Greg Maker has a fabulous article up over at the New Rochelle Sound and Town Report: A city’s underage drinking oasis, dried up.
In the not-so-distant past, the so-called “Strip” of North Avenue was populated by numerous watering holes known to attract hordes of underage drinkers from around the county. It wasn’t all together uncommon for teenagers to get into one of the bars with forged identification or in some cases, no identification at all.
The article provides a great deal of background on the evolution of the Iona College bar scene.
Having graduated from Ione Prep in 1981 when the drinking age was 18 you can imagine this story broad back a lot of (hazy) memories. My favorite place to be on Friday’s was “free keg” at SmartAlex which later became a Chinese food take out place and now a Jamaican restaurant. It was at free keg that I first met the Ursuline girl who would later become my wife. There are even pictures (of me, not her) but not for publication! I even recall drinking beers at Bumpers with Iona College coach Jim Valvano — he even bought a few rounds. Sheesh. That was a long time ago.