Where are they?

[Stinky The Clown]

Where have all the butchers gone? I miss Tony Tedesco, who I visited weekly with my parents when I was a little kid.

Where are the poultry shops where we bought live chickens? The one next to Newfield Bowling Lanes where I went with grammma and watched her pick a chicken out of a cage and hand it to Mario Branazzi who 'dressed' it for us.

Where's the fishmonger who had what was truly the catch of the day? I miss going to Seaview Ave Fish Market to get the best Tony Mancuso had in the way of fresh flounder, and cod, and bluefish, and clams, and mussels, and snails, and fresh eels at Christmas.

Where's the greengrocer who not only had great looking produce, but knew how to cook it and how to cook with it? People like Lena and Fred Marsalla, who had the biggest artichokes and the reddest tomatoes a kid ever saw. And squash blossoms. Fresh ones.

Where's the baker who always had the most delicious smells wafting from his store. Men like Meyer Zwerdling who's seeded Jewsih rye was even better than his Italian bread or Kaiser rolls with poppy seeds on top. He also sold butter and in later life was one of my instrutcors at school.

Where's the Italian pastry shop we went to every Sunday on the way home from Mass? The one that made the best sfogiatelle in the world? Maybe in the universe.

Where's the candy store? Like the one my Uncle George ran in a 7 foot wide store front at the corner of Hollister and Stratford?

Where's the barber shop. Like the one my Uncle Pete ran, right next to Margie's hair salon and gossip emporium.

I miss the old days ..... I really miss them.

This nostalgia brought to you as the result of a Barnes & Noble purchase of a book about the best pizzas in the world and which has stories about pizzerias I remember from when I was a kid (three in particular) and which are still in business and which are mentioned in the book.

I need to go cook supper .... some sauteed fish filets with capers and currants and dry vermouth and butter and olive oil and herbs and some grilled red, yellow, and orange peppers as a side dish, and some bread from the Safeway's in-house, big box bakery, and some Pelegrino con gaza.

But I miss the old days when summer Sunday dinner was under the grape arbor in grampa's garden and a bazillion people were there and the old men were drinking wine and lying about *their* old days in the Old Country and smoking toscano cigars and playing pinochle and waiting for the short, round, smiling, yammering, women to emerge from gramma's kitchen with plates full of everything under the sun.

Yeah ......

Come on, Sparkly .... let's go cook supper .......

[babylonsister]

1. Where's my memory? I do remember the little local

shops but I'll be darned if I can remember the names of the people who ran them.
Great post! And you know where they are? Sadly, they're all rolled up into Wal-Marts or mega-grocery stores.

[merci_me]

2. That was my first thought............

They're probably scrambling for jobs as greeters at Wal-Mart.

Mary

[Stinky The Clown]

5. WalMart .... yup.

The people in my memory are likely all gone. Most were the same age or older than my parents. They never lived to see WalMart kill businesses like theirs. But their kids, some of whom took over the businesses, probably have. They'd be about my age.

I'm going back to Connecticut this fall for my 40th (gasp!) HS reunion. That will be my first time back to the old neighborhood in maybe 15 or 20 years. My folks had moved away in the 70s, so there was never a reason to return. The previous reunions I attended, I stayed with my folks, so never got back to the old neighborhood. This trip, I'm gonna make a point to at least drive through.

I pretty much know what I'll find. My folks left at the insistence of my brother and me. The area was turning into CrackHouseCentral and it wasn't safe anymore. After my mother and my aunt got mugged in their own back yard (we lived next door to my aunt) on their way home from a novena, even my father got the final clue he needed to decide it was time to pack the bus up and head outta town!

[merci_me]

3. Boy does this bring back memories.

The fish market we went to every Thursday night or Friday morning shared a parking lot with a bowling alley. Toby Cardone owned the bowling alley. Joe Shortina owned the fish market. Toby and Joe were married to sisters. The third sister married an Irishman named Jim Rooney and he ran the Rooney/Cardone/Shortina beer and wine carryout.

