Memoirs of Norbert E. Gnadinger, Sr. Volume 1

1924

Once again I have to state my approach when writing these Memoirs. I have memories to report but they are short and fleeting. For instance, this is the year I remember the Coopers moving their furniture out of storage in our basement at 1027 Ellison Ave. That is still in my mind and very clear. I suppose this memory occurred in 1924. We had a neighbor who lived behind us on Reutlinger St. Her name was Mrs. Campion and we went to school with her children at St. Vincent de Paul. With the help of Mom and Aunt Rose who constantly repeated this story, I do remember. It seems I wandered away from the yard and ended up in the Campion’s front yard. There, being worn out from the long walk, I lay down on the grass and took a nap in the hot sun. Mrs. Campion seeing me laying there brought out an umbrella and put it over me. At the time I couldn’t figure what all the laughter was about. Remember, there was hardly any automobile or wagon traffic at that time and no one worried about me wandering around by myself. They looked out for each other.

When I was about six or seven I sat in the middle of the street where Ellison Ave., Reutlinger, Thomas and Spratt Sts. joined, playing with a Top which my Aunt Rose Schuster of Charles Street had just given me. You don’t know what a Top is? A Top is a toy about four inches high, shaped like a Hot-Air balloon with a metal, needle point on the lower end. You grip it, wrap a string about two feet long around it beginning at the lower end. You grip the free end of the string, hold the Top in one hand and toss the Top out on the pavement while pulling back hard on the string. If you are successful the Top should land on its’ point and begin spinning. Simple, and the Top often would spin a couple of minutes (I wasn’t very good at it). Yes, this could be fun until a truck came along and you had to move.

I mentioned the vacant lots behind our house while discussing “coal cinders” that we dumped there. I had never wondered before why these building lots, about four wide, extended all the way from Reutlinger St. back to Beargrass Creek, a distance of over four city blocks. I wonder now if there might have been a right-away under them for a sewer or water line (?). Of course, the ground was like a gully and did need filling in with dirt (and cinders). Later, after I left the neighborhood, new houses were built which covered the entire area. There were walking paths all through this land and it was used as a short-cut to Fisher, Rammers and Schiller Sts., and to visit the Steinmetz’s on Schiller next to Beargrass Creek. (Helen’s brother, Allen Joseph Buchter, Born, May 1, 1924)

At this point, I must begin writing some comments about my second oldest brother, Bernie. He was now fourteen years old and at this period in time had made no special impression on me. I do know that he had belonged to the Boy Scouts of America for everyone talked about the fact that Mom had taken the Scout Troop on several of their overnight outings. One of those outings was to an Island in the Ohio River just below Harrods Creek. This Island was washed away during the 1937 flood. I had heard that he had attended “Spencerian College”, probably just a glorified high school at that time, which taught business courses (typing, shorthand, etc.)(?). My memories of Bernie began when he was sixteen and began working for the Piggly-Wiggly grocery chain. You may not have heard of the Piggly-Wiggly, but there are still some scattered about the United States. I remember visiting with Bernie in the store. He could have been baby-sitting with me.

I can describe shopping in these early Super-Markets. First of all, the clerk, manager and the butcher did all the work (?), literally. The store was huge for the times. Probably thirty feet wide and forty foot deep with a storage room in the back. There were no check-out lanes and sometimes no Cash Register. There were shelves around the walls which held canned goods and other goods which were sold in glass jars. In the center of the “store” were placed the items which were sold in “bulk”, or, from their original shipping containers such as flour, sugar, eggs, crackers, coffee, tea, pickles, oysters in brine or smoked, etc., etc. The shipping containers were usually barrels, wood boxes and heavy cardboard. There was a counter where the clerk worked. You approached this counter, gave the clerk your order and he filled bags and water proof containers with your goods. The water proof containers were of various sizes such as half-pints, pints, quarts, etc. They were of white cardboard with a four flap closure on top and a wire handle. Ice cream was also packed in these and I have recently seen these containers being used for take-out Chinese food. All the coffee came in bean form and you used the stores Coffee Grinder to get the “grind” you wanted. Or, you ground the beans at home in your personal, portable, grinder. In the back of the store front was the meat department. Your meat order was cut and wrapped in butcher paper and the price was written on the package. Bernie then assembled all the packages, “toted-up” the cost, put everything in a carton or bag and you paid the total cost and he would carry the package out to a toy wagon or other conveyance you might have to move the groceries to your home. These “super-markets” were still just neighborhood stores owned by a chain or corporation. (10/4/2000)

Bernie never married but he was quite a ladies-man in his early life. He wouldn’t admit this in his later years. I do remember him taking dancing lessons and he had many girl friends. I believe he would have married a Loraine Lindauer from Cloverport, Ky. (?) but she was not Catholic (?) and the family discouraged this union (?). There were many other girls he became serious with but for some reason he didn’t “pop-the-question” or the girls refused his offer (see later entry concerning this problem).

Bernie worked at C. Lee Cook Mfg. Co. with Pop for a short time but he was laid-off at the beginning of the Great Depression. He had even started back to school at the Theo. Ahrens Trade School to gain more knowledge in learning to be a machinist apprentice but he had to drop out and he went back to the grocery business. Later he was hired at the American Standard Plumbing Supply Company from which he drew his retirement. While at the “Standard”, he became involved with the Union as an organizer and later became a Union Steward. It seemed he was always traveling to other cities on union business and conventions. (I still have a post-card that Bernie sent to our house from Washington, D.C. in 1951). I thought he was really something for on a lot of these trips he traveled by airplane. This was very special at that time. These good times for Bernie came to an end when he was seriously injured on the job and was on sick leave for over a year. I will go into this happening in detail later in this memoir. (10-08-2000)