Today I am honored to include the beautiful bride of Mr. May! I did not get the chance to talk with her very long, but I can tell you what I learned about Mrs. May in my visit with her. Mrs. May is quite a beautiful woman.......she is so well put together and she carries herself with a very graceful confidence! I also believe she is quite a hoot herself! I am looking forward to spending time with Mrs. May and learning about her life! She seems to be quite an incredible woman who is married to quite an incredible man.........a former Soda Jerk! With my next post, I will be doing stories from both Mr. and Mrs. May, but I think I will write about each of them separately with bits of interwoven pieces of their lives.
The Soda Jerk
One day I was on my way to visit Mr. May and I was talking to his daughter about visiting her mom. As we talked, she told me that I might want to ask her dad about his days as a Soda Jerk, hmmmmmmmm, PERFECT!!!!!! When I walked in to see Mr. May, I immediately got my sweet smile shining across the room........oh how this makes my day! "Mr. May", I said, "I hear you used to be a Soda Jerk, tell me your story!" Then the journey began.............
In Bergenfield, NJ where Mr. May lived growing up, there were 4 different Ice Cream Parlors in his town during the years he was in High School. After leaving the NYC Boys Choir at the age of 12, he came back home to NJ and landed his first job in one of these Ice Cream Parlors as a Soda Jerk! Incredibly, Mr. May worked at all 4 of these Ice Cream Parlors at one time or another. The first one he worked at he was there for a few years. In this time, he honed his skills and made a name for himself! This was a job that you can tell he THOROUGHLY enjoyed. There was a new Parlor opening up in town and they really needed someone with experience. They needed someone who knew what they were doing and knew how to close up at night. Well, Mr. May fit that bill! It was not much longer after it opened that the owner decided to close that store and open up a new one in a better location with higher visibility and foot traffic, and of course Mr. May came along. The last Parlor he worked for was for an Independently owned operation that had opened up, and he really wanted Mr. May to work for him. I asked Mr. May which was his favorite.......and he told me the first one was his favorite by far. NOW.....we have gotten the work history out of the way, let's get on to the fun stuff! When Mr. May first started working, the one thing he loved was coming in first thing in the morning. As a now 13 year old, he loved walking up to the store and seeing the news papers waiting for him lined up on the sidewalk. It was his job to bring them in and set them up for the day. This just thrilled his heart to no end! As I thought about it, this is something almost foreign to kids today. One, kids today don't really get the chance to work like this.......which to me is kind of sad. Second, the world of printed newspapers has dwindled because of computers and the internet. Most kids don't even read news stories anymore because they live in the world of YouTube......and the written word is quickly fleeting. As I talked to Mr. May, you could just see the joy and excitement that he had during this time in his life. Over time as Mr. May honed his skills, he became a bit famous in his neck of the woods for a drink that he had created. This drink was called a, "Gizmo"! Part of being a Soda Jerk included mixing the Seltzer water and the Soda syrup to create what we now drink out of a plastic bottle. They also mixed ice cream in with the sodas to make floats and made yummy milkshakes behind the counter. Mr. May had people who sometimes did not want a Soda per say, but still wanted something carbonated, thus the Gizmo was born! He took chocolate syrup and added seltzer water to it, and TAAAAAADAAAAAAAA!!!!!! (you have to sing the tada in you mind!) He was sort of famous in the eyes of those who drank this! (ok, so, I am imagining that he was......I was living in the moment...hehehehe!!!!) If you wanted one of these, "Mr. May" creations, it would set you back a WHOLE DIME! When Mr. May graduated High School, his career as a Soda Jerk came to an end. I asked Mr. May if he was covered up with young women wanting him to make their Sodas and Ice Cream delights.........hehehe......and his eyes got big and he said, "Oh Yeah!!!!!" He makes me laugh!!! Not only was Mr. May the town Soda Jerk, but he was also a Baseball and Football player. (I am sure that also endeared him to to girls!!!) He said he was not a star, but he was not a bench warmer either! On the dresser in Mr. Mays room, there are two pictures that sit side by side. One is of his grandson in his football uniform.....the other is a pic of Mr. May when he was around the same age. If one were not black and white, you would almost think it was the same person! He was, and still such a handsome fella! I will try to snag a shot of these two pics so your imagination can go back in time with mine as we piece together parts of Mr. Mays life! (I am a visual person......and I have quite an imagination!!!!) The next story coming soon.....the early years of Mr. May and Mrs. May......stay tuned!!!!! May God bless you all!!!!!