The Modica family owned the little grocery store, where we bough our meat and in the off season, our produce. My grandma (Bobo) grew almost all our produce and what she didn't grow or what fruit trees we didn't have, we could just zip up and down the alleyways between our houses and trade with other "short round women" with their hair in buns, felt house slippers and flowered housedresses and flowered aprons (different patterns of course). Oh God, the wonderful beefsteak tomatoes, fresh cukes and the smell of the lilacs!!!

Bobo had her own chickens and she would grab one, whip a cord around it's feet, hang it from the clothes line and whack its head off with a huge butcher knife. Then she'd "dress" it. Ain't no lilac corsage that could make that baby smell away but putrid. You know, I think that may have been the reason for all of the garlic and onions frying in the iron skillet. LOL

BTW did you get caramelized onions wrapped in red flannel slapped on your chest everytime you got the sniffles. And bread soaked in milk and molded over any cuts and warm olive oil dripped into your ear for an earache? Our family lived by the motto that food cures anything and if you aren't eating, you're wearing it.

Oh speaking of smells, we lived around the corner from Main Street and on summer nights we'd sit on the screened in porch and smell the wonderful aroma coming from the Zuppardo's bakery. Then about 11pm or so, we'd go knock on the back door (across the alley from our backyard) and get a bag of hot glazed donuts. Now I don't like glazed donuts at all. After you've had hot glazed donuts, right out of the pot of grease at Zuppardo's, no others will do.

That bakery sat between Pernizio's barber shop and the UAW-CIO union hall and across the street from the pizza place and the VFW hall.
Oh and down that alleyway of gardens, was the playground of St Johns school and church. Needless to say, we pretty much hung out right there on the block.

Great post......

Mary

[Stinky The Clown]

6. Isn't it amazing how we can remember those names?

But I can't remember what I had for supper yesterday!

I missed the backyard chicken murders by a few years. Grampa used to have a chicken coop and a rabbit hutch at the back of the garden. I can just barely remember it, but never witnessed the blood letting because I was just too little to be allowed to watch. By the time I would have been old enough, the city passed a 'farm animals' ban and all the rabbits and chickens were gone. That was ..... mmmm ..... 1952? 1954?

Funny story ..... our mayor was a guy named Jasper McLeavey. Ol' Jasper was a Socialist. People loved him as if he could walk on water. He used to be on the streets mingling with 'his people' frequently. I can remember him walking down our street on Saturdays every now and again, shaking hands and ringing bells if no one was out. Just him and one other guy (I'd guess an aide more than a bodyguard - things were waaaaaay different back then). He looked a bit like Harry Truman.

Anyway, ol' Jasper was a penny pincher with the city funds. Whenever we had a snowstorm, Jasper never put plows on the streets. Saved a shitload of money that way. But the paper used to carry his words of wisdom to the citizenry: "God put it there, and God will take it away." That was always followed by a plea to people to, after clearing their walks, to clear a bit of 'our streets' too.

He was a character!

Fast forward to the 80's. A guy I went to high school with became the mayor. Tom Bucci. He was, if I'm right, the last mayor to preside over the city before it declared bankruptcy.

How times change .........

(What any of this has to do with cooking and baking is beyond me ... but thanks for indulging me a nostalgic and semi-weepy Sunday night. It's been a lot of fun looking back.)

[Sparkly]

8. There's a great book in there somewhere....

"Hometown characters" or something... "The butcher, the baker, the candlestick maker." I always get a kick from the names H2S recalls, because you just couldn't make them up if you were Frank Capra.

It's definitely a lost part of life in much of suburbia -- knowing the "locals." Most of the time, we're encountering cashiers who (understandably) hate their jobs. Even in NY city, I knew the owners of the little bodegas and delis and said "hi" every day.

(Btw, in New London we had one character known as "Dancing Charlie." He literally danced on a downtown street corner, in his own little world. People would say, "It's sad, so sad." But Charlie sure seemed happier than most people!)

[wakemeupwhenitsover]

9. good for Charlie!

Long story, but there was a guy who walked by a store I shopped at. He was very friendly but obviously not 'all there'. The woman who owned the store felt sorry for him. I always said he seems really happy & we should all be so lucky. He was well fed & cared for by someone. What else matters?

