Ed Manck: Memories of Baldwin

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Down Grand Ave. was DeMott Ave., and on the corner was Dr. Ehrlick’s office. He was related to the famous Dr. Ehrlick who discovered the cure for syphilis. The doctor had a pretty daughter. Come to think of it, I double dated with her and a friend.

Further down on Grand was a bar and grill named “Unter Den Linten.” This was a great German bar and I remember the owner shot a deer and served venison sauerbraten free of charge. They had a beautiful huge hand carved “hunter” clock on the wall. It had rabbits and oak leaves carved all over it.

Where the high school is now was the Milburn Country Club, which was a private golf course. It was an exclusive 18-hole course and many Hollywood personalities played there. I caddied on the course and I almost killed myself trying to carry “doubles”(two bags at once.) The golf course was a favorite for all the kids in the winter when the snow was on the ground. There was one hole that was very hilly and would give us a great ride.

Further down on the left side was School #4 where I met my buddy Charlie Mautner in grade four or five. We became lifelong friends until Charlie stepped on a land mine during WWII. He is buried in Pinelawn next to his brother, John. Charlie and I used to have a competition to see who could run from our homes to the Casino Pool in Freeport without stopping.

What fun we had at the “Casino.” I remember playing “cutting corners,” where we would play tag, but we couldn’t run around a corner. We had to dive across them and if we touched a diving board, we had to jump off it. After a day at the pool, we sometimes went to the Texas Special on Sunrise Highway and at night to the Plaza Theater. I remember the theater had latticework with fake leaves on it. During the movie, someone invariably hit the lattice to shake the dust off and a whole section of the theater would start sneezing. Great fun for a couple of young kids, but today they would send us to jail.

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