THREE RAGMEN: Lee Lovitz of Coventry, R.I., explains the
confusion over the name of the so-called “ragmen” who lived in
Bradford.

He writes, “There were three junk dealer ‘ragmen’ in Bradford
with the last name Lovitz. There was my grandfather Joe who lived
on the road going out towards Rew, in Sawyer. He lived in a
two-room shack that he heated with a wood stove and had a beautiful
blue 1948 Dodge which he kept in the barn and never drove.”

“He had a brother, Jake, who was also a ragman but didn’t have a
new blue Dodge. The third Lovitz was a cousin named Ike, but I
don’t know if he had a blue Dodge. Ike’s place of business was
located within a half mile of what I think is now the Holiday Inn.
He had an old brick two- or three-story building with an elevator
and what seemed to be acres of bundles of newspaper inside. Jake,
who lived on Pearl St., collected more rags and metals than
newspapers.”

We hear, too, from another kin: Toby Ellison Kuperman of
Scottsdale, Ariz., writes, “Jake Lovitz was related to my
brother-in-law (Sylvia Ellison’s husband) Saul Lovitz of Abbott
Road. He was an uncle to Saul.”

A couple other “ragman-related” items today:

Mary Ann Hannon of Grand Junction, Colo., writes, “In those
days, my home address was 8 High Street Ext. and I remember the
ragman coming with his horse and buggy to collect rags! And I
remember the horses pulling a wagon with nitroglycerin to
explode/whatever the oil wells. We certainly experienced a unique
culture!”

Audrey Shaffer phoned to tell us that the ragman she remembers
was Ike whose family were neighbors to hers on Martin Avenue – a
street in the vicinity of North Kendall Avenue which no longer
exists. Ike’s wife was named Julia and, Audrey reports she was so
close to the family, “I called her Aunt Julia.” Ike and Julia also
had a daughter.

THIS, TOO: A couple post scripts: The Holiday Inn, of course,
not longer exists in Bradford. It’s since been replaced by the Best
Western on Davis Street.

Our thanks to the Lovitz family for straightening out the mix-up
over the identities of these three men, each of whom obviously
added something to the palate of Bradford’s colorful, cultural
heritage.