Remember those runs to the store... for your grandparents... post your memories too... enjoy!
Hello my friends,
I can remember going on my afternoon run for my grandfather... the list was always the same... a quart bottle of Ballantine Beer or Ale... "Don’t get anything else... if they don't have Ballantine they're useless!"... he would say...
In addition, I had to get all of the newspapers...
And back then, we are talking about...
The Daily News, the Daily Mirror, the Journal American, the Herald Tribune, the New York Times and the Chief... now I have to tell ya... I absolutely dreaded that run on a Sunday! There I was carrying a large brown paper shopping bag in one hand... containing the two quart bottles of Ballantine... and I only got that because I had a note from Grandfather... and Connie (of Connie’s Deli knew my family and knew also that I was on the up & up as he would say...) and balancing all of those newspapers under my other arm....
The Old Man was the best "read guy" in town... no doubt about it... he was up on all local, city, national and international events... and then of course, I would have to stay and listen to him read out loud from the newspaper... but, I loved every minute of it!
Also, in addition to the quart of Ballantine Beer or Ale depending on what the deli had... no cans mind you, only in a bottle... Grandpa would always say "...don't want to ruin the taste boy... beer is never colder than it is in a bottle... always remember that... when your time comes" (and of course as I started to get older I wondered all the way to Connie's and back -- just when would my time come?).... I would also have to get Bugle Boy or Granger Tobacco and a pack of rolling papers... and occasionally... Prince Albert in a can... at Christmas time it was a box of Dutch Masters' Blunts.... thank God - Eli at Eli's Soda Fountain on the corner of Thayer Street and Nagle Avenue knew me and the family well... no questions were asked (like at Connie's) when buying the tobacco and papers...
Ahh, those were the days my friends... because at the end of my little sojourn to the stores on Nagle Avenue and to the news stand on Dyckman Street was a big bright and shiny .50 cent piece... old Ben Franklin himself right there on a half-a-buck!...
Man... I was rich... I mean I was rolling... I could buy one, two, no maybe even three Dad's Root Beers.... I could go to the Loews Inwood... the Alpine or...
yep, you all know me by now... to Schillingmann's for an ice cream soda or a cup of hot chocolate with the little cookie! I will never ever forget that little cookie I always thought it was the height of elegance!
Ahh, the memories come flooding back... the sunshine is bright upon all of "OUR INWOOD" and we're all together making a run for Grandpa or Grandma... and the future ahead is as bright... as a new half-a-buck... and full of...
Peace,
Inwood Guy
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