and i say that with all fondness and respect. there were 2 grocers on the ave plus buba's who was down the hill(from the junk man) and as i said before about 3 blocks from the steel mill.
as you walled from grandma's the nex block were houses with Mrs chundek a friend of my grandparent's, probably someone they new from Europe. the begining of hte nexr block was the borough building which is how Brackenridge was incorporated this is where you paid your utilities. before you got there, on the preceding block was Buchec's Buick-Cadillac. Where my dad got his 1956 caddy sildandivile(sic) -loaded. this was how they showed off their "status," of having riches or success.What I remember about the owner was he had a son who acted like a sissy-so he made him wear a pink chifon dress and stand outside of the store. Tell me who was the sick one. next block, in the midddle of houses was Davadek's grocery and butcher shop. we did some, but very little shoping here. Then in the next block was Wike's grocery store, and the butcher shop was in the back, and as usual, all the floors were untreated wood planks. The butchers were jewish brothers who slaughtered and cut up all of their meat-cows, lambs, chickens-you named it. Their wife's and daughters-cashiers, front door. A Rabbi came and blessed the cattle before they were killed. I loved Joe and he loved fish and my mother. Fish to eat; my mom and probably every other female customer to flirt with since they agreed to few extra ounces of meat when Joe weighed it. If you ordered a pound you got 17 ounces and the sheepish(no pun intended) smile and question:"it's 17 oz., is that ok? of course, he loved you, especially your wallet. My family were fisherman, mainly musky's and we always went to Joe to "officially weigh and measure the length of the big fish. Naturally, the fish lost weight and shrunk on the way home from Tionesta river and dam.Seriously! All river's damed up by the Army corp of engineers were given Indian names-Kinzua, Pymatuming, etc. I swear if your faucet leaked and you could not stop it, they would come in, map it out, dam it up and make a lake. They might even give you the honor of giving it it's Indian name.
Joe loved fish. so after we did the measurements and saved the head for taxidermy mounting, it was given to Joe. (My uncle Steve, then brother bill, took a mail taxidermist course, since it could get expensive. Actually, they were really good at it. Just fish, no animals.) In return, Joe always gave us the best cuts of meats. with a few extra ounces. naturally. I always watched his thumb when he piled meats on the scale. He had throat cancer and spoke with a raspy voice. When mom and I married, I took her in to show her off and introduce her to Joe. "Always treat your wife like a queen, he told me. OK, i said. "You want to know why, he asked? Not waiting for me to ask, why? "Because that makes you the 'King'" And you know what, he is right. We should treat each other like royalty-that's what the gospel teaches. How do we expect to become "kings and queens, etc.etc." if we don't do it every day now? We are not all of a sudden going to say in the hereafter, "hello my lordship!" or "hi Miss Queen!" Let's go make a few prince's and princess's:) Never knew how long Wike's held out against the supermarkets. The business downfall, as I said before, was the Heights Plaza. Side Note: There was Natrona (where I went to school-the valley or flat lands and then the "heights." We would call the height "duck town" because in the early times, everyone had chicken and ducks fenced in the back yard. Uncle Steve-grandparent's second son would get mad as a dog with rabies when we used the term, "duck town," because he built a new house on 10th Avenue in the heights-a sign of prestige. Even though, as an electrician for PPG,(the glass co.) he "borrowed" almost all the wiring for his house from the company. He would strip to his undies and his co workers would wrap electric wire around him. He would then get dressed and walk right past the guard house-except one time, the wire was so tight, he almost pasted out by the time he got to his car. Hey, it's a big company and they can afford a few 1,000 dollars of wiring. Just like my granddad's 3# coffee can of single edge razor blades! Remember, we got death bed repentance if in a bind, down the road of life. Next St Joseph church and school-where punishment was expected and the punisher's loved to dole it out. I remember a nun always beating this one kid on the knuckle's to try and get him to stop writing left-handed.
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