greatSaturday

Another Saturday that started immediately at 10am with a customer...and ended at 6pm, with people milling around and browsing all day....Not a second passed that some customers were not browsing....although, the sales were not one would expect with so many people, but you never know when they will return. The irony is that one day this week, when the termperature and wind chill factor was near zero, one customer spent twice as much, as the total that all....these browsers spent today. But we are thankful that they were here..It is a good sign...and the more people who visit, the more chance that they will tell other people about the store.
One guy, who came with his family, told me that he gave Glen a hard time in the other store....bargaining him to death... I said really, we USUALLY THROW PEOPLE OUT WHO GIVE USW A HARD TIME!" I RETORTED...WHICH MEANT.... listen schmeckel, dont even think of giving me a hard time. He sort of tried, then he want me to break a pair of imported and carved French Deco chairs with real leather seats.....The Import tag from Paris was still on it.. I told him he could steal the chair from me for a mere $100...he said he only wanted one!!! Well.....i said NO!!!! BUT NICELY.....HE ALSO TURNED DOWN AN ANTIQUE 1880 TABLE FOR 100 DOLLARS......i dont quite understand...these were not poor people....and they didnt want to pay anything....I think people like this spend more on gasoline running around looking for bargains......than if they have paid more to start with....
Tonight I went to EL Cid's Spanish restaurant again.....after visiting the Heart DR, I was able to return to El Cids, with a new look at the menu. Now that I am on the Atkins diet, I cannot eat the rice and Spainish freind potaotes and mixed veggie that come with the dinner...nor, the bread...nor the Blue cheese dressing that happens to be the best in the WORLD...because of the salt content.....nor the sauted spinach...(salt content)...but their steaks are almost half of a cow....I ordered the sirloin steak with is 2 pounds...and the kind of meat you cant buy at the supermarkets..and they cook it exactly right....almost black on the outside and very red and juicy on the inside and very tender.....Bob ordered THREE LOBSTERS.. I traded him steak for a lobster.....he only wanted a small piece...so I was FILLED with lobster and steak and completely satisified..and low on carbs and salt. NOW THE IMPORTANCE of the story is NOT THE DELICIOUS FOOD>..but who sat down next to us.
Cindy G...and three men sat right next to us to our right. Cindy was one of my favorite students when I was a teacher...We started talking about the past and people, when some surprising things came to light. She was there for some very important times in my life, and I forgot.
One day in the 1970's, I stayed home from teaching becuase I had bronchitis....but since I already owned Grannys Attic , the store number was forwarded to my home. I didnt go to teach, becuase a teacher coughing his brains out...would only contaminate the kids....but when the call came to my home, that a lady needed to get rid of some antiques quickly, I left my home and went to pAssaic to her home, While in the Attic, I smelled smoke...very stronge smoke. I ran down the stairs, went outside to the street and saw a home a few doors down, with flames and smoke comming out of the attic.
I ran to find a fire alarm, stared at this for a moment...beucase I never pulled one of them before....PULLED IT, and then ran down the blow to hear a woman screaming MY BABY IS UP THERE!!! I ran up on the porch, but she screamed..dont go in.....I tried I couldnt get up the stairs....the smoke and heat was too intense, and I couldnt breather due to the bronchitis.....I returned to the woman screaming, trying to comfort her...I told here the firedept was on the way. I litereally held here up in my arms....as the building burned to the ground.....THE FIRE DEPARTMENT NEVER CAME UNTIL IT WAS TOO LATE.....BECAUSE THERE WAS A FALSE ALARM AT A LOCAL SCHOOL A FEW BLOCKS AWAY. I held her up, as another friend of hers stood next to me.I do not remember to many details....but I told her I would help her. I already felt guilty that I culdnt save her child...We were close to the building, with wind blowing the smoke and ashes in our directions and we were covered.....and smelled like a barbque pit, without the food.
When I returned home, I was very depressed. I felt that if I didnt have bronchitis maybe I could have saved the baby....but then again, if I didnt have bronchitis, I wouldnt have been there to even pull the fire alarm, I would have been in school teaching...and the entire incident would have been something I might have read in the newspaper, and maybe never would have even known about it..
