I worked for Picadilly sportswear. I started as an errand boy.It was part of my job to go out for sandwiches. I pickrd up about 40 lunches a day. Finally I said this has got to pay me money. The guys gave me tips but I had to pay for my own lunch. I said, "bullshit."

I told the owner of the luncheonette, "I'm going to have to stop buying my lunches here."

He said, "Why."
I said, "your competitor says that if I buy lunches theree, my lunch will be free and he''ll give me a dollar besides."
The guy offered me five dollars and free lunch every day.
SO I said, "I'll take the five dollars."

Somebody hears me tell somebody that I got five dollars.
The guy said, "you're buying our sandwiches and you're getting five dollars for it?"
I said, "yes."
He said they should get something off the sandwich prices.
I said, "I'll stop getting the sandwiches. I've got news for you. I stop getting the sandwiches and you guys will be in trouble."
I went to the guy who sold the sandwiches, and said, "they're raising hell about my getting sandwiches.

He said, "I'll give you ten dollars."

so i started getting the the sandwiches for $10 a week.
One of the guys heard I was getting $10 and said, "I'm going to tell them you're getting money for this"

And I said if you can tell them with a broken jaw, go ahead."

Also in my career I went to work for another group, Smilen Brothers. They called themselves fruiterers of distinction, . I worked on and off with them for a number of years.
I waited on trade. I sold them fruits and usually I imduced them to purchase a little more than what they came in for . . .not because I wanted them to get more healthy by eating more fruit.. We got little gifts for increased sales... I would get more prizes for selling fruit to them. At a certan point it was a habit which I kept up over the years.
I'd suggest we have a special this week only on McIntosh apples. If you like pears we have both this kind and that kind . You have a choice or you can have both. By speaking well of our selection it would induce them to get more fruit.
Also we got a percentage of money, fr selling over a certain quantity. This induced me to keep on talkng about our merchandise. I never tired of talking about new things..

I worked for them for many years until I became ill and then I had to stop working altogether.
I was well into the 1950s. As a result of a serious heart attack I was forced to slow down. I tried to convince every customer I was especially interested with them and I also tried to work well with my coworkers. One of the man things I tried to keep track of was knowing where the fruits came from and what seasonal fruit was approaching. There's a season for peaches, pears apples of different kinds. I decided to learn all I could for the foods I sold and pass that info on to my customers for bigger sales and more usage. If you can induce a women t put up preseves she might put buy 25 Poussin. or onions for pickling.

After I graduated from elementary school, I went to Boy's High. This was in 1925,I was t herea week but could n't continue my family needed me to go to work. I went to work as a Western Union messenger. The first office i worked oat was locatred at 92 Wall Street. This station's was"RS." We covered the Wall St area. Frim Brioad ST to the water frontMost of the people ZI served were at steamship lines and brokerage firms-- mostly coffee tea and sugar. Whenever necessary I filled in at various officees in the city.
I was a meesseger also at the4 Equitable inthe 30s.uptown buiklding. I served a lot of tie in the fur and garment districts.

As a western union messengert I enjoyed meeting somr famous personalities. I met them whe niu delviered to telwerams to them. Some marked personal, had to be delivered directly to them and signed for by them.
The only one I remember was Biully deBeck. He was a cartoonist an he did Barney Google and sparkplug. Actually I rmember more about his giant dog.iI think it was was a bull mastiff. He lived in an apartment on W. 94h St not to far fro Rioverside Drive.

Incident in the Candy Store

We were a bunch of kiods just hanging around. Somebody said, "Let's go to Pop's Candy Store."
And another kid said, " Yeah let's help hom out wwith his candy." And everybody laughed.
We started to go.
In the store, I started to talking to the man behind the counter.
I asked him about the candy business and how muh the candy cost and what I would do when I grew up. If I should open a candy store.
Meantime the kids were going behin the counteer. The candy store man caught one of the boys stealing candy. The man immediatey stopped talking to me. He ran out and got a cop. We didn't know what he was doig. We thought he was scared. He cae back with a cop. SOme of the kids were there.
"Which one," Asked the cop.The man pointed at one of the ringleaders, and I didn't say anythng. I was worrying about what was going to happen to me if I was caught.