[merci_me]

11. If you guys make it to LR

this summer, we'll bring some homemade wine and start collaborating.

Jim grew up about 2 miles from me, in an "anglo" enclave. But, after he grew up and went looking for drinking buddies, lo and behold, he stumbled (and I mean that literally) on to the guys from my neighborhood. I met him at my godfather, Tony Sarno's, bar. I was there to see a band with a guy I had a crush on, Vinnie Passaro. Jim ended up marrying me in a Catholic church with a Kelly and a Selvaggio as his groomsmen. He was a quick study. HAHAHAHA

Mary

[Sparkly]

12. I wish we could make it!

We've got a "reunion" planned with family I can barely remember, in Florida (one of my sisters is pushing for us to visit relatives of our Dad to get stories and photos before they're gone, too -- although my other two sisters are pooping out on us!) so that eats up our Summer travel money.

But we have great hope we'll meet up someday on the (hopefully Clark) campaign trail! What a party the Cooking/Baking DUers could have! You're all such smart, witty, and of course cooking-savvy people, as well as local "characters" in your own right! And knowing "Stinky" in person is an experience unto itself, I must say.

Meanwhile, Tony Sarno's bar, Vinnie Passaro as the guy in the band... I'm tellin' ya, there's no making this stuff up. And the names are just priceless -- I love 'em!

[wildeyed]

25. I do the olive oil in the ear trick with my kids.

Saute a little garlic in it first for the antibiotic properties, let it cool, drip it in. Seems to help. And then the kidlets smell delice, just like garlic bread.

[wakemeupwhenitsover]

4. I guess I'm just lucky

because we have all those shops. They're not right around the corner, but close enough. Especially since I live in a rural area.

We don't have relatives here, but we have a million friends & potlucks go on all summer long. Lobster feeds; all dessert; bring what you want; I'll cook the roast, you bring the sides. You name it, someone will have a potluck themed party.

best .

[Stinky The Clown]

7. That 'rural' feel .... it was there even in cities, way back when .....

Cities had honest-to-god neighborhoods that functioned very much like small, several-blocks-square, self-contained cities. No formal organization. But very much community. The union halls. The churches. The Democratic Club (and in our town, the Socialist Club, too). Kids out on the street to play had fifty 'mothers' looking out for them. A scrape or a cut would get fixed at home ...... but not necessarily your own home; just the home of one of those fifty surrogate moms.

Yup .... another era that is fast disappearing. Enjoy ... **treasure** ..... what you have there. I'm envious. :hi:

[wakemeupwhenitsover]

10. I grew up in the 'burbs

& we had awesome block parties. We'd start at our house for swimming & pupu's, move to the next house for dinner, the third house for dessert & dancing, or if it was the fourth, on to another house for fireworks, & then the last house for dancing, or to another house for homemade ice cream & more swimming. The parents would pack it in with the little ones & the teenagers would keep going. I guess we still do the same thing, but since we're in the country we stay at one house for the whole shebang.

[Warpy]

13. You could always come to central NM

and visit the Carniceria Chihuahua. They have their own meat cutters.

You'll get used to asking for stuff in Spanish.

[Stinky The Clown]

15. I suspect I'd relate well to the hispanic enclaves

although I've never lived in or near one. BUt what I know of them, they're very community and family centric.

And that's a **very** good thing.

[Lugnut]

14. What a nostalgia trip, H2S!

I grew up in a little anthracite coal "patch" town about 2 miles from a small mining town. Our house was on the corner next to the dirt road that led to one of the larger coal operations in the area. Since we had just one car which my dad used to get to work shopping trips to town happened according to his work schedule.

I remember Mr. Weiss' butcher shop where the freshly ground beef slithered from the meat grinder and the showcase was filled with naked cuts of meat. There were no foam trays wrapped with cellophane. Seitzinger's Drug Store was across the street. Doc would whip up his own brews to treat coughs and colds. Little shops lined the main street. My favorite was Famalette's Pizza.

