is quite common but then it was very new. Dr. Linkow was a fine dentist and helped Frank immensely. You had to be a certain age before the technique worked because the jaw
Dr. Linkow
needed to be completely developed. I took many trips to New York with Frank and Stephen but all the time and expense were worth it. When this all began and Herman and I were feeling very bad about it, we happened to visit the head physician at a children’s hospital in Philadelphia. He saw how upset we were and he sympathized with us but he said he would volunteer to take us from room to room in his hospital and show us cases that would make us glad to have our problems. After that we stopped feeling sorry for ourselves, accepted the problem for what it was and dealt with it. We were both happy our boys had the strength and courage to deal with it as well. OUR DE-FEATHERED FRIEND One Sunday I told Herman we should take a ride out in the country, knock on farmers’ doors and see if we could find a duck as a pet for the kids. After knocking on a number of doors we finally found a farmer who had not only a duck to sell but a puppy as well. Of course we took both. We put a doghouse on the back of our proper- ty for both the dog and the duck. That arrangement didn’t last long. The puppy pulled every feather out of that poor duck until it was practically bald. Then our neighbor, Ann Epstein, casually mentioned that she heard a duck quacking at six in the morning. To top it all off, the puppy and I never really took to each other. He was too frisky for me and he was particular about what he ate and only wanted table scraps. So the duck wound up in a nearby pond where we left it with some other ducks who probably got there the same way. And the puppy went to a new home. ONCE AN ENTREPRENEUR . . . Herman spent six years at National Food Market- ers. Most of those years were enjoyable for him. We became good friends with Lou and Marie Carraciola, who lived in Blue Anchor, New Jersey, about a forty-five minute drive from us. But the entrepreneurial bug had bitten Herman; he wanted to be his own boss again. Once when he
Stephen and the pet duck
threatened to leave the company, my cousin Fagie came by and went on and on about Herman’s responsibility to his family and how he couldn’t afford to take such a risk starting a new business. Her outburst seemed to work for a while but eventually the urge became too strong. A year later Herman’s deeply rooted need to be on his own finally won out and he resigned his position. It wasn’t long before Herman took the company he called Cherry Hill Foods public with the help of a New York lawyer named Hank Malon. The first product was the crab cake that we had offered in an earlier business. But going public required a wider range of products or services. Not all the attempts were successful. Herman
looked at the packaged condiments business – those little pack- ets of salt and pepper, jams and jelly on every restaurant table. He began a coffee service for businesses but so many coffeemakers were stolen it wasn’t worth the effort. The predictions that leaving Lou’s company would be foolish seemed to be coming true.
Michael Shooster
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