My Mother The Entrepreneur 1
There were many satisfying friendships and relationships on our block. It was paradise for children. The adults became friends and these friendships, between the women who lived on Shady Avenue Ext., lasted 50 years.
We were very good friends with the Smallovitz family–also called “Small.” Their oldest son was just my age and the younger two were close in age to my sister. Lois Smallovitz and my mother admired each other. They ALWAYS looked chic and comfortable, even on a week day, doing housework and caring for the children. Both had excellent taste. So–I do not know how this got started but one of them must have approached the other and said–Why don’t we start a business?
Of similar taste in clothes and home furnishings, they advertised themselves in the Pittsburgh Press Classifieds as “estate clearers.” Due to a death or divorce, sometimes home owners wanted to quickly get a large house cleared of everything. Anyway, people started calling them and, while all of us were in school, my mother and Lois would make dates to meet these people, assess the job, and if it looked OK, begin to put prices on everything in the house. Then, on Sundays, there would be an open house sale day when people would come and look around and buy things.
Charles and I were both 16 when our mothers asked us to help out. They always put us in the basements were there were piles of mis-matched cutlery, piles of dishes and platters, toys, books, garden furniture. Nothing down there cost more than a quarter. Chuck and I were always good friends and when we weren’t selling things we were talking and laughing, mostly about Allderdice, gossiping, talking about boyfriends and girlfriends.
Our mothers thought we were wonderful and told us so. We got big hugs. Then Chuck and I would each get $20. Remember-this was 1966-67 and to us that was a marvelous amount of money. Our fathers had been taking care of the younger children all day. So we met up at Hebrew National and our mothers took us out to dinner. This was always amazing to us. I know my father, in his very quiet way, was amused and admiring of my mother’s being able to do these things.
I’ll say it over and over–children accept the world as they see it. Rarely do young children question why something is happening. So we never thought–this is really ingenious. Two housewives, putting their resources together, find a way to make money while the children were safely in school during the week. Then my mother saved her share of the money and gave us the best family vacation ever. That is part 2 and will be published tomorrow.
Finally, during one of my visits with my mother I told her that. I told her about the sometimes unbearable stresses put on young women, to have a family and a career, always running around with 17 things to do at the same time. So she and Lois accomplished something suitable for their families and everybody got a share of the proceeds. My mother just looked at me. Maybe that was the beginning of her fading away? But I tried to get across to her, with all my strength, how wonderful it was. I still think it’s wonderful and I’ll never forget those days when old pain was buried and dissolved and I was able to express my love for her.
lgmwriting 