66th Street Scary Fruit Stand Closed For Good, Or So We Can Only Hope

Scary Fruit Stand as it appeared in April 2007 and July 2011.

The fruit stand on the corner of 66th Street and 18th Avenue has closed. This is actually an old news item – it happened about a month ago. I didn’t write about it until now, partly because I haven’t had the time, but mostly because I didn’t want to jinx it.

That’s right. I’m glad it’s closed, and I want it to stay closed.

Please don’t get me wrong. I like healthy foods – especially grapes, apples, and watermelon – just as the next recovering junk food addict. When I moved to my current apartment, I was thrilled to have this fruit stand nearby. And the prices were so cheap!

Yeah. About that. It didn’t take me long to figure out why the prices were so cheap. The fruit at this stand was about one grade above compost. Anything I bought here and didn’t eat immediately had to be tossed in the garbage the next day. As far as what I did eat… ugh. To this day I don’t like to think about it.

I stopped going here almost immediately, but came back about a year later with a friend. Big. Mistake. I’m not sure what kind of insect was swarming around one of the selections on the inside of the store, but it was one of the types of insect with my teeth. Because my friend got bit.

The name Scary Fruit Stand was born that day.

And died last month. Surprisingly, there’s no indication that the place got DOH’d. Nor are there any padlocks and meanacing signs that declare it closed by the order of the State Department of Taxation. One day, it just disappeared, for the betterment of us all. Please don’t misunderstand me. Outlets for fresh fruits and vegetables are something this city needs more of, not less. But Scary Fruit Stand wasn’t that.

It was the opposite of that.