The Soda Jerk
One day I was on my way to visit Mr. May and I was talking to his daughter about visiting her mom. As we talked, she told me that I might want to ask her dad about his days as a Soda Jerk, hmmmmmmmm, PERFECT!!!!!! When I walked in to see Mr. May, I immediately got my sweet smile shining across the room........oh how this makes my day! "Mr. May", I said, "I hear you used to be a Soda Jerk, tell me your story!" Then the journey began.............
In Bergenfield, NJ where Mr. May lived growing up, there were 4 different Ice Cream Parlors in his town during the years he was in High School. After leaving the NYC Boys Choir at the age of 12, he came back home to NJ and landed his first job in one of these Ice Cream Parlors as a Soda Jerk! Incredibly, Mr. May worked at all 4 of these Ice Cream Parlors at one time or another. The first one he worked at he was there for a few years. In this time, he honed his skills and made a name for himself! This was a job that you can tell he THOROUGHLY enjoyed. There was a new Parlor opening up in town and they really needed someone with experience. They needed someone who knew what they were doing and knew how to close up at night. Well, Mr. May fit that bill! It was not much longer after it opened that the owner decided to close that store and open up a new one in a better location with higher visibility and foot traffic, and of course Mr. May came along. The last Parlor he worked for was for an Independently owned operation that had opened up, and he really wanted Mr. May to work for him. I asked Mr. May which was his favorite.......and he told me the first one was his favorite by far. NOW.....we have gotten the work history out of the way, let's get on to the fun stuff! When Mr. May first started working, the one thing he loved was coming in first thing in the morning. As a now 13 year old, he loved walking up to the store and seeing the news papers waiting for him lined up on the sidewalk. It was his job to bring them in and set them up for the day. This just thrilled his heart to no end! As I thought about it, this is something almost foreign to kids today. One, kids today don't really get the chance to work like this.......which to me is kind of sad. Second, the world of printed newspapers has dwindled because of computers and the internet. Most kids don't even read news stories anymore because they live in the world of YouTube......and the written word is quickly fleeting. As I talked to Mr. May, you could just see the joy and excitement that he had during this time in his life. Over time as Mr. May honed his skills, he became a bit famous in his neck of the woods for a drink that he had created. This drink was called a, "Gizmo"! Part of being a Soda Jerk included mixing the Seltzer water and the Soda syrup to create what we now drink out of a plastic bottle. They also mixed ice cream in with the sodas to make floats and made yummy milkshakes behind the counter. Mr. May had people who sometimes did not want a Soda per say, but still wanted something carbonated, thus the Gizmo was born! He took chocolate syrup and added seltzer water to it, and TAAAAAADAAAAAAAA!!!!!! (you have to sing the tada in you mind!) He was sort of famous in the eyes of those who drank this! (ok, so, I am imagining that he was......I was living in the moment...hehehehe!!!!) If you wanted one of these, "Mr. May" creations, it would set you back a WHOLE DIME! When Mr. May graduated High School, his career as a Soda Jerk came to an end. I asked Mr. May if he was covered up with young women wanting him to make their Sodas and Ice Cream delights.........hehehe......and his eyes got big and he said, "Oh Yeah!!!!!" He makes me laugh!!! Not only was Mr. May the town Soda Jerk, but he was also a Baseball and Football player. (I am sure that also endeared him to to girls!!!) He said he was not a star, but he was not a bench warmer either! On the dresser in Mr. Mays room, there are two pictures that sit side by side. One is of his grandson in his football uniform.....the other is a pic of Mr. May when he was around the same age. If one were not black and white, you would almost think it was the same person! He was, and still such a handsome fella! I will try to snag a shot of these two pics so your imagination can go back in time with mine as we piece together parts of Mr. Mays life! (I am a visual person......and I have quite an imagination!!!!) The next story coming soon.....the early years of Mr. May and Mrs. May......stay tuned!!!!! May God bless you all!!!!!
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