Come see the parade

By TED ROBERTS, the SCRIBBLER ON THE ROOF

Trends, like friends, come and go. 1. Chewing gum is out of style. 2. Men rarely smoke cigars. And in the old days, cigars were a social icebreaker. “Have a cigar, pal,” started many a friendship. 3. And come to think of it, I don’t believe as many men wear after shaving lotion as formerly. 4. Grandparents no longer live “above the store”.

Don’t look for any relationship or correlation in the above three observations. And I can’t explain the first three, but reasoning behind the fourth is simple. We’re all rich now – simple economics. I’m a grandparent now and I know my fellow grandparents can afford a house, an apartment, a condo, at least a tent. Or maybe an assisted living facility – our new name for an old folks home. What a song title – “Nobody’s Gotta Live Over the Sto’ No More”.

When I was a kid growing up in Memphis, everybody’s parents and grandparents – mostly Jewish – lived over the sto’, which really minimized the morning commute. In fact, the store might be closed, but you stumble on the stairs and lo and behold you’re at work in the store.

But none of these disappearing trends were as important as the dual residence/store phenomenon. I could cite a long list (so many friends – so few houses) of pals who ‘doubled up”, so to speak. That is, they lived above the store. But I might leave out a friend or two and provoke embarrassment. And this custom was especially prevalent in the Jewish community. We’re talking the late 30’sand 40’s when most of these families only had a single car. We weren’t all rich then as we are now. So, it wasn’t always available to take you out of the ‘hood to what was called a playground; which meant a plot of green with a tree from whose lower limb dangled a single swing. Compared to the tarry streets, it was Disneyland.

But the store/residence trend could have its disadvantages for kids. No front or back yard to play in. Only the concrete of streets.

But my social standing was mightily enhanced because my grandparents lived – not only above the store – but ON MAIN STREET.

Get it? In that bygone age of no TV and limited entertainment, there were processions called “parades” with colorful floats and marching bands. Looking back on it, I can’t figure out why there were so many parades, except that there was nothing else to do.

What leverage I had. If you were nice to me, I could invite you to my grandparents’ store, which had four or five windows upstairs that overlooked the parade route. Beneath, the sidewalks were choked with people like a kugel with too many raisins. Not only did we have a box seat, but also our childish hearts were choked with “schadenfreude.” A German word – hard to spell, too – we’d never heard of. It means taking delight in the misery of others.

Because beneath us on the sidewalks standing mobs pushed and jostled each other to get a glimpse of the musical procession parading down the street. We sat in comfortable chairs, which we had pulled up to the windows. Living above the store wasn’t so bad after all.