South Side Memories cluster at Mike's Smoke Shop
Retirees and longtime South Side friends gather daily at Mike's Smoke Shop on Long Avenue in New Castle. Since 1926 they share stories, coffee, and cards, with younger members joining the group as they reminisce about the old neighborhood and maintain the social bond across decades.
MENTIONED IN THIS ARTICLE
New Castle
Mike
Long Avenue
George Joseph
Dan Micaletti
South Side
Mike Elias
Pennsylvania Avenue
Mike’s
Long Avenue South Side gang recalls fading storefronts and old nights
A 60 year South Side friendship group recalls Friday and Saturday nights, old clubs, and storefronts on Long Avenue from Camp Fred L Rentz to Riverside. They remember dancing at Cascade Park, coffee shops long gone, and days when doors were never locked as malls rose.
MENTIONED IN THIS ARTICLE
Riverside
Red Skelton
Youngstown
Cascade Park Pavilion
Micaletti
Bob Rainey
South Side
Rainey Remembers South Side Roots and Umpiring Glory
Debbie Wachter profiles Bob Rainey a 63 year old South Side native who recounts his childhood on Moravia Street his days swimming in Big Run and his fifty year friendship circle at Mike's Smoke Shop. Rainey now works at the New Castle Sanitation Authority and once spent a decade as a Pacific Coast League umpire describing the job as his best yet noting a strike ended it.
MENTIONED IN THIS ARTICLE
Moravia Street
Rainey
New Castle Sanitation Authority
Jackson No Longer in Action Still One of the Boys
In a South Side story an aging regular nicknamed Tom Jackson, Camillio Gianchristoforo, aged 95, has left the group and moved to a nursing home. Friends at Mike's Smoke Shop keep his photo clipping on the wall, recalling his vigor, garden work, pinochle skill, and a mushroom test that proved mushrooms poisonous.
MENTIONED IN THIS ARTICLE
Mike
Camillio Gianchristoforo
Tom Jackson
Dan Micaletti
Micaletti
Jackson
Also Mentioned on This Page
Sciota Street
Fred L. Rentz
New Life
Joseph
Peter Joseph
Johnson Bronze Co
Angelo Froella
Debbie Wachter
Bonnie
New Castle News
Hell’s Kitchen
Castle Sanitation
Clearfield
Oil City
Shenango China
Matthew S. High
This is just the beginning! Our collection holds over 300 years of history, including rare newspapers, obituaries, marriage records, birth records, and so much more—most of which you won’t find anywhere else!