Herman(9) with the Neighborhood Kids. (top right.) Apx. 1933
I often had a puppy dog; it was always a mixed breed. Every one of them I called by the same name: Prince. It didn’t matter if the dog was a boy or a girl; it was always Prince. Mother would usually try to get rid of them because of the mess they made. But a boy needs a dog. Mine would wait for me in the schoolyard until the bell rang. One day I came home and Prince was gone. As it turns out, mother called the local dog pound, but at that moment when I came home looking for my dog, she said, “He was run over by a horse.” I don’t remember how I took the news. Each morning I got dressed. I’m sure I looked presentable as the son of a tailor.
In those days it was common to see horse- drawn wagons side-by-side with automobiles. In many ways, the horses were more reliable. But soon the landscape of America changed with the popularity of cars. To give you an idea of how fast the world was changing, right in front of my house, all the way down the street, was a set of metal poles with horses’ heads carved on them and a ring through their noses. The city placed them there for people to tie up their horses while shopping. When I got a little older, I spent Satur- day afternoons at the Strand Theater; it was located at 1824 W. 3rd Street, about a block from my house. With about 700 seats, I wasn’t
Mother always looked me over. When satisfied, she gave me a nickel! I would run across the street to the bakery for some fresh snowflake rolls. Then I would dunk them into sweet, hot cocoa and savor every bite. Sometimes I tried to make a little money doing odd jobs. At one point I slung a cloth sling over my shoulder and sold maga- zines. I can see myself on the street shouting, “Read the Post,” “Liberty Magazine,” or “Get It Here.”
alone. We would watch 8 to 10 different black & white films in an afternoon, all for the price of a dime. By then all the radio shows I grew up listening to had a movie equivalent. Among my favorites were Pathé Interna- tional and Movietone News, The Three Stooges; Laurel & Hardy, Mickey Mouse, Donald Duck, and The Perils of Pauline, which was a weekly continuous cliff- hanger to get you to come back the next week.
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Horse Head Parking Ring
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