A bad neighborhood for a Coin Shop
1630Boston
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A bad neighborhood for a Coin Shop
Back in the 1960's I had to go through the 'Combat Zone' to get to a coin shop in Boston.
Not as bad in the daytime [still bad ] compared to the night time.
here's a few pics of the area.
What dangerous trips have you made?
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J. J. Teaparty on Bromfield street. 1973 -1974 and then on and off for years. I also walked thru the zone to attend the annual Bay State coin show. It was in a hotel by the Greyhound terminal. Can't seem to remember its name.
Kennedys are my quest...
Guy on his back just sold his prized collection for 60% of wholesale.
Just like Wall Street and other high profile, big pressure workers who would drive in their BMWs to the bad areas of town to score some illegal substances to feed the beast within them.
Depending on how badly one needs a fix (including collectors of coins) one will venture far and wide to get it.
It was the Howard Johnson Hotel.
I guess it depends upon where you were located. I worked in the Boston financial district and walked near the Boston Common to get to the Howard Johnson Hotel. If it was daylight, it was shorter to walk through the Common which was safe enough then. The Combat Zone was near by, but I didn't have to walk through it.
The former JJ Teaparty shop was just off the main shopping area in Boston. It was quite a distance from the Combat Zone.
From what I heard the one time representative Barney Frank got the legislation passed for the Combat Zone so that the strip clubs and X-rated movie houses would be limited to a two block area.
I always had a chuckle when I saw that one of the movie houses there was called "The Pilgrim Theater." I imagined that the Pilgrims were probably turning over in their graves if they knew what kind of films were shown there.
Yes, yes, yes. "Howard Johnson". My wife worked on Milk street and I would meet her there for dinner at a restaurant on Tremont Street, called DINI's. Best seafood and soft shelled crabs. I would visit the local coin stores prior to going out to dinner. Always took the Orange line to the Bay State shows. A lot of walking but always interesting views for a young man in his twenties.
Thanks for the walk down memory lane.
Wayne
Kennedys are my quest...
At that time, I was in the Navy, and when in port (Newport, RI) would hitch hike up to Boston to see a gal I was dating... she was attending Pierce Secretarial School... ended up going through the Combat Zone a few times... Had a couple of interesting experiences - one in particular. But that is another story. There was a corner pizza place down there... always had the guys in the window tossing the dough up in the air and catching it... pizza was ok there... Cheers, RickO
I thought it was the Statler Hotel for the Baystate Show?
the only coin shows that I have been to in my entire life are the Baystate shows, Boston and now Marlborough, the first one was when my mother took me to the show at the Statler Hotel in Boston about 50 years ago.
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I love going down to Naval Station Newport.
USAF (Ret) 1974 - 1994 - The inherent vice of capitalism is the unequal sharing of blessings; the inherent virtue of socialism is the equal sharing of miseries. Remembering RickO, a brother in arms.
My most dangerous trips of late are my nightly Winter burning expeditions on the ranch. I carry my Frontiersman Bear Attack Deterrent and pack a .38 special snubnose. At least the rattlesnakes aren't much of a problem this time of year. But you never know.
Was stationed there 1970 - 1972ish USS Fiske DD 842
Do they currently let you visit on the base?
Kennedys are my quest...
Dini's Sea Grill was a Boston landmark when I first moved there in 1979. I remember a Thanksgiving dinner I had there with my parents that was literally soup to nuts and all of it was excellent.
Later Dini's fell on hard times and went bankrupt. The building stood empty for quite a while. Ultimately Ed Leventhal, who was one of the owners of JJ Teaparty, told me that he helped to finance the removal of the canopy that was over the entrance of the restaurant. It was getting shaky and threatening to fall down on someone.
he was told to stay off the roof just before he sold it, what a bummer
it seems that so many of us never met the other in the same past time in history but are now able to connect with walks down memory lane.
Kennedys are my quest...
King of Pizza
Rainbow Stars
Probably my most potentially dangerous was going to a July 11th bonfire in the Lower Shankill in Belfast several years ago. They start at midnight and go on for hours. Had to park my rental car with Irish / Dublin license plates in the neighborhood and walk about 8 blocks. Turned out to be no issues at all and one of the most interesting things I've seen. No idea how they get up in the morning for the parade.
A decade or two ago, the Long Beach coin show was in a shady part of town- at least for those who parked aways away and had to walk. It's actually gotten much better over the years as the area went through a re-growth and improvements.
peacockcoins
Some areas of Montreal here in Canada. Took the subway late around 2h00am after a concert some weird stuff I tell you. But I doubt any city in Canada compares to the ghettos in the USA. There are many gangs in larger cities in Canada. But again not like the USA.
