as for starring in or directing x-rated movies.Īcross from the front counter, with a service window to the street, was an ice cream counter. Hence the extensive sticker selection and the homemade sign on the door that said, “YES, WE HAVE PUFFIES!” That sign was probably not so much to lure business as it was to keep bratty kids from asking, “Do you have puffies?” Harvey hated and yelled at kids, but loved their money… I often berated my parents for giving me a name that wasn’t available on any of the spinning racks, and, because I was spoiled and scary, they apologized.īehind the counter was Harvey, who I remember as old, but was probably 30. These were great for me, since all pre-made merchandise with kids’ names, like bedroom door plaques that said “KEEP OUT! _’S ROOM”, included Laurie and Lauren and even Loren, but never Laura. This may not sound special, but there was a time when custom-ordering a T-shirt with your name on it was as revolutionary as space travel. You could get an iron-on of The Muppets, or your name in big, puffy letters. I should design candy.Ībove the front counter hung a row of sample T-shirts you could have custom-made. I would’ve preferred a Bucky Dent bar, which could’ve been a white chocolate bar with two half-moon smears of dark chocolate on it. ![]() You’re a real 70s kid if you ate Reggie Bars, named for Yankees heavy hitter Reggie Jackson. My go-tos were Chunky (plain, not with raisins), Three Musketeers, Choco-Lite, and the Reggie Bar. It was a small, magical kid land run by a mustachioed grump.įront register Candy, baby. No evidence of this magical place existing, so I guess history is choosing to treat it like it was just a Card Shoppe. There are no pictures, not even in the NYC government tax records online. (Its real name was Baronette Card Shoppe, but no one thought of it as a Card Shoppe.) It was on Broadway at 82nd Street, where Barnes and Noble is now. I’d like to post a picture of Baronette’s, or Harvey’s, as we alternately called it. ![]() They don’t have what we had: freedom to wander on our own starting at age 9 or so, and a place to go like Baronette’s. Since they’re all under strict parent and nanny supervision, I guess at home, or those Kumon homework help places, or maybe some franchised indoor bouncy castle center where they jump around while parents sit in a viewing skybox, critiquing their kids’ bounce form and sipping kale smoothies. ![]()
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