My adventure of doing my own thing, making my own pay and my own decisions, was for me this
'American dream' I had heard so much about while growing up! It was really possible to have a vision, work hard, and make a success of your life. This 'fruit truck' eventually became an 'sos' which folks from the South called a 'store on wheels'. We began carrying eggs, packaged lunch meats, toys @ Christmas, whole turkeys @ Thanksgiving, cookies and candy. With these additions came the moving away from the dollar concept to enable us a fair profit. This was an easier transition than I anticipated as our customers appreciated the bigger selection and our prices were still much better than most. Part of our success was consistency and quality and remember we took it to the city in every manner of weather conditions you could imagine. If you followed my last post you saw a pic of me dressed as a clown! I was also known to be the Easter Bunny and as Santa, (Ella Mae, of course, was Mrs Santa,) giving out a small toy to all the 'little ones'. This was so much fun and the kids were thrilled. As you can see this was more than work and believe me I received such love from 'folks' who would refer to me only as the 'fruit man'...lol. I did not know than but God was guiding me/us on this journey. My official business name was 'Roadsides Unlimited', I always thought that summed up what we did very nicely. During these days, we were also growing the fruit stand in Pulaski. My Dad (prior to his stroke) and my cousin Tony built a permanent structure attached to the Colosse Cheese building. It was rigged with drop down sides and made the selling and displaying of produce much easier. We even began selling bags of little neck clams. I have attached some pics of this new building and a pizza truck which I purchased and used both in Pulaski and the 'city'. At the same time another opportunity presented itself, another stand which was on South Bay Road in N. Syracuse. We used to just sell off a truck there in years past. We would sell mostly strawberries and bananas. When the building on that corner became available it opened up a whole new opportunity. My brother Pat ran it for a while and gave it the name of 'Greens & Things'. After Lou and his wife Joan took over Pulaski, Tom and I took over N.Syracuse again as Pat was moving on. This was an amazing and busy time. I had way too many things going on all at once and I loved it, but the driving force was still the 'fruit truck'. To move this along I will rapidly run through the list some of these doings. In addition to stands in Pulaski and N. Syracuse, and yes, that 'pizza truck', too, we than had another stand in Bridgeport, sold hot dogs and Coke at the N. Syracuse location and started a second 'fruit truck' to which Ella Mae and Tom were responsible for. We rented from and next to Russo's Produce @ the market primarily to give us much needed warehouse and cooler space. We also would set up and sell from there on Thursdays and Saturdays. My friend John even joined us for a while and we tried to develop the Northern bergs. It never caught on, so we abandoned that venture and John went back to his construction business. Tom and I continued to hit the 'streets' until 1989 or '90' when it was time for him to proceed with his career choices. Today he is a teacher in a Syracuse city school....and a darn good one! I have left out many aspects and other ventures and venues during this time period but let me only say, 'it was quite the ride". I also could share my many vivid memories of the 'fruit truck" customers for whom many became very endearing, and also relate the many happy and yes, tragic tales that encompassed their lives, but I might not do them the justice and respect they would deserve. Their names will remain anonymous, but I can still recall most, even now. I will however list some names of those whom impacted my life by working with and for me and whom had a hand in aiding my learning and growing all those years. They will all forever have my thanks....First Ella Mae, who has been by my side through it all, my daughter Lindsay and at one time or another her many friends who worked on the 'truck', Dad & Mom, Pat, Jimmy, Dick & Margie, Tom, Lou & Joan, Gary R, Mark P, Mike P, Annie, Gary B, Aunt Rosemary, Tony, Cathy, Pearl, Linda, Janice, Freddy, Stan, Mike V, John, Joy, Mark T, and my Uncles Tony & Joe, and all those many faithful customers especially those from the 'streets. I also can't make this complete without recognizing some of the many places and sellers of produce & goods like, Syracuse Banana, Russo's Produce, Guinta's, Losurdo's, Riccelli's, D'agostino's, Buda's, Jacobson's, Mr. Wilson, Salt City, Nesci Produce and the many farmers who we purchased the local produce. I will leave out all the names that were behind those many doors, but I will say they were the most varied and yes lovable characters I have ever known. Most had aka'sSherrill, NY. This move keeps me in the 'food' business and self employed again!... Hooray! Thank you God for giving me these roads to travel and for sustaining me and my family along the way........
Comments
Post a Comment