Growing Up In 1961

(Note.  On 7/22/17 I wrote "Lessons From My Childhood."  That was followed with "More Stories From My Youth," written on 11/12/17.  I hope that this post proves to be as popular as the other two.  I picked the year 1961 because I was 10 at the time.  Plus, it was an upside down year.)

The town I grew up in had about 80,000 people, But it always felt like a small town to me - probably because I did not venture out of the neighborhood.  Our garden apartment complex was bordered by a city street on one side, with a highway on the other side.  Across the highway was a row of shops - the grocery store, the candy store, the pharmacy, the cleaners, the kosher deli, the bakery, and just around the corner was Fred the barber.  My favorite store as a young boy was, of course, the candy store.  

The candy store had a soda fountain, although I was not a fan of ice cream sodas until later on.  Ice cream cones were 10 cents, but if you wanted a sugar cone you'd have to cough up 12 cents.  Most candy bars could be had for a nickel, although the Mounds and Almond Joy would cost you a dime.  And there was always a wide selection of comic books.  I was a DC Comics fan, with my favorite being Superman.  To this day I like to watch TV shows and movies where the good guys get the bad guys.  I would also buy some Batman, and "The Justice League of America."  Only rarely did I buy Marvel's "The Fantastic Four."  In 1961 a comic book only set me back a dime.  But come 1962 I first experienced inflation, as the price went up to 12 cents.  Our downstairs neighbor bought Archie comic books, and we would borrow each other's comics.  I haven't spoken to him since...today!  Old friends are special.  

The grocery store was family owned by a Mom and her two adult sons.  In 1961 a dozen eggs cost 57 cents, a loaf of bread was 15 cents, 63 cents would get you 10 potatoes, and a fresh delivered 1/2 gallon of milk would run 52 cents.  We actually had quite a few things delivered back then, and not by Instacart.  The grocery store delivered, the pharmacy delivered, and the cleaners delivered.  My father got seltzer delivered (I never cared for it much); and if you went into, say, the candy store, you could get a glass of seltzer by ordering a "2 cents plain."  We had milk delivered and placed in a metal box outside our door.  There was cream at the top of each quart.  And we had kosher meat delivered - my Mom's best friend's husband was a kosher butcher. 

Once in a while, my Mom would give me a list to take to the grocery store.  Following my Mom's instructions, I would ask one of the sons to please bag up everything on the list for me to take home.  And to put it on my Mom's tab.  No problem.  

As mentioned in my 7/22/17 post, my Mom worked at the pharmacy.  It was a small neighborhood store, but you could also buy perfumes, greeting cards and Timex watches.  There was also a small lending library in the store.  On some occasions in the winter, my Mom would go into work when there was no snow on the ground, but by the time she was ready to come home 3 to 6 inches of snow might have fallen.  When that happened, I would get a call to go get her.  Why?  I would walk ahead of her going home and she would step into the holes in the snow made by my boots.

At the bakery we would get sliced rye bread, and black and white cookies - which I still buy to this day.  My brother recalls standing in the kosher deli one day when a trucker came in.  Upon ordering a ham and cheese sandwich, the trucker was advised "we don't have ham and we don't have cheese.  How about pastrami?"  Delis still exist, but it isn't easy to find a kosher one. 

My inspiration for doing this post was actually Fred the barber.  Recently, my wife and I watched the movie "Defiance," starring Liev Schreiber and Daniel Craig.  They portray the two older Bielski brothers (there were four total), who escaped from Nazi occupied Eastern Europe into the forest.  During their time in the forest they came across other Jews who had escaped the Nazis.  The Bielski brothers took it upon themselves to protect, feed and house in temporary shelters the other escapees, while also launching attacks on Nazi troops.  

Three of the brothers survived and made it to the USA and settled in New York City, where they ran a trucking business together.  Which brings me back to Fred the barber.  I must have been about 10 years old, when Fred showed me some numbers burned into his forearm.  He tried to explain to me what it was all about, but I really did not understand.  Not at age 10.  Wikipedia estimates that about 250,000 to 300,000 Jews survived the Nazi concentration camps.  I am so grateful that Fred was one of those survivors.