STORE STORY: Imagine a teen-ager today going through this
“ordeal.”

Jim Randolph of Bradford tells us he worked in the 1940s at a
fish market located on East Washington Street near the Pine Street
bridge. “It was the first job I got. I was 13 or 14,” he reported.
While the shop had fresh fish, it also had chickens, turkey and
ducks. His job (yuck) was to butcher these animals and then pluck
the feathers.

When an animal was destined for a Jewish table, however, the
task would be handled by a rabbi.

“A rabbi would come in and put his cap on.” After saying a
prayer, “he would take the razor and slit its throat,” he relates
to us. Then he would pick away the feathers on the animal’s leg
and stamp it, “kosher.” Another apparent religious requirement was
that the bird couldn’t be dunked in water to be plucked. Instead,
“I had to pick it dry,” Jim reports.

“I’d clean them, and cut off their heads and feet,” he
added.

The work apparently didn’t discourage Jim. He was there 3-4
years, earning 50 cents every day he worked after school and a
dollar on Saturday. “That could buy a lot,” Jim says.

Jim’s story was one of those that came out of our recent items
about former stores in Bradford, a list growing longer by the
day.

He also mentioned that he has a crockpot he got at Clark &
Humphrey in 1957 which he still uses a couple times a month,
including his recent batch of chili. How does he know how long he’s
had it? He and his wife, Virginia, got the Nesco crock pot as a
wedding gift.

MORE STORES: Wow, we are getting inundated with reports on
stores that once operated in Bradford. Might as well get started
today; it’ll take us several days to get them all in.

Don Barry of Tonawanda, N.Y., writes: “… add City Carpet on East
Washington St. (operated by the late Robert and Patricia Carlson)
to the list of bygone establishments. Robert was a product of the
Bradford Boys home, and later became a member of the board of
directors of that institution. ‘Pat and Bob’ ran the business on
the ground floor during the day, and at night would entertain a
wide variety of friends in the second-floor living quarters.”