- News Archive
A great story from a resident at our Retirement Community West Columbia, SC. Herman Shrank and Eva (Mamie) Greenberger Schrank sit in front of their paint store on the corner of E. 183rd Street and Arthur Ave. in the Bronx. I believe it's the summer of 1908 because Mamie looks pregnant and my mother, Edna Schrank Meltzer, their first child, was born August 22, 1908. They bought the store in 1900 (I think). Grandpa bought several stores adjacent to his on Arthur Ave. He died in 1958 and Edna (my mom) and Uncle Sanford Schrank jointly owned it until sometime between 1965 and 1970.
From the time I remember, the outside was painted a bright orange and the barrels were painted with multi-colored horizontal stripes you couldn't miss seeing!
Grandpa had a black cat call "Bum" which lived in the store and hunted in the neighborhood during the day.
One of my memorable moments as a little kid was the time grandpa gave me money to buy liver for the cat at the butcher shop down the street. When I returned with it, Grandpa and I unwrapped the liver. Bum mewed happily and rapidly ate it in no time at all.
There are many elements in the photo that you'll not see today. In the picture you see a wooden sidewalk which is still there, a gas street light, which is not, and some signs which are mighty interesting because of the wording or what they advertise. Note that the rental sign is for 'flat to let.' The paint sign probably promotes white lead paint.
When I was little, there was a potbellied stove which burned wood to make heat in the winter. There were red pumps with handles which you pumped to fill requests for benzene, turpentine, and other liquids today considered hazardous, and which you cannot buy in a paint store.
The store had shelves of items floor to ceiling and to reach them there was a ladder which could be slid along the wall to reach the objects.
It was odd-shaped, an irregular five-sided figure. The back wall and the left side had shelves. The right side had the red pumps and counters and a large circular piece set on smaller barrels which served as a base. Around it were four or five smaller barrels which served as a base. Around it were four or five small barrels and wooden boxes which served as chairs. When I was in high school, some of the neighborhood retirees would meet in teh store at the round table and play cards and drink whiskey -- the nights of the round table smoking cigars. Behind the counter along the back wall Grandpa had hung a picture of dogs sitting at a round table drinking and smoking cigars. On the wall behind the cash register was a sign that said "In God we trust, all others pay cash," which I thought was very clever.
In front on the counter was a wonderful gold and silver cash register. It was quite splendid.