My Career Path, Continued

We would pack their bags and put them into our wagons, and either the customer would walk with you, or they would pay you and give you their address and we would take it to their house and put the bags on the front porch. Back then you didn't have to worry about someone stealing it off your front stoop or porch. Sometimes the order would be just to take it to the car, which wasn't too bad, but usually a smaller tip.
West and south of the store was where the richer people lived, good for tips. All of the east side were fair to good tips, all the north west was poorer people that lived in apartments, not too good for tips.
So my routine was to run home from school, do my homework and eat a snack. Then off to the Acme I went, I was usually there by five. I would work till they closed at 9, I made enough money to be able to bring home milk, bread, margarine, eggs, bacon, or what ever else my mom said she needed that day, oh, and cigarettes. Saturday was the best, I'd be there from 8:30 am to 10 pm. I would get two large pizzas on the way home and we'd sit and watch horror movies.
My mom would shop and cook for the whole Thompson family. We would go to the commissary at the Navel Yard in Pa. That's where all the old ships are kept in mothballs. She would keep me out of school that day and I would either stay at home with my brother and sister, or I could go along and take care of the kids while she was shopping. It depended on her mood that particular day. But she would bye enough food to feed five adults, two teenagers, and two children for a whole month. My grandmother and grandfather were paying the grocery bill, and she would have to go and clean their house twice a month. And I did what I could to help out. After I came home from work I would eat something saved from dinner, kept warm in the oven. Then I would do the dishes from the whole day. Sometimes I had to bath my brother and sister and get them into bed... Tomorrow promises a confession.

Correction From Yesterdays Blog, My Career Path

The next line of work I got into was home delivery. We had moved from New York to Upper Darby, Pa. My dad was over in Korea, and again we found ourselves without any money. Every time he went overseas, he'd find himself a Ma-mason to shack up with and we would stop getting the allotment checks.
My neighborhood was row after row after row of Row-houses, in modern day we call them Townhouses. Long Lane was where all the shops were. Oh man, I remember the butter cakes that we would get at the bakery, and everything was baked on the premises, when you walked in the door your taste buds would jump up and say, “feed me, feed me. Next door to that was the Jewish delicatessen, and over in one corner was a big wooden barrel filled with the biggest, fattest dill pickles, and yes, it was a nickel. There was a tailor, shoe maker and the candlestick maker, a movie theater that had a balcony and Saturday morning was a quarter to get in. There was always a cartoon, a short serial like the Lone Ranger, or Buck Rodgers, and then we'd see the movie. It was usually some Disney movie or Elvis Presley, beating up guys and singing to the gals. How many of you have a smile on your face right now?Come on, you KNOW what I'm talking about and if you don't, you don't know what your missing.
The other end of Long Lane was where the Acme grocery store, and that was where I had my little home delivery service. We were called baggers. We didn't work for the store, that would have been child labor. We provided our own wagons to put the bags in. We boys would line up out in front of the store with our wagons. When a register was open the next boy in line would go in and pack the shopper's bags until they got an order to take out, then the next guy moves in. The shopper could choose someone they like if they wanted to. They would tell that person before they went into shop. One of my Uncles took my wagon and reconditioned it for me, and then he painted it the most awful colors for a boy, pastel pink, green, and yellow. Talk about barfing. But he didn't tell me that those were his Shrines' colors. I didn't have time to listen to other fellows make fun of me, I was making too much money... cont.