Shopper's Corner. The Empire Restaurant. Bella Bridal. Taco Haven. Nino's Pub. Eljay Drugs. The Plaster Palace. Oh Brother Inn. The Video Connection. Mondello's. Dick's Deli. Chicken Delight. Fifi's Cafe. Martin Paints. Sit down with any old resident of Woodhaven and the conversation generally turns into a game of "Do you remember . . .?" Back and forth you go, naming one long-gone place after another.
And your memory sometimes plays tricks on you, and you'll end up arguing where some place used to be. "It was near the corner of 97th, I'm sure of it." "No, it was on 96th, next to that old barber, whats-his-name . . ." "There wasn't any barbershop on 96th... there was one on 95th though..." "Nah, not him, the other barber..." And on and on it goes.
If you're smiling, you've had this conversation before. Or one just like it. Well, here's something that will pique your interest - a shopper's guide to Jamaica Avenue from The Greater Woodhaven Development Corporation. We're guessing this is from the mid-1980s (due to the inclusion of video stores, it can't be earlier than that.) Enjoy!
Note #1: It might be interesting to compare with this update, the promotional map of Woodhaven from around the same era. We were selling full-sized black and white replicas of this poster at the Street Fair.
Note #2: Due to the size of this handout, we scanned it in 2 sections and had to reduce the size to get on this page. If you'd like to see this map super-sized, click here for Part 1 and here for Part 2.
Pretty cool, eh? It even tells you where all the Bus Stops, Mail Boxes, and Public Telephones were. For our younger readers, Mail Boxes were places where you dropped letters to be hand carried to other people -- sort of like e-mail, but on real paper! There's still a few of them around :-) Ah the good old days... this one brought back lots of good memories. Hope you enjoyed it, as well. 
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