When I was a little kid I didn't just run around in the street and play stickball and scully. I had to do chores. Throw out the garbage. Go to the stores. I went all over the place even when I was in the second grade. When I was old enough to cross the street I was sent on errands all the time. My grandmother especially sent me out shopping. Why not when she was supposed to be in the second grade she was already working in a shirt making factory. So she didn't take any bullshit.
She would send me to Columbia Street where the push carts were. They had a bunch of stuff that came from the docks. Legal and otherwise. I had particular people I had to patronize. Friends of my uncles who made sure I didn't get ripped off.
I miss those days. Now I go to Stop and Shop.
1 comment:
When I was little, like 4, our post office was the parlor of the people who lived across the street. I felt pretty grown up to be sent to get the mail. When you entered the post office, you could hear the post mistress singing while she did the dishes or the sound of the vacuum cleaner. You'd ring the little hotel bell on the counter to get her attention. I'd ask if she could give me our mail, then carried it back home. That was a different world. On a different planet. With a different species known as humans.
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