Yeah I Was There For The Great Depression

Yeah I was there.

I remember buying the N.Y. Daily News and The Mirror for 2¢ each. The New York Times cost a nickel. We had 4 evening papers in NY; The Sun, World Telegram, N.Y. Post and the Journal. My father's fur business went through bankruptcy. The movies cost 10¢ except on Saturdays when you got a double feature for 15¢. An allowance? How ridiculous. You got nickels, dimes and the occasional two bits by asking, most times pleading. My parents were fabulous and almost always succumbed to my entreaties fora dime for the movies and a nickel for candy. For big occasions, the family would go downtown together from our home in the Bronx to go the Yiddish Theatre. A huge treat.

The bleachers at Yankee Stadium cost 55¢ including for double headers. I saw Babe Ruth, Lou Gerigh, Tony Lazzari, Frankie Crosetti. Baseball was a "way out" for everyone except blacks and the occasional Jew (Hank Greenberg a Jewish idol, married a Gimbel). Jews who married Shiksas were often ostracized as were the Shiksas.

But boxing was for blacks and Jews. Tennis, skiing and golf were for the wealthy. We thought that there was some "wrong" with tennis players or else why were they dressed in white. The six day bike race at the Garden was a big thrill. Going to the Garden for the rodeo was a real highlight.

We played stick ball, stoop ball, king of the hill, roller skate hockey and kick the can in the street. Pitching pennies against the stoop was "big time". Today you seldom see groups of kids playing in their neighborhoods or even in the school yards after school. We would rush home, drop off our books and meet our friends. I got my first bike when I was 12 (1935) It was a used bike, and I was so excited. Later on an Uncle bought me a new one. We were sure that he was rich beyond belief. It was a RollFast with balloon white wall tires. 

The Irish dominated the Police Department and the Italians controlled the Department of Sanitation. And the Jews drove the cabs and opined incessantly. They could talk about anything for 30 minutes even if they didn't know anything about it (as I can as well). Horse and wagons would come down the streets loaded with fruits and vegetables that were being hawked by the wagoneer. A big pizza cost 50¢ and a Pepsi to go with it was either a nickel or a dime. Ice cream cones were a nickel with a double scoop a dime. A banana split with every thing but the kitchen sink and free sex cost 25¢ (huge "treat"). You bought kosher pickels by reaching into the pickel barrel and pulling the pickels out. Bakeries really made bread (rye, corn, white and pumpernickel) and bagels were truly water bagels, not baked bread and very Jewish. I carried milk home in a big bucket. My mother could buy chickens with or without the feathers. Plucking a chicken made a hell of mess. Some stores carried live chickens and you would choose one and they were killed while you watched. It was almost as bad as sitting in the front row and watching a circumcision. Puke inducing. We would build bonfires in the street with wood left over from abandoned construction sites, steal potatoes and throw them into the fire for cooking. We called them "mickies". Walking through the five and dime (aka Woolworth's) stealing pencils and erasers that you couldn't bring home was big time. A new pencil evoked questions at home and school so we hid them and never even used them. I went to P.S. 105 and P.S. 83. The grade schools had summer sports programs and we could go to the Yankee Stadium, get seats in nose bleed country, the upper left field grandstand. Cost? A five and dime for the subway ride, coming and going. We waited outside of the player's exits after the ball game just to get a glimpse of our heros close up. Then, the counselor in charge of us would round us up and home we'd go. Television wasn't invented. Every thing that mattered was out of doors. We played baseball on empty lots. Get out on most Saturdays and Sundays at 7:00 early enough to grab a "field to play at least 18 innings and then go and have a two bit pizza and a nickel Pepsi. When the covers would come off the baseballs we would wrap them in electrical tape and continue to use them. Like hitting and throwing a heavy rock. But we didn't care because we didn't know any better and just having the baseball was the big event....