I fond an opportunity to slip out of the store and I ran home.
Later I learned that the cop had learned them they could only come in one at a time and hey had to show their money.
Later on, one asked me whaere I went.
"We all went home," I said. "I wait home too.
Later on in the evening. after supper. I met with some of theguyd andt they asked me wwhere I went.
I said I dont'st want to do that stuff.
Angelo said, "This Jew bastard knows what he's talking aboiut and I agree with him.
That was the first time I was called A "Jew Bastard" And I thanked him..I thought it was a compliment.
It felt good to be one of the boys.
But soon after, what with my bar mitzvah, I became a man.

Afteter that, I went to play with kids on another bloick.

Let me introduce you to the different people who help make a knitting mill run.
The firstthing you have to ma know is the material.
The winder winds yarn onto cones.A wiindig machine is operated by a person who, oddly enough, is called a "winder." After the yarn is put on the cone, she give it to the knitting department.
The mechanic chooses the correct yarn for the piece of material he has to knit.
The knitting machine has stands on which the cones sit. The mechanic puts the cones on the stands. Het hen runs it down to a "feed" attached to a cylinder on the machine. The appropriate number of needles are placed in slots. For example, a cylinder could accomodate 637 slots.
Then the mechanic starts the machine off. The emerging cloth is inspected by knitters constantly.
And if the cloth is all right, they fulfil;l the amount required.The designer comes in at the end after the cloth8 isade up. She checks the finished cloth to guarantee perfection.

Chapter Two

Watching the emerging cloth did not seem too exciting; but some of the stories the head mechanic, Charlie, told me were reasonably tawdry; and, if not true, were very exciting to a young lad of my tender age. However, in time to come I was to become accustomed to some chatter in his wild (?) exciting existence, which i found to be nothing more than an affectionate affair with John Barleycorn..I do believe some of his his tales belong in the library of Baron Munchhausen. But nevertheless I enjoyed them. He once told me about being in a house of ill repute and smoke was detected coming out of it somewhere and he had to race out of the premisses inhis underwear; and that some of the ladies he had known were gracious and even beautiful. All in all that he led an excitig life in adddition to taking care of the knitting machines.What I knew about him to be true was that he was a bachelor who hailed from upstate NewYork and he led a quiet life until the weekend when he blew all of his money on drink. He was quite a caroler of bawdy songs.
But beyond all of this excitement, he was still a great mechanic and proved to be a great friend.
One day, about a year after I started with the company, I was carrying some yarn to Charlie, Mr. Friedberg grabbed my arm, aand said, "Wait a minute, I want to tell you somthing."
He was always stopping me and saying "do this, or do that." I stopped, wondering what it would be this time.
"Look, you can work with Charlie on the msachines."
From then on I worked on the knitting macghine and was a knitter. Then began my days in earnest as a knitter, and I learned more and more each day about the skill.

Here's a change of pace.
I am now going to use my blog to write my novel.
I am writing this as I go along, making entries from time to time. This is a rough draft and may get changed as we go along. may change as we go along.
Hang on to your seats.

Chapter One
Listening to the whirring of the many machines and the clicking of the keys, denoting the difference in the weaving and designing of the garment, I turned to try to locate where it came from and was instantly surprised to note that it was from the many machines that were running at that point of time.
It was in the summer of 1927 and I was 16 amd entering a brand new world. I walked over to the machines to see what could see and was both terrified and amazed at what was happening. Ast he various threads were fed into the machine, new material came through the rollers and spilled neatly into a corner.
This was my first day at Fashion Knit. I was hired as an all around factory hand. They could ask me to do anything.
I was staring in wonder at the knitting machine, watching the cloth come out. I didn't knoiw what was going on but I was intrigued by the intricacies of the machinery which was turning around rapidly and producing knitting cloth..

I felt aa rude hand on my shoulder. It was the boss, Mr. Friedberg.
He shoved a brpoom into my hand and said, "Sanders, stop dreaming and start earning your pay."
My career had begun.
I was committed to sweeping the flooor and, as the days passed, an increasing amount of duties were pushed upon me. Each was preceded by a few minutes explanation and then I was left on my own. These included steaming the cloth before it goes to the cutter.
Then they decided I was to work under the head mechanic on the machines. (Actually they had only one mechanic.)
With each new set of instructions he gave me, I was then to do the work on my own. Fortunately he didn't abandon his post. He kept an eye on me and made pertinent intermittent observations \. He reminded me sternly to call him immediately if there were anything I didn't understand. His main order was that I watch the emerging cloth carefully.