My Uncle Buck had a small grocery store which was more like today's convenience stores. He carried a little of everything from penny candy that was really a penny to ice cold sodas in a cooler with legs that had ice in it. My mother would call him with her order and Daddy would take my sister and I with him to pick it up. Aunt Liz would open the register and give us each a quarter to buy penny candy from her candy case. Dad and Uncle Buck would shift from English to Slovak when they were taking about things little ears shouldn't hear.

In between there was a smaller version of my uncle's store a few houses from ours. There were also several local grocers who used converted buses to take their wares around to all the local patch towns for those who didn't own a car. The bakery truck would make it's rounds in the morning. In the evening a man with an old truck would come through town with candy apples, popcorn and ice cream cones.

Things were so simple back then.

[Stinky The Clown]

16. Thanks for those little snippets that paint a picture!

"Mr. Weiss' butcher shop where the freshly ground beef slithered from the meat grinder and the showcase was filled with naked cuts of meat.'

Was there sawdust on the floor, too? I remember that from Tony Tedesco's. It had such a sweet smell. Well, sweet to my little imagination. It was a mix of pine and meat blood, which I expect is actually quite gross to lots of folks. But I loved it.

"Aunt Liz would open the register and give us each a quarter .... "

And I bet she had a warm smile on her face and you girls were always thrilled to be able to 'shop' for treats.

"ice cold sodas in a cooler with legs that had ice in it"

That's a wonderful detail!

[Lugnut]

27. I don't recall sawdust but

That beef grinder fascinated me no end. I remember the butcher shop as one of my favorite stops. Mr Weiss was very friendly and knew all his customers by name.

Aunt Liz and Uncle Buck were two of my favorites. She was a warm, kind and lovely woman.

[anitar1]

17. You Really Started Something.

I wandered over here to see what was cooking, read your post and have been staring at the wall for 30 minutes remembering some very good things in the past.I have lived in many places, and have been fortunate enough to have been taught by many wonderful cooks, from different cultures.Lived in South Central part of the country as a child. We raised most of our own food,chickens, always a hog, huge garden,fruit trees,pecan and walnuts, and lots of wild plums ect. Mother canned lots of things, even chickens. I loved helping with the pork, making sausage,wonderful tasting. Dad hung the meats in the smokehouse, a mysterious place to me. Fished when we could. Used to have big fish frys at the lake, with family and friends in the summer. Then moved to Calif and it was like finding myself in paradise! All sorts of ethnic stores,wonderful bakeries,discovered Mexican food and it is still my favorite. I grow lots of chilies , nothing like fresh chilies. And freezing ice cream in an old fashioned crank freezer.Food has always been important in our home, and all of my grandchildren like to cookI love Italian food also. the one thing we don't have here, that I miss, is an Italian market.But there is hope, last fall a large Mexican market opened here and it is like going to the candy store, for me. Thanks for your great post.I am still reminising.

[Stinky The Clown]

18. If food is comfort - and it is - so are memories

Thanks for sharing yours. Where my memories are urban, yours are rural. But the common thread is the family-centric nature of it.

Who says we don't have values? **True** family values.

[livetohike]

19. Wow! Some nice reminiscing going on here Sun night

and with 70,000 DUers now, what a book that would make!

Seriously, before all these stories are lost of the way life used to be.....

My Grandfather would take me to "town" on Saturday mornings and we would spend all day walking up and down the main street talking with everyone, the butcher, the baker, the green grocer....We would always come home with armfuls of stuff - homemade kielbassi and something I haven't seen in years, but my Grandfather loved, which is St. John's bread (carob in the pod).

Great memories.

[Stinky The Clown]

20. I wish we could all 'go home' ... just for a day .......

It would be a gentler world for that ..........

