Didn't we all, on our way to and from camp, stop at the Red Apple Rest on the "old route 17" near Suffern? I stopped there, gosh, dozens of times - probably hundreds. When my parents or parents' friends drove us up for our 2 or 3 sessions as campers, a highlight was a Red Apple Rest cheesburger or pastrami sandwich with those big paper boat-like bins of crispy fries. The several times I rode the camp buses to or from camp, even they stopped at the Red Apple. Seriously.
Wawayanda staffer from the mid-1960s, Geoff Hazel, had this recent experience trying to retrace those steps.
I happened to be in the neighborhood last week and did some driving around. On my way back from Bear Mountain I went past this run down building on Rt 17 with the word REST on a big red apple and upon further examination saw the old lettering "Red Apple Rest" on it.
How sad to see such an iconic place all run down. I remember the bus stopping there on the way up to camp, and the way back. They were grilling hamburgers right up at the front, and when you were on the trip home, you were flush with cash left over from your bank account and there was NO LIMIT to the amount of candy you could buy.
Now it's just a relic of another day.
