Chapter 3 - Working
Pop's Schedule
Pop worked at Amdursky's kosher meat market on Joseph Ave. Pop's schedule was to arrive at the market early in the morning, about 5:30 am, to prepare the orders for the morning delivery. He would get up about 5, fix the furnace in the winter, and make himself a soft boiled egg and a cup of tea, and then walk to work, about a mile or so. He was at the market till about 11 am, when he would walk home for his breakfast. After breakfast he would nap on the couch for about 15 minutes and walk back to work. He would come back home at about 4 in the afternoon for some lunch and another nap before returning to work. He came home again about 8 when the market closed, unless it was Thursday when the market stayed open later, and have his supper. He had a lighter schedule on Friday when the market would close about 4 pm, and on Saturday when the market didn't open until after sundown. On Sundays the store was open only until noon. In the late 1930s the kosher butchers in Rochester went on strike, and as a result of their strike the kosher meat markets began closing early on Mondays also, about 4 pm. Pop worked seven days a week in lousy conditions and never took a vacation. Any days that he took off were always around the Jewish holidays when the market would normally be closed.
The meat market was a butcher shop; it had sawdust on the floor and blood on the butcher block counters. The men who waited on customers were butchers, men who would saw, chop, carve, cut, and slice the desired cuts from the sides of beef that hung in the large walk-in refrigerator. Since Pop was continuously walking in and out of the refrigerator, he had to dress warmly in all weather.The market, where he waited on the customers was not heated in the winter, or cooled in the summer. The cashier's cage, where the cashier took payment for the order, had an electric heater. There was no toilet in the market.
Still, Pop was fantastically loyal to the Amdursky family. If he weren't there, how would the market operate? The market would have operated. It did on the few days that he could- n't go in because he was sick. And there were other kosher butchers that could help. Normally there were two butchers in the market. The Amdurskys had another kosher meat market just a few blocks down Joseph Ave with two more butchers. (There was a third Amdursky market, non-kosher, on Front St.) Sam Amdursky, the owner, was a butcher himself, and when necessary he went behind the counter. But Pop felt the Amdursky family needed him and that his customers needed him. Pop was only an employee, but he couldn't have worked harder if he had been the sole owner of the market.
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