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Posted by: Charlie (cjoseph@eagle1.eaglenet.com) on 11/17/1997@00:46hrs:
In Reply to: Working on Old SI posted by: Bob Sheridan on 11/15/1997@22:16hrs:
Worked at JayCee's Dept store on Railroad Ave in New Dorp for 50 cents
an hour. The store was opened by a successful Real Estate woman. Probably
to be a tax loss or shelter. Everytime it showed signs of making money
she back pedaled. She was an absentee owner. Things got so bad, no saleslady
would stay. Ultimately, the store only opened when I got out of school
in the afternoon. Sometimes she didn't even show up to pick up the week's
receipts. I would take out my weekly salary and turn the money over to her
when she did finally come around. We had a little record store section, which she
had given me to run, even when a saleslady was there. She would only let
me buy a few records each week. One Christmas (had to be '56) when she didn't show up
to pick up the money, I blew every penny, including my salary on the
latest R&R hits. She actually got mad when I handed her 3 times the normal
amount the next week. I left soon after and went to work at the White
Market in New Dorp (also .50 an hour). I went full time there for several weeks after graduation from
NDHS, before I joined the Navy. Every week we delivered 1 or 2 GI cans
full of ground round to Bacci's (The owner of the White Market was a Bacci brother). That's how I know they had the best
hamburgers. No plain chopped meat for them. We also delivered 5000 pounds
of potatoes every couple of weeks. Either 50 100lb bags or 100 50lb bags.
We would choose positions on the trip down there. One guy would toss the
bags off the truck to the guy on the ground. He would catch them, pivot
and send them down the slide to the guy in the basement. Somehow, I always
seemed to be the guy in the middle. The first time we did that I thought
I was gonna' die. I walked home from there with more dragging than my feet.
When I first went to work there, I could barely lift a case of dog food.
I use that for a reference becauase I know a case weighs 60 pounds. 48 cans
at 1 pound each, plus the cans themselves and the cardboard box equals about 60 pounds. I would
struggle up the stairs with one case (we didn't have conveyor belts like
A&P). When I left, I could pick up a case in each arm, hunch them up on each
shoulder and run up the stairs. No kidding!
Just for reference, I have come full circle. It's again a struggle to handle
one case.
Charlie