http://uaddit.com/discussions/showthread.php?s=71ba5bfe5f83e916b24d175d225fdcdc&t=400

Your writing is so vivid! Thanks, like lisoosh, I have trouble imagining anything in this region that looks like that.

“To bring it back to RE shall we discuss the Duckworths Stone cladding or Hilda Ogdens Wildfowl wallpaper.”

Oh wow, my Wednesday evenings wouldn’t have been the same without Hilda, the ducks and her “muriel”.

Good times, thanks for the memories.

Spam/scribe – you’re describing a New Jersey I can’t even imagine, I believe it, but picturing it is something else. Another world altogether.

*I* worked the “jewelry” counter at that Woolworth’s. It was my first job at the age of 16.

When you drive towards the mall, just as you’re getting there, there’s a side street to the right.

We had our first house there between 1953 and January ’57.

There was a big horse farm. Our backyard was flat and grassy, like the prairie, and huge. We had a Western-style fence. The horses would break loose and hop the fence to get into our yard. We had an orchard with apple, pear, and peach trees, and they would eat the fruit off the trees.

We also had Native American neighbors from Oklahoma – an elderly couple. The man had a bowler hat with a feather; the woman had a big colorful poncho. They would chase the horses out of our yard with their whips – like a wild west show. They may have been horse wranglers who worked for the horse farm.

What’s there now – the spot where our house stood – a 7-Eleven.

My parents were always sorry that they didn’t hold on to the property. Once the mall was announced, it would have been worth a fortune.

I saw the house before it got knocked down, when it was vacant and vandalized.

By then, I was 13 or 14 – old enough to ride my bike that far.

Seeing our beautiful old house like that was a shock.

I still remember how much it upset me.

But, yeah, that area was really rural prior to the 1960′s.

We had an RFD address.

Trying to play hard to get huh?

lisoosh Says:
December 26th, 2007 at 4:49 pm
#93

Get help.

You’re breaking our pact. You’re not supposed to be posting when I am posting. Please comply.

I have no earthly idea as to why I am periodically accused of being the blog master. I am a separate person. Besides which, this blog doesn’t require me to cause an increase in traffic. There’s enough of you to post all the gloom and doom you guys want. Come on now, at tbe sight of any bit of news that you guys believe confirms that real estate is in the doldrums, you guys will post 500+ posts to celebrate. Nooo, you guys don’t need me to cause traffic, there’s enough gloom and doom to support that.

Perhaps it’s some sort of myopia here that prevents you from seeing this, but there are those of us who support this country and its real estate markets! It’s your charcoal colored glasses that prevent you from seeing that.

Besides Patricia, you brought up the whole thing about me and lisoosh a couple of days back. I think you’re getting jealous now!

Pat Says:
December 26th, 2007 at 10:06 pm
I’ve moved my rook back to a defensive position and am again thinking 25.25 is J.B.

Only someone with a terrific sense of humor or a drastic need for traffic would say, “ohhhh…you excite me!”

I used to like Bonwit. At least we still have Saks and Bergdorf.

I think it was created in the same Cayman office as the PPT.

“Norma CDO”?

Is this like the crack cocaine of mortgages?

Letting his freak flag fly.

Only someone with a terrific sense of humor or a drastic need for traffic would say, “ohhhh…you excite me!”

WSJ
Wall Street Wizardry
Amplified Credit Crisis
A CDO Called Norma
Left ‘Hairball of Risk’;
Tailored by Merrill Lynch
By CARRICK MOLLENKAMP and SERENA NG
December 27, 2007

In recent years, as home prices and mortgage lending boomed, bankers found ever-more-clever ways to repackage trillions of dollars in loans, selling them off in slivers to investors around the world. Financiers and regulators figured all the activity would disperse risk, and maybe even make markets safer and stronger.

Then along came Norma.

Norma CDO I Ltd., as its full name goes, is one of a new breed of mortgage investments created in the waning days of the U.S. housing boom. Instead of spreading the risk of a global home-finance boom, the instruments have magnified and concentrated the effects of the subprime-mortgage bust. They are now behind tens of billions of dollars of write-downs at some of the world’s largest banks, including the $9.4 billion announced last week by Morgan Stanley.

[edit]

I remember Alexander’s in Menlo Park.

I had a shirt that had “alexanders” written all over it about 100 times in different colors and every time I wore it, I would be inundated with the inevitable stupid question “Hey where’d ya’ buy THAT shirt?!?!”

I remember the lunch counter at Woolworth’s in MP. I used to swing my feet waiting for my grilled cheese sandwich.

My nana used to take me to MP on the bus and get her groceries at the PathMark there.

I’m too young to remember MP before it had a roof put on it.

My mom remembers riding horses where MP is. Apparently an “uncle” of some sort owned a farm where MP is now… if I know my family, the guy probably sold it for about $8.00

Anyway, a bagillion years ago, my aunt gave me REALLY old riding breeches from her riding days in Roosevelt Park. They were WOOL (ugh) with those flared sides that were all the rage for some unknown reason…

Speaking of Roosevelt Park, my great-great uncle helped build that park as part his being employed by the WPA…

I used to say “Hamburger’s” instead of Bambergers and my aunt (with the breeches) was a phone operator on Sundays for Bamberger’s…. the old way with a headset and pulling out corded plugs from one hole and putting them in another to connect…

To bring it back to RE shall we discuss the Duckworths Stone cladding or Hilda Ogdens Wildfowl wallpaper.