Directly across from School #4, was Josh Wolin’s Hardware where you could find just about anything, and free advice on how to fix it. A little north of Wolin’s was the Carvel Ice Cream stand. What memories of Flying Saucers after a ball game in the 60s when my son, Ken, was on a winning Little League team.

After this block of stores, there were a number of lots with billboards on them. We used to climb to the top and stand on a board about a foot wide and 20-feet high and see who could pee the farthest. We sure were crazy kids. I still wonder what people driving by thought.

On the corner of Seaman and Grand was a drug store with a gas station on the north side. There was a row of stores between Seaman and the next block called Newton Avenue. I lived there for a while. One of the stores was an A&P that, in those days, received deliveries of fresh bread and milk in a wicker basket with the milk cartons outside. We used to camp overnight in the woods by the brook between Baldwin and Freeport. In the morning, we’d walk up Newton Ave. to the A&P and grab a loaf of bread and a bottle of milk for breakfast. We never got caught and I often wonder if the store manager was aware of what we were doing and overlooked it. There was a butcher shop on the corner of Grand and Newton, where I remember my mother sending me to get “lights” for the cat.  I still don’t know what “lights” are. I don’t think I want to.

Part II of Ed Manck’s memoir will run in next week’s Herald.