The next day of school, I still was able to smell smoke in my nostrils.... I was still depressed. The thought of the baby buringing to death, as I stood outside bothered me. I found out that this mother WAS NOT EVEN AT HOME. THE BABY WAS THERE ALL ALONE...SHE WAS AT A FRIENDS HOUSE A FEW DOORS DOWN!
mY FIRST PERIOD eNGLISH CLASS CAME IN SAT DOWN... I remember sitting on the desk, and annouced to the kids...."I cant teach today....I have to tell you what happened yesterday....and they listened very intensly....I gave them every detail that I could.. I explain, that today, and the days that follow, might be one of the most important and interesting lessons I could ever share with them. I then explain to the kids, that the woman was black, poor, unmarried (she did know the father)...but know, she lost, not only her baby (she had two others that werent at home during the fire)...but she lost her home, clothes,and everything she own...She now had NOTHING at all. In a few weeks it would be thanksgiving....with nothing to be thankful about. I told the kids "not to judge" but to open their hearts..then I opened the classes up for discussion.....Finally I asked each class what they thought we could do as a group to make this womans life a little better>
Suddenly, these 7th graders became adults....Their suggestions all were thoughtful, kind, mature,nurturing, warm, caring......Basically they said that all of them could ask their parents if they had household items they could donate to this woman...I already had her clothing size and the childrens clothing size..which I gave out to the kids. Thenext morning, i saw a parade of my students, schlepping bags, boxes, and "things"...even furniture: a few dressers, chairs, a sofa, little tables...etc.. It looking like a flea market "en parade" By the end of the second day we had enough furniture, appliances, clothing, dishes, accessries, pictures, lamps, and food....and since, XMAS was only a month away, there were tons of toys and other gifts for the children. My students were Glowing.....the joy of giving..was so self evident...maybe for the first time in their life,
Then I suggested that after she gets her new home, we would make a THANKSgiving dinner in my home....invite her, her "boyfreind" the CIty inspector that I worked with to get her a new home" and the head of the Black Communty outreach program. I suggested that we run a lottery to pick 4 students who would come to my house as representatives of the school and all the children who helped. CINDY, was one of the winners...and she suggested that we collect money to make the dinner fabulous.....The money was collected and then stolen out of the locker of one of the kids who helped collect it.....but undaunted...the kids again collected money....and the dinner went on and was a huge success....looking back, I am shocked that I didnt take pictures for memories....to look back on.
When it was all over, one of the assignments I gave the children was to write about their learning experience from The fire and the aftermath, anding with the dinner. I am so happy to tell you, that most, if not all, wrote that they experineced the joy of giving, and how people as a group can accomplish so much..when they work for a common goal.... I then told them of the old folk tale about "Stone soup" One family during the potaote famine in IRELAND was starving. They had not soup...but the father was very clever.. He called in all the people from the village and said he knows how to make a soup with only a "ROCK" He filled a huge black iron cauldron with water and brought it to a boil, and then he said"I will put this special rock in it" It boiled for a while and he then tasted it, as all the people watched. He tasted it and said" Its ok, but it would taste better maybe if someone had a potato....just one potatoe...Well, someone spoke up and said he had a potatoe, and another village said I have one too" and they ran an got it, gave it to him, and he cut themup and threw them in" They boiled and he tasted it and said, much better. "but if we had a turnip, it wold helP , and a trunip was brought and added...Then he suggested if someone had a carrot or two, and it was brought....and then he said, if we has some salt, and then some pepper, and then if we had just a little celery, and then a tomatoe or two, and another family brought this and that. Then he ased if a little parsnip was available. It appeard. Then garlic, then, an onion or two....and parsely...and various other veggies appeard. Then he said "now if we had just one little chicken" and then if we had some beef bones....by the time he got done, this rock soup was thick and delicious Filled with veggies and meat..and a little oak meal to thicken it... A huge pot of soup, that would feed the entire village... was started with just a rock..and a good idea.....and the cooperation of all the people, was able to feed them......
CINDY then reminded me, that she worked as a waitress for me when GLEN and I owned GLENMAUR Catering...She remember in fine detail how e fed 300 people under a tent in PEAPACK NJ, a fund raiser for the NEW JERSEY SYMPHONY Orchestra...and what a fabulous success it was..The people went nuts for our food. I created new recipes just for the occasion and named it for them....and the two page spread in the NEWARK STAR LEDGER....which included raves and some of our recipes. I was so embarassed that my mind was able to block the memory that Cindy had been part of some of the best times in my life.