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| Earl's Market - Miami - Allapattah, Old Miami & Past Memories - Sneakykitchen Forums | |||||||||||||||
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Marvin Mobley Guest
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Earl's Market at 79th and 22nd Ave.... My mother was a close friend of Earl and family, and worked many years for Earl, not in the market but in the Lunch Room. She was working there in Dec.1955, when I returned after a 4 year tour in the Air Force in Germany. I shocked and surprised her as I walked into the lunchroom unannounced, after driving down from New York. Between Dec. 55 and Feb. 56, I would pick her up at 3 PM and we would race out 79th street to catch the last two races at Hialeah racetrack. She bet her horses, I bet mine, we came home winners each time. Earl, later died of a heart attack I believe, and sadly after that, without his guidance, I think the business was sold. Fredrick's Supermarket east of 7th Ave/ on 62nd St. was the original discount box store, we drove there from Allapattah every Saturday night to purchase the weeks groceries. Folks worked 5 and 1/2 days back then, so Saturday night was shopping time. We kids had to sit out in the car and wait for mom and dad to shop, I can still smell the sharp Granny apple and banana scents that came out of the pale green shopping bags.... we were excited, as a bag of candy was always tucked away in one of the bags. Pop had to fuss at us, not to damage anything in our search. Somewhere between 62nd street and 54th on 7th Ave. was an open air vegetable, and poultry market; we used to buy fresh eggs, and pick out the live chicken for Sunday Dinner. They would chop off its head, pluck and clean it and wrap it in white paper off the huge roll. Back then things were tied with string, no tape available then.. Also, I can still smell the oak wood cooked washtubs full of barbecued ribs and chickens on 7th Ave, between 54th and 62nd.(Liberty city) as the black folks tried to make a few extra bucks selling to cars driving past. I recall the sounds of spiritual music coming out of black churches also. You could buy from the barbecue stands, a coke bottle of moonshine for 50 cents. Last edited on Sun Feb 8th, 2004 07:04 am by bessnfloyd |
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bessnfloyd Administrator
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I don't know if things changed before 1958, but that was no Fredrick's when we moved to Miami - it was Shell City. It was two stories high, and there was a balcony around the second floor with beauty shops, insurance companies, accounting offices and all kinds of stuff. This was the original big discount store when we first came to Miami. I do believe, however, that it was a Fredrick's that opened shortly after on 27th Ave. at about the same street. It was much more modern than Shells, and anyway between the changing population and the fact that I-95 had just been built smack up against Shells, that market declined and went out of business. The Fredrick's (or whatever it was) on 27th Ave was enormous too, and had the most wonderful produce, and fresh seafood on mounds of ice. The produce wasn't pre-packaged, so you could pick it over and take the best. I'd forgotten about the butcher's string. What a memory that brings back! During World War II in many places, due to the paper shortage, a piece of waxed paper was used, and then the entire package wrapped in used newspaper in many places. In fact, I remember we'd save our newspaper sometimes and take it along to wrap the meat in. Remember when we had to save foil, mashed into balls, to help the war effort? How many remember the tiny contribution of peeling the foil off the wax paper from a stick of chewing gum to add to the household foil ball? My dad sometimes delivered papers for extra income, and taught me to roll the newspaper, take a double wrap of string and then run my hand down the string to "tie" it by rolling, something many butchers did too. He also showed me how to stomp the brake just as one threw the paper to halt the forward momentum, so one could "spot" the paper. A good arm and aim could hit the base of the screen door with a satisfying thunk. I used the same technique later by bicycle and taught it to my kids, and later to my husband (in the car) when he was temporarily out of work and took a route. Hell on brakes, clutches and transmissions, though. My son never quite got it and complaints were rampant although the customers all liked him. I was pretty good, although once at early dawn an elderly lady customer raised up from behind her hedge where she was weeding just as I threw the paper from my bike, and I got her smack in the chops! By the seventies, of course, the papers were bagged in plastic. My husband later went to work as a circulation supervisor, teaching others to deliver, and it was a source of satisfaction that, in his fifties, he could out-throw and out-run in apartment complexes and up-and-down stairs many a hunk of a guy in his twenties. Often he lost them along the way and they gave up right then. The tubs of ribs we used