There wasn’t even a lump of coal

When I was knee high to a grasshopper during the Great Depression, my Christmas stockings were empty most of the time and they had holes in them, to boot. Some of my not-so-poor friends received what I wished and prayed that Santa would have delivered to my East Side home on North Jackson Street.

My long list started with a two-wheel bike, Lionel electric train – even a wind up train would have made me happy – a Flexible Flyer sled, a toy dump truck and the list goes on and on.

At about 13 years of age, I did receive a wagon during one Christmas, to use in my teen-age business as a junk man. During my summer vacation in 1937, I visited our East Side dump six days a week, hauling scrap metal and glass home. The glass came in various colors, and I had a bushel container for each color. I would smash the bottles and sell the bushels when they were full.

The proverbial junk man with this horse and wagon would come by shouting “rag man, rag man” or “junk man, junk man,” a signal for me to convert my junk to cash. Today, in our throwaway society, I would have been in junk heaven.

My favorite gift of all time, when I was a teenager, was a two-wheeled scooter, which had a rear wheel brake activated by pressing it with your shoe on your rear front. Coming down Himrod Avenue lickety split, the brake would slow down the scooter. People used the name “scooter” as a popular nickname.

Michael J. Lacivita is a Youngstown retiree and member of the Ohio Senior Citizens Hall of Fame and the Ohio Veterans Hall of Fame.