@TONEDDOLLARS.... That's it!!! Could not recall the name....Been many, many years. I do recall, however, with vivid detail, my encounter in Roxbury one time...Story for another time/forum. Cheers, RickO
Probably the worse place in Canada is the downtown East side in Vancouver never been there and have no intentions of ever going either.
Spent many a Friday night cruzin the zone while in high school
Rainbow Stars
Wow!!! such a flood of memories growing up in Cleveland.
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CoinsAreFun Toned Silver Eagle Proof Album
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Gallery Mint Museum, Ron Landis& Joe Rust, The beginnings of the Golden Dollar
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More CoinsAreFun Pictorials NGC
Where I live there is maybe 1-2 areas I would not go to day or night. Many shootings and gangs in those 2 areas. But they are small areas of a large city. I went once since I had a friend that was dating someone in the area and was watching over my back the whole time. I was looking forward to leaving. Not my kind of scene. Everyone there knows if you are part of that area or not they know peoples faces.
I live in Detroit.
.
.
These guys have talent they could have made it big time with rap music but they are dropping and going to either the grave early or prison. It's sad in it's way. But live by the sword and you can also die by it.
.
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Anyways I don't glorify this I simply like rap music since I was a young kid. And these guys are considered the best in my city.
You win!!! Welcome to Detroit city Eminem.
Hardcore Pawn in Detroit hahaha.
I kind of liked that show until I found out it was mostly stagged.
peacockcoins
Practically all reality shows are staged.
Most anything on TV is.
A collector I know from the Early American Coppers Club was on "Pawn Stars." He had an Oak Tree Shilling in an NGC slab. He didn't sell it.
Including rap videos on YouTube
11.5$ Southern Dollars, The little “Big Easy” set
I though that it was odd that the application for Survivor asked if you were a member of SAG/AFTRA.
In my defense, I know that now, yet over a decade ago, when Detroit Pawn was on, I wasn't completely aware. Looking back now, though, it is pretty obvious. Even shows like "The Bachelor" are scripted and setup. Still fun to watch, though, as I think of it like roller derby from the 70s and wrestling. Even though it is faked, it is fun to pretend it isn't so much and get lost in the drama.
peacockcoins
I don't like rap anymore that was like 20 years ago I follow it a bit but it's garbage music. And the lifestyle is even more garbage.
11.5$ Southern Dollars, The little “Big Easy” set
I remember getting one of the JJT mailings (pre-internet) on a Friday evening, and calling Saturday morning on a coin they had listed that I wanted. I got to have a very distraught Ed L. tell me that their store was burglarized Friday night and a lot of their inventory had been stolen!
I used to go into the Combat Zone quite a bit in the late 70s and 80s, that was something. There were clubs there to see shows. Later I played in a punk band that hit the road and we would end up in some pretty seedy places. We spent time in New York which was always fun. One club called ABC NoRio could be dangerous. I was robbed there once, lost all my gear, another guy in the band got mugged but came out ok. Seemed like every city had a dangerous area and we seemed to end there. Crazy times that seemed normal back then! I worked in Philly for a while and had some guys pull up to me in a car and pull out a gun in broad daylight...I was just walking out of a plumbing store and didn't think it was bad area at the time. Just wrong place wrong time. They laughed at me and I almost #$% myself. Memories...the stories I don't tell my kid!
Jim
Indeed all pure garbage!!!
Nope. All military installations are closed to non-military/non-civil servants with the exception of contractors who have been investigated through DBIDS.
Newport does allow escorted groups to tour the museum there, though.
T
USAF (Ret) 1974 - 1994 - The inherent vice of capitalism is the unequal sharing of blessings; the inherent virtue of socialism is the equal sharing of miseries. Remembering RickO, a brother in arms.
Whatever, your words carry little weight
11.5$ Southern Dollars, The little “Big Easy” set
Cindy is that you hahaha!!!!
When I was commuting to school in downtown Cleveland 50 years ago, there was a little-known tunnel that I would walk through to avoid the elements on bitter cold days. Back then, it didn't phase me; today, it would be more than a little creepy. A short distance away, the coin shop in the Old Arcade was a favorite stop. Their inventory ranged from junk boxes of old type coins to complete proof sets from as far back as the 1890's, which I recall costing $600.
I used to go-to the middle of gang central in San Bernardino, California, murder capital of the US for high school.
The first Baltimore Show at the Convention Center I went to was a straight shot from where I was living (Mt. Vernon area) off of N. Charles St. I never felt like I was in a "Combat Zone"... but had I ventured one or two blocks east or west, I'd have told a much different story!
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I lived and taught in some pretty unstable neighborhoods in Chicago, San Francisco, Berkeley, and Richmond, CA. It's probably not coincidental that I didn't really get back into collecting anything of any value until I lived somewhere comparatively safer. This will date me I suppose, but one story that sticks with me from college is when a friend of mine saw two hands come through her bedroom window and snatch the typewriter off her desk.