to buy from were on 27th Ave at some address around maybe 56th St, a big old church with a side yard. They had benches made of planks on concrete blocks, and we'd stay and eat while it was hot. Fantastic! When the rioting and civil unrest began at the end of the sixties, we had to stop for safety reasons. By the way, hubby Floyd was in the Air Force in the fifties and early sixties, a 1st Lt., Navigator, in SAC. Never went further overseas than Greenland, though. He didn't retire, only spent about 7 1/2 yrs in service. Most of his and my family are Air Force, except for many that served as civilian employees, but my daughter went Navy as it had better opportunities for women. Her husband retired Navy but she got a buyout when then decided to close the Orlando base, where they trained nukes and things like accounting, which is what my daughter did. What did you do in the Air Force? Last edited on Sun Feb 8th, 2004 07:05 am by bessnfloyd ____________________ Bess W. |
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Marvin Mobley Msgt USAF retired Guest
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See the Miami Police Department Veterans site. Remember when you old, old-timers worked a 48 hour week and were paid about $1.40 an hour and had the respect of the entire community ? An then us newer old-timers worked a 40 hour week and earned about $1.80 and hour and also earned that same respect? When we were paid $2.50 and hour for directing traffic at a Bank or Super Market like Fredrick's on N.W. 62nd Street and N.W. 6th Court? When we got a $50.00 a month raise in 1957 and everybody thought we were rich? The old Fredrick's was on a railroad siding and received whole cars of merchandise direct from the manufacturer, enabling them to sell cheaper then competing stores. .Mack's market, a small open air market was on 17th Ave about, 42nd or 43rd Street. You folks keep bringing up these memories, and I will never be able to see this computer screen for the tears...86 Last edited on Sun Feb 8th, 2004 07:06 am by bessnfloyd |
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bessnfloyd Administrator
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There was certainly a lot of good back then, and a lot of bad too, when one is honest. A lot of it was that we were younger, and had our future - and our health, hopes and expectations - before us. Now you and I look back with nostalgia and hopefully with satisfaction, acceptance, and few regrets. That's life! Some of the bad things: women earned a lot less than men, and blacks a whole lot less than that with very little respect involved - usually quite the contrary. There were lots of diseases not yet under control - remember the polio and diphtheria epidemics, and even yellow fever and dengue. And dangerous chemicals and substances around we didn't know would cause cancer later on. No air conditioning, and nights were so hot, one could scarcely sleep even with a fan on until about 3 or 4 AM. Women were lucky to earn $25 or $30 a week in the fifties and even into the sixties, and had to put up with a lot. Tax and social security came out of that, and health insurance wasn't commonly available. If you were careful, $5 to $8 a week went for a room or tiny apartment, the same amount for groceries, with the rest eked out for amusement, medical, personal necessities, clothes, makeup, transportation and so on. In Florida, one was usually laid off in the summer, or hours cut in half (and salary too), creating horrid problems. It's no wonder that so much effort went into trying to "snag a man". Men were "top dog", but also had the responsibility of earning a living for wife and children (birth control was still dicey), whereas now women usually pitch in and work too, and also help "wear the pants" in the family. Unfortunately, for every problem solved, another is usually created. Like latchkey kids, high rates of juvenile delinquency, crowded schools, complications from vaccines received decades ago, tasteless food like rock-hard tomatoes, junk-food diets, abominable traffic with air pollution to match, AIDS..... Remember the flavor of tomatoes picked ripe off the vine, still warm from the sun, down in Homestead? And the strawberries? We'd eat a bunch of them out of hand, juice running down our chins, before we got them home. And pole beans just off the vine, cooked with a slab of real smoked ham and new potatoes? Recently a Swiss friend visited and brought a box of REAL chocolate! Not the imitation stuff that passes for it in most sweets nowadays. Bet it cost him a mint, too! Last edited on Sun Feb 8th, 2004 07:06 am by bessnfloyd ____________________ Bess W. |
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Fredrick's Guest
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Hello, Do you have anymore info on the Fredrick's Supermarkets? They also hadin-store pharmacies, right? Food Fair Stores bought them but I do not know when. Also, ay backround on the original owners and how many stores they had. I know that Fredrick's stores were huge and very advanced for their time. Thanks, Steve P.S.my email is fritspen@hotmail.com (please, no spam?) 
