Billy Holiday with Count Basie Orchestra:
https://youtu.be/ZUzQbc9Ev0sAn
aside to "Good Old Days". My wife & I eat strawberries with our morning Cheerios. Lately and frequently the boxes (actually plastic containers - there "ain't" no boxes of strawberries anymore) contain multiple rotten berries. I grew up in the 40's - 50's. My Dad owned a small, independent food market in Asbury Park, NJ. We sold quality meats, vegetables and groceries. I worked there from age 9 until my Dad passed away at the tender age of 41. (I was 15). When we waited on a customer who wanted strawberries, we'd cup our hands under the box, tip it and scanned for rotten strawberries. When found, we removed and replaced them with good berries. Always!!! In our store, we saved cardboard and wooden boxes, saved the quart & pint wooden strawberry boxes, ... soda bottles were purchased with a deposit on the bottles - $.02 cents for small bottles, $.05 for large quart ones. We stored them in the original wooden boxes until the next soda delivery, received the deposit back and so on. When bottles of soda & jars found their way to the ocean, the salt water created beautiful pieces of glass from the broken bottles. As a kid, I spent hours looking for the glass treasures in or near the shoreline. Most kids had a cigar box full of them. I could go on - but I won't.
The Good Old DaysMark
Ditto on the culture in my dad's store.
Now gotta mention a similar situation about grapes. Buying by the pound I'm wondering sometime if the loose grapes in the bottom of the sack were swept up from the floor just to add weight - most times they don't even look like those still on the stems.
Thanks for the memories. Brought a lot of my childhood to mind.
tommy2 wrote:
Ditto on the culture in my dad's store.
Now gotta mention a similar situation about grapes. Buying by the pound I'm wondering sometime if the loose grapes in the bottom of the sack were swept up from the floor just to add weight - most times they don't even look like those still on the stems.
There are always loose grapes that become dislodged from the stems. We used to sell them at a discount.
Mark.
John N
Loc: HP14 3QF Stokenchurch, UK
No different here. Greengrocer would sell 1/2 Ib loose and serve in paper bag - everything is plastic now and despite breathing holes or sealed in CO 2 they still go off. Probably got more to do with a short season back then, now strawberries are available all year round with big imports from the States or Spain or even U.K. hot houses.
It would be nice to go back to seasonal fruit and veg!
Memories from World War II and just beyond: my aunt & uncle (the butcher) owned a grocery store in South Plainfield, NJ. What I remember is everyone coming in with a list and either my aunt or uncle would fill the list personally. All meat was cut fresh. People just waited at the counter.
Old meat was sold cheaply for “pets.” Sawdust on the floor. Gloves? Hairnets?
markngolf wrote:
Billy Holiday with Count Basie Orchestra:
https://youtu.be/ZUzQbc9Ev0sAn
aside to "Good Old Days". My wife & I eat strawberries with our morning Cheerios. Lately and frequently the boxes (actually plastic containers - there "ain't" no boxes of strawberries anymore) contain multiple rotten berries. I grew up in the 40's - 50's. My Dad owned a small, independent food market in Asbury Park, NJ. We sold quality meats, vegetables and groceries. I worked there from age 9 until my Dad passed away at the tender age of 41. (I was 15). When we waited on a customer who wanted strawberries, we'd cup our hands under the box, tip it and scanned for rotten strawberries. When found, we removed and replaced them with good berries. Always!!! In our store, we saved cardboard and wooden boxes, saved the quart & pint wooden strawberry boxes, ... soda bottles were purchased with a deposit on the bottles - $.02 cents for small bottles, $.05 for large quart ones. We stored them in the original wooden boxes until the next soda delivery, received the deposit back and so on. When bottles of soda & jars found their way to the ocean, the salt water created beautiful pieces of glass from the broken bottles. As a kid, I spent hours looking for the glass treasures in or near the shoreline. Most kids had a cigar box full of them. I could go on - but I won't.
The Good Old DaysMark
Billy Holiday with Count Basie Orchestra:
https://... (
show quote)
And you didn't have to stand in long lines except on Friday evenings and holiday weekends, we used to make a little pocket money collecting discarded soda bottles.
My glittery bits were a cigar box full of wonderfully colored glass marbles and a steely for shooting.
Good old sawdust!! We also had a delivery business. People would phone in, a list was made on store stationary and the order was delivered to the house. Amazon, right??
Mark
daldds wrote:
Memories from World War II and just beyond: my aunt & uncle (the butcher) owned a grocery store in South Plainfield, NJ. What I remember is everyone coming in with a list and either my aunt or uncle would fill the list personally. All meat was cut fresh. People just waited at the counter.
Old meat was sold cheaply for “pets.” Sawdust on the floor. Gloves? Hairnets?
tommy2 wrote:
Ditto on the culture in my dad's store.
Now gotta mention a similar situation about grapes. Buying by the pound I'm wondering sometime if the loose grapes in the bottom of the sack were swept up from the floor just to add weight - most times they don't even look like those still on the stems.
I open the bag of grapes, take out what I don't want and put the remainder into a different bag. That bag will have more grapes than stated on the bag, but they're sold by the pound any way. It also gives me a chance to check for bad grapes. I do the same with cherries.
We called some purees and some boulders. Everyone had a pouch or cigar box. We played marbles in the fall & spring. Asbury Park, NJ, a mile from where I lived, had portable marble fields constructed and held the "World's Marble Championships" for years.
Mark
HOHIMER wrote:
My glittery bits were a cigar box full of wonderfully colored glass marbles and a steely for shooting.
Picking, packing, and shipping strawberries is a real challenge. We used to have a local farm where I would pick my own strawberries every June. They were the best. After the berries sit in a box for a few days making their way to a distribution center and then sit in a store for a day or two - things begin to happen. When I get supermarket strawberries home, I try to eat them within twenty-four hours.
GlenBose
Loc: NE Florida, formerly Limerick, PA
[quote=markngolf]Billy Holiday with Count Basie Orchestra:
https://youtu.be/ZUzQbc9Ev0sAn
aside to "Good Old Days".
OK, Markngolf. You've done it again. Messed my head up! While playing the video I had to go over and drag out "The Sound Of Jazz" album.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QAOHsVYgbhMIn case you don't have it. I'll listen to it later today after I get back from the dentist who will uncover the posts from my implants and make a mold for my new lower plate (I know TMI) so my recovery this afternoon will be filled with great music.
Thanks, Truly!
I have to level my turntable, it got moved since I last used it but that's the fun of being into these old special albums... Oh, hell... I pulled out the Ahmad Jamal white album too. Gonna be a glorious recovery.
Make a great day, Mark.
If you want to reply, then
register here. Registration is free and your account is created instantly, so you can post right away.