[REACTIVATED IN CT]

21. I grew up in Queens, NY in the 50's

I remember the milkman and bread man making home deliveries and the fishwagon coming around on Fridays. There was a fruit and vegetable wagon too. Once a week my mom would walk to the local A&P or Bohack's which must have been a half mile and a mile away respectively with her store wagon to get staples. I remember going with her in the summer, but she must have done that all year round even in the winter. I remember the A&P had rough wooden floors and a conveyor belt that brought boxes up from the basement. We also stopped at the pork store and the deli, got fruits and veggies from the greengrocers and fresh rolls from the bakery. I remember the poultry market, too where she would get freshly butchered chickens. That was 50 years ago, and it seems like another world now

Thanks for the trip down memory lane!

[Stinky The Clown]

22. Bohaks and the A&P conveyor

I grew up across the Sound from you, in CT. I remember the A&P with the wood floors and the conveyor in our neighborhood. A small store - a (maybe) 20 foot wide storefront, really. Two guys who worked there in starched aprons, white shirts and bow ties.

I remember the Bohaks ads on radio, even though we never had one near us. "Murray the K and his swinging soiree ... playing great oldies for you ...." brought to you by Bohaks Markets on 'Ten-ten WINS, New York".

And of course Murray Kaufman's (The 'K' in Murray the K) 'submarine race watching' .... and Cousin Brucie ..... WMCA radio was great, too.

man-o-man .... thanks for that! :hi:

[REACTIVATED IN CT]

23. Murray the K

I used to listen to 1010 WINS on my transistor radio - 16th birthday gift - at Rockaway Beach!

[merci_me]

24. A pix of me on my 16th, about the same time

was taken on Brighton Beach. We hit Brooklyn twice a year, Christmas and late July. I know I use to always hear them talking about "far Rockaway" so I checked the picture, but it says Brighton Beach. My cousin and some friends had their own padlocked little cabana/shanty on a boardwalk there. Damn, I looked pretty good in that pinup picture.

OK, so this fits into the "food" topic, I use to also go to Coney Island and get the best saltiest skinny French fries (way pre-McD) in a paper cone-cup and walk the boardwalk flirting and munching.

Mary

[n2mark]

26. Oh, you brought back many many memories Husb2Sparkly

Every Sunday my family would take a drive in the country to buy fruits and veggies visiting some road side stands. In the fall we would stop off to buy fresh picked apples and apple cider. No more, there aren't anymore stands. A couple of years ago I would frequent a stand in Arizona at the 101 and McDowell Rd. to buy fresh fruits and veggies and also to buy Hatch's chiles, they are no longer there. There are no longer roadside stands available that I know. I miss them. America has changed and I don't like it.

[Stinky The Clown]

32. I'm sorry your roadside stands are gone.

We have them here in suburban Balt/DC. They pop up like mushrooms after a spring rain. Corn and melons and tomatoes. Usually they're on trucks that park on the side of the road, although there are quite a few that are in plywood shacks where farms abut the road. They're usually run by kids, obviously home from college for the summer.

[Willy Lee]

28. We are trying to make a comeback, Husb2Sparkly!

When my SO and I decided to leave the West Coast (No Cal, then Seattle), we had the whole US to choose from. It was very tempting to pick up and move to a cool, happening city, one where we could find a plethora of like minded individuals, hip shops, a college scene, liberals, etc etc. In the end we decided to move back to my hometown in Mid America- a small once-upon-a-time farming community outside of St. Louis, on the Illinois side. Part of the rationale was to be close to my aging parents, another big part was to move to a town that wasn't exactly cool but could BECOME that way, one that we thought had potential.

The outskirts of our town are undergoing a strip- mall transformation. Barnes and Noble. Old Navy. Pier 1. Kohls. Home Depot. Meanwhile the beautiful historic Main Street with its ornate turn-of-the-century architecture and tree lined streets was languishing. But there was hope... the opening a great coffee house re-focused attention on the area, and soon other independent businesses began to pop up. Right in the middle of the block is the Butcher Shop which has been there for over 100 years. Very old school. Cranky butchers. Fantastic quality.

It has been a dream and vision of ours to return to the olden days when neighborhoods were just that- neighborhoods. With corner grocers, independent breweries, butchers and bakeries. Fate smiled on us when a landlord in the neighborhood called us and asked if we would like to open a bakery in his 1890 BEAUTIFUL diamond in the rough building on Main Street. Right next to the butcher, the old movie house (which is also being renovated), the coffee house, art gallery, yarn shop, wine bar, and around the corner from the Framer's Market.

