On 3/26/13 6:30 PM, Eisboch wrote:


"F.O.A.D." wrote in message
m...



I might be up in New Haven in a few weeks for my first trip this year to
the old stomping grounds. I plan to share at least one clam pie for
dinner at Pepe's, and to check out Katz's deli on the Woodbridge side of
the Merritt Parkway bridge over Whalley Avenue. A lot of my old friends
like it:

http://katzsdeli.net/menus/deli/

I'm pretty sure we won't be mooning cars from the top of the tunnel, as
we used to do in the 7th grade:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Heroes_Tunnel.jpg

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For some reason I can't exactly place that tunnel, although I remember
the Merritt Parkway and Whalley Ave.
I got my first driver's license in CT. When allowed to use one of my
parent's cars for a date, I somehow often ended up on top of West Rock,
by the tunnel on the Wilbur Cross Parkway. I remember the winding, "S"
turns climbing to the parking spots on the top. Never had much time up
there as it was always patrolled by the police looking to "bust" you and
your girlfriend just for the fun of it.

I remember the Wilbur Cross Parkway was concrete at the time. Miles and
miles of "ker-plunk, ker-plunk, ker-plunk, ker-plunk" as the tires hit
the expansion joints.

Les Shaw's restaurant was on "our" side of the tunnel. I worked there
for a while as a bus-boy wearing a stupid chef's hat, apron and bandana,
walking around the dining room handing out "popovers" to anyone who
wanted one. My girlfriend and her entire family (her idea) decided to
have dinner there one night, unknown to me, and I was mortified with
embarrassment. Les Shaw's is one of the last restaurants I can
remember that required a jacket and tie for the guys to be seated. They
actually kept small inventory of them in the coat room that could be
borrowed if you didn't wear one and wanted to have dinner. Don't know
if Les Shaw's still exists. Probably closed. The link is a picture ...
taken in the 50's but it looks about how I remember it from the 60's.

http://images.marketplaceadvisor.channeladvisor.com/hi/45/44721/ct10-6033a.jpg






The tunnel *is* the one on the Wilbur Cross/Merritt Parkway...the tunnel
was renamed "Heroes' Tunnel. I think I remember reading something about
Les Shaw's closing. It certainly was one of "the" places to go for a
fancy dinner back in the day.

Never "parked" on West Rock. We usually watched the submarine races by
the beach on the east side of Milford Harbor, or along the shoreline in
West Haven, or, along the road past the fence that led to the Yale Golf
Course.