More Places

There was another gas station located on River Vale Road at the end of Piermont Ave. Actually if you were traveling east on Piermont and did not turn when you reached River Vale Road you would have driven right into the place. It was operated by an old couple named Kastfield. I can remember having to walk all the way up there to buy a plug of Red Apple chewing tobacco for my uncle whenever Mr. Holdrum was out of it. I think I received a nickel for my efforts...

Another gas station was on the south west corner of the Demarest Avenue and Cedar Lane intersection. It was operated by a Mr. Wiedmann. As I remember he sold Tydol gas and would do minor repairs. The station is still on the same corner.

Traveling north on Cedar Lane you would come to The Pascack Pool on your left (Hillsdale) and yet another gas station on your right. This was run by Mr. Ploger and had a repair garage just to the right. For quite a few years, Bob Winters from Hillsdale was the mechanic that did all the repair work for Mr. Ploger. If you wanted a Country Club ice cream cone you would go to Plogers. If you wanted a Breyer's cone you would go to Peters. You could get any flavor that you wanted as long as it was vanilla, chocolate or strawberry. Oh yes! 5 cents.

On River Vale Road just below Orangeburg Road was a old grocery store that was run by Mrs. Scarangella. It was in "upper River Vale" and we didn't go there too often because it was too far to walk when Peter's was so much closer. If I remember they had gas pumps in front of the place, so there was one other place that you could buy gas. This place operates as a country store till this day although the gas pumps have long since been retired.

In those days there were no gas stations open at night. If you ran out of gas at night you'd better remember where your car stopped because you would have to go the next morning and retrieve it. Shortly after the war a station in Westwood, Pete's Esso, would remain open until 10 PM so that was kinda like an oasis of sorts. Not too long after that others would stay open in the evenings also, including the one on the Four Corners in River Vale.