We are now 3 months into the remodel and it is going great. We'll add an old-world, traditional bakery to our town and add our own little push to move things in the right (or left) direction. We are also our towns first (that I know of) and only coffee roaster. Our dream is coming true and I think we are making a difference.

Here's to community!


Oh- and Husb2Sparkly- I bet with all of your fantastic cooking skills and passion you could do something along the same line! Make a difference!!

[wakemeupwhenitsover]

31. That is exciting!

Best of luck to you & your SO. I'll be rooting for you. :)

best

[Stinky The Clown]

33. Willy Lee, remember those ove plans I sent you a while ago to look over?

My son's going to work with me to build one in our back yard. Very much a non-commercial, back yard kitchen size - maybe a 36" diameter dome. Our longer range plan is to have him build them for cutomers. They're quite new out here, but they've been written up in the newspapers and they're starting to get a good buzz.

Of course, knowing us, we'll get happy eating out of our own and never uild another one!

[NashVegas]

29. They're In the UK

I went over for a little over a week. There were butchers and fishmongers all over the place, especially in the seaside towns and markets.

[Stinky The Clown]

30. That's all over Europe

I saw similar shops in Holland, France, Spain, Italy and the UK. In big cities and in small towns and villages. Our last trip over was to Paris. We stayed in the Montparnase district, in a very small, typical old style Parisian hotel (11 rooms!). From that hotel, within a walk of only 5 minutes or less, one could find any foodstuff one could want. Fruits and veggies, fish, meat, poultry, bread, pastries, candies, and chocolates. There was even a small Italian grocer who also had prepared foods (olives, panini, lasagna, etc.) for purchase and home reheating. One morning, I awoke waaaaaaay early - around 4.30 am - and decided to just give in to it and get up. I went for a walk and watched the fishmonger at the end of the block set up his display. We spoke as well as we could, he in his halting English and me in my horrible French. What I took from that exchange was his pride in what he did and in the quality of what he sold. (And no - the French are neither rude nor anti-American.)

[madinmaryland]

34. They've all been sucked into the

jumbo supermarkets and walmarts.

BTW, if you are in maryland, there is a good butcher in Clarksville, about 2 miles south on Rt. 108 from the exit off of Rt.32.

:hi:

[Stinky The Clown]

35. That would be Boarmans (sp?)

Rt 108 and Scaggsville Rd/Highland Road, if I'm not mistaken.

[cmf]

36. We have all those

Except for the poultry shop, but I'm sure you can find a place around here that sells fresh poultry. I live in a small town, around 7,000 people. Don't get me wrong, we have an Albertsons and a fancy gourmet grocery store, but the small busineses have managed to last this long. Unfortunately WalMart is moving into town sometime next year, and I have a feeling that many of the mom and pops won't make it.

[tinfoilinfor2005]

37. Great post! Made me sniffle a bit, but happily.

Memories of going with mom (now passed) Saturday grocery shopping, to the butcher shop and the fruit and vegetable market and my least favorite, the fishmonger. I hated the smells there and I'd make a big drama out of plugging my nose. But I was always up for the bakery! And then coming home and eating fresh liverwurst sandwiches on still warm crusty italian bread with red juicy off the vine tomato slices.

I'm sure my grandkids will have great childhood memories too, but I like the ones from my generation.

[Stinky The Clown]

38. Yanno, it was intended to induce snifflies ....

..... but good ones. The kind that appear just before the flush of warm memories.

I knw what you mean about the memories available to our kids and grandkids. While we don't see them, surely they will. I remember speaking to my mother about these sorts of things just before she died. Her memories were different from mine. She saw all that running around to shop as being chores. She was glad for the convenience of supermarkets.

Y'ever notice how supermarkets these days try to emulate the specialty shops of yore. The meat counter is now the 'butchery" or some such claptrap. And all breakfast cereals have these pictures of huge, yellow corn ears with unblemished husks.

Memories ....... mmmmmm