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m_clendenen Guest
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I was born in Miami in 1940 and lived there until we moved to Eau Gallie in 1957. Shells, Earls, and Frederichs all bring back fond memories. Also Talley's market on 17th Avenue just off 20th street near the first Dairy Queen I can remember. We bought war bonds to support the war effort, went with my dad to have the headlights of our 1939 Olds painted so the "enemy" couldn't see the light on the street if they flew over. Also remember the warden going through the neighborhood blowing his whistle if he could see any light peeking out of the blackout curtains. More fond memories of having to put shoes back on the first day of school, feeling safe riding my bike any place I could think to go, stopping along the Miami river to watch the bridges go up to let sailboats through, buying iced spice loaf cake at the A&P and having to wait until we got home to open it, watching the Kent cigarette demos at the market showing how safe they were compared to other brands. Entertainment consisted of listening to Bobby Benson and the B-Bar-B Riders, Sky King, The Shadow, Boston Blackie, Mr. Keen Tracer of Lost Persons, Our Miss Brooks, The Great Gildersleeve, and of course the Grand Old Opry for my Dad. A lot changed quickly. I went back in 1965 and stopped at a roadside park on the way to Crandon Park. A police car pulled in behind me to check to see what was wrong. I explained that I used to live around there and was going to have lunch. He said "well, a lot has changed. I'll just sit here until you're finished." All of a sudden my lunch lost its taste and I drove off. Doubt if I will ever go back. Michael in Taiwan
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bessnfloyd Administrator
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Earl's Market was still here when we came to Miami and on several occasions we shopped there. I seem to recall it burned down or was damaged by fire more than once during periods of unrest in Miami. It's no longer listed in the telephone book; I don't know if it is gone or just renamed. Perhaps someone can tell us. Dade County Pine is indeed an unusual wood. I'll never forget my initial experience with it. Our first home in Allapattah was an apartment in an old building made of Dade County Pine. Originally it had an open porch across the front, but someone had closed that in with those ugly metal jalousies. It was so narrow we used it for storage and for the children to play. I got the idea to hang up our tools on nails. Let me say I had a strong arm and good aim with a hammer. So I got a good sized spike nail, held it up to the wall and gave it a good whack. The nail went "sproing" and shot across the porch, hitting the metal jalousies. I examined the wood. Hardly a dent. So I got the nail back and tried again. Same thing. I tried a couple more spots with different nails, losing or bending some in the process. I went and found our landlord and asked what the heck was going on? He explained about Dade County Pine. I learned that by far the safest thing to do with old, well-seasoned thick D. C. Pine is to drill a starter hole. Dade County Pine is impractical to work with when dry and seasoned, which is one of several reasons it was worked while green. When I was doing renovations on our properties, I used all carbon-tipped saw blades and hardened drill bits. Other homes were made of a combination of coral rock, which is the entire bedrock of Miami, and of Dade County Pine; many of these houses are still standing. Our present house - the original part - was made out of Dade County Pine, although later additions, built by someone who should never had been allowed near a hammer and saw, were constructed with scrap wood and has been rebuilt at least twice, the second time permanently with pressure-treated wood alongside or replacing the soft untreated pine the hapless un-carpenter used. While not immune to rot or termite damage, D.C. Pine is quite resistant, especially the core. An almost three-foot wide, six-inch high stump remains under a room of our house, probably one of those cut down to provide wood for its building, and will be there until in some distant future, if our house is razed, someone has to dynamite it out. Dade County Pine is nearly extinct now; most of the remaining and protected ones were destroyed in Hurricane Andrew in 1992. There are several programs to replant this important and useful tree. There were several builders active in this area from about 1918 through to the heart of the depression. Most used Dade County Pine, some building clapboard houses with pitched roofs, often of tin, and others flat-roofed Spanish-style, sometimes large and ornate, other times boxy two-bedroom economy homes, stuccoed in rough texture and adorned with scrolls and trim along the roof edge. Apartments and businesses were built the same way. Mr. Pixley was one of these builders; he built both our home and a rental property we own. He also built a store at the corner of NW 28th Street and 22nd Court, right across from what was then the first A & P Market. I believe it was a dry goods and sundries store but I'm not positive. His name is still on the front in a decorative scroll. As a tribute to his building, when it was set on fire a few years back and one wall and part of the roof completely collapsed, it was completely repairable, and once again houses a business with several apartments upstairs. He would be pleased! Back then, NW 36th Street was a narrow road with a few businesses, utilized mostly as a route to the distant (!) Miami International Airport, and the area around NW 22 Ave and 28th Street was a major business center, with a drugstore/soda fountain, a bar, a barber shop and beauty parlor, and a radio sales and repair shop as well as a few more small businesses. Mr. Pixley brought his mother to Miami, and settled her in what is now our rental house. Back then most of the homes in this section of Allapattah were situated, by agreement between the builders, to be staggered for maximum air circulation, peace and quiet and privacy. One house would be near the sidewalk, the next at the back of the lot on the alley. Mrs. Pixley's house was on the alley, which irritated her to no end, as her favorite occupation was to sit and watch the street and see who went by. Instead of building her another house, Mr. Pixley moved the whole house, one of the larger ones in the neighborhood, to the front of the lot, and built her a front porch on which she could sit vigil. In the rear he utilized the electric and water connections to build a large laundry and storage house, made of Dade County Pine. Let me assure you that if (when) another "Hurricane Andrew" strikes Allapattah, that is one building that will be still standing for sure! We knew Mr. Pixley personally in his much later years, as he was a Fuller Brush customer. continued....
____________________ Bess W. |
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| Sneakykitchen Forums > Allapattah, Old Miami & Past Memories > Miami > Earl's Market | |
