First Friendships, First jobs

          I met my best friend Ruby when we were both 5 years old.  She had just moved onto the block and was a tough little kid with three older brothers and a very strict father. As I walked up the street toward her she immediately started a fight with me.  That was her way of saying "Hello, don’t mess with me." Luckily her mom was looking out the window of their 4th floor apartment and called down to us. "Don't fight—buy ice cream!'' she shouted, and she threw down a napkin with six cents. We were thrilled, and raced to the candy store. As we enjoyed the treat we started talking and immediately became friends. The neighborhood was known to be a stronghold of the mob, but instead of being scary that always made us feel safe as we became teens because we were known as "good girls from the neighborhood." There were always a number of older guys hanging out in front of the social club on the corner and nobody better ever bother us.

                                                     ( This isn't me & Ruby, but it could be!)

          As I said, Ruby’s father was very strict. He wouldn't allow her to go to any dances, even the one right across the street from their apartment which he could watch from his window. To get her to come out at night I wrapped up a gift box and told him it was my cousin's birthday, and couldn’t Ruby come over for a piece of cake? That worked once, twice, but when we tried it a third time, he raised an eyebrow at me and said, "So Tina, you have a lot of cousins.” It was time for a new scheme.

When Ruby’s mom threatened to tell her father what we did, Ruby called her a stoolpigeon. Ruby’s mother was Italian and not familiar with American slang. She told Ruby’s father, "She calla me a pigeon!"

FIRST JOB

The summer Ruby and I were twelve we were roller-skating along Pleasant Avenue when we saw a sign in a store window that said “Girls Wanted.”  We both pulled off our skates and went in. They were making artificial flowers and put us to work right away making poinsettias.  It was really easy and they said it paid 25 cents a gross. We finished a few gross and were paid right away.

Poinsettias were easy--yellow plastic piece, red petals, green leaves.

I couldn’t wait to get home and tell my mom. I said to her “Guess what?  Today I am a woman!”  She thought I meant I had gotten my period, and I said, “No, today I got a job!” Well the next day we went back and they put us on roses. We had to twist the roses onto the stems. The third day two men came in and demanded, “Who’s Tina?” I stood up and they dumped two big boxes at my feet. Apparently I was no good at twisting hard, because all the roses fell off their stems. So much for that job.

Roses were trickier--I was fired the next day.

My grandfather was working at Tripler, an upscale men’s shop on Madison Avenue in Manhattan.  He got this great idea to bring me to work there.  They had me sewing initials on socks, which was impossible because I could never sew well.  I learned, however, to hang up suits and that’s what I did.

Tripler's Men's Clothing Store

The best part of working at Tripler's was having lunch every day at Chock Full of Nuts.  I heard recently that the franchise is possibly coming back to New York, which was like music to my ears. I’ve been waiting 50 years for another Chock Full of Nuts cream cheese on date nut bread sandwich.  Yum!

cream cheese on date nut bread - a Chock Full O'Nuts specialty

(Editor's Note: My mom and Ruby are still friends to this day. We recently went to Ruby's and her husband Al's 50th anniversary party. When they brought out the anniversary cake and ice cream, Ruby looked at my mom and said, "Don't fight--buy ice cream!" They are still so cute together.)