Pittsburgh’s South Side Sally

Oh, oh, to be a kid on the Southside on October 31 in the 1950’s!!!!!!  What a kid delight.  Houses so close together, we went from one house to another for blocks.  Shopping bags full of candy.  Oh boy the loot we took in.  We even made drop offs at home and continued when the loot got too heavy.  Oh yes.  then the count:  How many Mars bar?  Big ones, regular sized and the minatures.  Then how many Almond Joys, how many Hersey’s, how many boxes of dots, Mike and Ikes,  It was like a contest,  how many did Ken get?  Rosemary was a little too young to compete in the heavy duty contests.  Then too my friends, cousins and neighbors,  we compared how many  various types of bars, boxes.  Apples and Oranges were not held in high regard, since Mom and Dad always had them around the house.

Getting dressed up too I guess was okay, but boy do I remember the door to door trick or treat. Too their was always a Halloween Parade on Carson Street.  Sometimes we would go and look.  Larkins Way…..I remember people coming and dropping their kids off by car.  I guess some neighborhoods were better than others for Trick or Treating.

South Side was always the BEST!

Happy Happy Halloween to Everyone.

South Side Sallhy

Sara and I had coffee at the Beehive Cafe on the South Side South 14th and Carson.  The place is very electic.  I remember when this was Lando’s Rexall Drug Store.  Lando’s was there for what seemed like forever.  I remember going down to the drugstore on my bicycle to get stuff for my mom.  Back then you could park your bike on the sidewalk and leave it there.  No one would bother it.  I’m not sure of today.  I don’t think I would leave my bike outside a store today.

THE MILL STORE
The Pittsburgh Mercantile in my memory was  the J&L mill store.  Here workers could purchase things and then have payments taken from their paychecks at the mill. One of my best friends Carol Ann told me about this.  Funny I remember in the late 1950’s she told me her dad said the mill would close in 20 years.  She said for me not to tell anyone.  Funny how some of these childhood items come true.

I remember you could buy anything at that store.  They had a very good grocery store on the first floor that bordered I believe South 26th Street.  The store had mink stoles, diamond rings, on the first floor. There was also a soda fountain counter on the first floor for great cherry cokes. On the second or third floor  a full shoe store complete with an x-ray machine.  I remember sticking my feet into that machine lots to look at the bones in my feet.  I hope I didn’t get too much radiation.  The department manager yelled at us, but my brother and I went back when he wasn’t around.  The furniture department, I think was on the sixth floor.  There was a neat brass doored elevator one could ride up, then run down the steps back down.  This was one of the things Ken and I did for fun.