More Early Years

We bought the store in August, 1949 and moved to the apartment in September, 1949. When Rosh Hashana rolled around we went to my parent’s to spend the two day holiday. We came home the night of the second day (we would not drive on the holiday) and I took Risa’s bottles into the store to put in the refrigerated case (remember. We had no refrigerator in the kitchen). The case was warm; no refrigeration. To get to the basement, you went through two heavy steel doors set into the sidewalk along side the store. I opened the doors, took one step down, and hit water. Disaster had struck! While we were gone, a pipe burst and water filled the basement to a depth of five feet. The tenant on the third floor noticed a drop in water pressure but did not report it to the landlord. The water gushed for two days.The motors and compressors which operated the refrigeration in the store were ruined; beyond salvage. All the perishables in the refrigerated cases were garbage. The fire department was called and pumped the water out of the basement. It was a tremendous financial blow. We had been open for a month with a $5,000.00 debt and no capital. But we managed to replace the motors and compressors and were back in business the next day.

Several months later, the second shoe dropped. The building was heated by a coal furnace. I knew almost nothing about the operation of a coal furnace. I knew that coal was deposited in a coal box and a fire was lit. The coal burned and heated the air around the coal box. The poisonous fumes produced by the burning escaped through the chimney. The heated air rose through ducts into the rooms above the store which were heated by the hot air. This system of heating the building was not efficient and the building was always cold, especially the first floor where the store and our kitchen were located. I did not know how to bank the furnace at night so that the coal would continue to be burning until the morning. When the coal stopped burning during the night, I went outside through the heavy steel doors and into the basement to start the fire again. One night, we awoke coughing and choking. We ran to the windows and opened them to be able to breathe. There was a crack in the coal box and the poisonous coal fumes mixed with the heated air and rose into our apartment. We were taken to the hospital and fortunately, we suffered no permanent damage. The next day we made a deal with the landlord to pay half of the cost of tha installation of an oil burner.

The store hours were 6 A.M. to 9 P.M., Monday through Saturday and 9A.M. to noon on Sunday, a total of 93 hours per week. On Sunday I opened the store and Momma got Risa ready and packed a picnic basket I would close the store at noon, wash up, change clothes and we would get into our 1939 Plymouth (which we pushed as often as we drove) and we were off to somewhere. I can recall warming Risa’s bottle on the motor of the car. One Sunday afternoon week each month I worked in the store doing things that could not be done while the store was open. I soon discovered that there were very few sales during the first hour of the day or during the last two hours of the day. The hours were reduced to 7 A.M. to 7 P.M. and three hours on Sunday, a total of 75 hours. I was like being on vacation. We did not have funds to hire help in the store or in the house so we did it all. We worked hard and we were very happy. I suppose that we didn’t know any better.