(Copyright 2007)There I sit in my new red wagon on Christmas day, 1961. That red wagon made me a part of a Jamaica Plain tradition. My first job in this world was as an order boy at the First National supermarket on Centre street opposite Greenough avenue. With other boys, we lined up on either side of the entrance of the store. As people came out, we offered to carry their "orders" home in our wagons. Most of our "clients" were older people, who would have difficulty carrying their groceries home. We pulled our bag-laden wagons from the brick building directly opposite the store to Orchard street. Twenty-five cents was a good take, and paid for a bottle of tonic and a comic book. Both the Jamaicaplain.com message board - "Remember the "order boys" with their little red wagons, who hauled our parents' grocery orders home on Saturdays from the First National?" - and the Jamaica Plain Historical Society web site tell stories of boys who did the same thing - some of them 10-15 years before I did. My mother still comments on how useful that little red wagon was.
"Order boy mam? I stood many Saturdays in front of Steve Slyne's First National Store at South and Hall Streets.
ReplyDeleteIf I went home with four or even five dollars what a great day!