Farms
from John
Going to the Ford garden with Pa where we used to pick our own vegetables.
from Monica
I don't remember going to the Ford farm to pick vegetables. I know that Marcel & Bernie did some planting, etc (farming or whatever) to grow those vegetables, and miraculously we had all of these tomatoes (maybe you, Gabby, helped to pick them, but I don't remember ever being there myself). Pa would wash all of the tomatoes, and he had these little wooden pint boxes he would fill them with tomatoes, and we would put them in the wagon & go around the neighborhood selling them for 10 cents a box. The neighbors were always glad to see us when we came by with those great tomatoes. Sometimes, to my chagrin, a person would go through a few of our boxes and create their own version of 10 cents worth.
from Marcel
Ford Trade School had gardens for the boys to work on. Henry Ford believed that everybody should know how to farm, just as he did when he was a youth. We always ate the corn that we brought home but had a surfeit of tomatoes. I was so pleased that I did not have to go and sell those tomatoes and felt a little sorry for you girls having to do it. Only now I find out you did not mind at all, and it was easy.
from Bernie
I DO NOT REMEMBER ANY OF YOU CLEANING THE HOUSE. I DID PLANT AND PICK TOMATOES THOUGH.
from Paulette
It was only recently that Marcel mentioned that Mama used to let us keep part of the money we got for the tomatoes. I don't remember ever seeing any of it. Maybe that's why Rita used to be able to buy us broken chips at the Better Made place on Vernor on the way to the show. I remember one year getting and being expected to eat purple corn. I remember the wonderful smells coming from the basement when Mama made her "ketchup" after the tomato harvest.
Paper drives
from John
I remember going up and down the street collecting newspapers with my wagon for the annual
church paper drive. Did any of you do that?
from Monica
Paper drives, yes St. Gabriel School would sponsor it once a year. They made it a contest between the grades. I remember one year my 5th grade class won. We had such a sport of a nun, she even made up a song for us which we sang every day during the drive. How could we lose? I think we got a day off from school as the prize. What a payoff!
from Paulette
Was that just once a year. It seems like it was pretty often. It must have been for several days at a time because I remember bringing my wagonload to the school driveway and watching them load it (and tally for my classroom) and heading out again to get more. And then starting all over again the next day. One year our nun assigned a "buddy" so no one would be canvassing alone. I got stuck with a lazy little Mexican boy named Manuel (we pronounced it with three syllables)
Ice cream
from John
Going to the out door ice cream social on the corner of Mulane and Gartner (I think). I think it was a church or VFW that sponsored the event. I think you were supposed to pay to get in but I used to just walk in without paying. Boy that ice cream was good (and all you could eat).
from Monica
Once a year in the summer the Baptist Church held an ice cream social on their church grounds. The congregation purchased coupons for ice cream on a paper plate. It was outside with big tables to sit. It was just at the end of our alley, and we would walk over there and look through the fence at all these people, with these heaping plates of ice cream. Once in a while, a man would walk over and give one of us a coupon & we would go through the gate and get a plate of it. I don't think I ever tasted vanilla ice cream any better than that!
from Marcel
The place that had the ice cream socials was the Masonic Temple on the corner of Lawndale and Senator. Ernest Butler was a member of the DeMolay at that Temple.
from Paulette
Marcel is right it was a Masonic Temple. The lot right on the corner of Lawndale and Senator was vacant and that's where the ice cream social was. The temple was next to that on Lawndale and then Pop's grocery store. Then the Navy bar, and right on the corner of Navy and Lawndale was a cleaners. On the corner of Mulane and Gartner was a store we called Kretchman's (sp). Do any of you remember the Red Store (corner of Mulane and Senator) and the Brown Store (on Mulane between Senator and Whittaker)?
I don't remember looking at the ice cream through the fence (was there a fence?), I remember being given tickets and standing in line for the ice cream. I just assumed it was all free. Probably the Masons took pity on us poor little Catholic children.
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4 comments:
We did paper drives as kids but I think it was for the Boy Scouts or St. Vincent DePaul.
I could really go for a bowl of ice cream right now!
About the paper drive, when I said once a year, I didn't mean for 1 day; it probably lasted for a couple of weeks each year. I know we sang (I think it was the Notre Dame fight song), our nun wrote new words for it and we sang it every day after lunch for a couple of weeks or so. It worked, we won!!
Of course I remember the brown and the red stores. They were called that because of the basic impression of what the color was, Nither of them had a name. I think the red store lasted longer. They were just small confectioners trying to make a living at retail. They did not have soda bars like Johnnies.
The store on the corner of Mulane and Gartner was still there when we were kids. We called it the "little store" as opposed to going all the way to the big grocery stores.
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