Lawn Men's Wear

                                      63rd and Kedzie today. Holy Cross Hospital Outreach
                                      spans the first part of the block.

  For as long as I can remember, my mom and dad ran a men's clothing store at the corner of 63rd and Kedzie Avenue. Called Lawn Men's Wear, it was originally an Army surplus store after World War II, and later evolved into a store for  men's work and casual clothing. They sold everything from steel toed, oil resistant boots for mechanics at nearby Midway Airport to insulated jackets and sport coats.

The lives of my family centered around that store. We were open from 9AM to 6 PM everyday including Saturday, and until 9 pm on Mondays and Thursdays. This essentially meant that we didn't see my parents much during the daytime. When we were in grade school, mom didn't leave home until after noon, so she did see us at lunch time. My dad and mom ran the store together, with Mom doing alterations and managing the finances. Dad was a very convincing salesman, so any time a sale looked like it was faltering, Dad would be called in to close it.
Later, my father opened a podiatry practise down the street from the store, and only came in on Saturdays and during the holiday season to help out.

  Everyone in our family worked in the store at one time or another.   At around twelve years old, I started working as a stock boy a few days after school, and when I got into high school, I put in regular hours as a salesman. My parents kept track of my hours, paid me a decent wage, and for every dollar I earned, they matched it in a college fund. When I went away to school, my friend Paul took over my job for a time. After that, my mom hired a high school boy named Bruno who adored her and would bake her carrot cakes.

     High season at our store was from Thanksgiving to Christmas. Like every other shop on the street, we were open every evening until 9:00 PM. One of my jobs was to string tinsel over the merchandise counters, which I hated because I had to get on a stepladder and drag it all over the store.
For the most part, business was good and I was busy waiting on multiple customers at a time, running the cash register, and wrapping packages. A few doors down, a record store played carols on an outdoor loudspeaker. I learned the words to every Christmas song ever written.

During the winter, workmen wore heavy galoshes over their work shoes. My mom taught me to sit sideways when fitting these 4 buckled monsters. One slip and you got a painful kick in the crotch as a Christmas present. The trick was to have the men thoroughly wipe off their work shoes before putting on new galoshes.

We had a small garage in the back of the store for over stock and during the holiday season, it was stacked high with gift boxes.  I made trips to the garage many times a day in the cold.Next door, there was a family style restaurant, with the heavy odor of the hamburgers frying in their kitchen.  Directly behind us lay the Kedzie Avenue trolley depot, where sparks flew overhead  from the north and south bound streetcars.

When the final customer was served on Christmas Eve, we would lock the door and celebrate by going to out for dinner. My parents let us have anything on the menu we wanted ,because the long holiday season was over. Being Jewish definitely had its advantages that night. There was never anyone else in the restaurant. For some reason, my sister would pick chicken livers. For me, it was a burger, fries and a Coke.
 

   Working in a clothing store gave me the people skills that I've used all my life as a teacher. It also afforded me the wonderful opportunity to spend a lot of time with my mom. When business was slow, I'd study in back of the store with Mom around to help me with homework. I also learned that she was a super saleswoman. She had certain customers that would only she could sell. I do believe that there were several men that came in just to see her, and would spend their paychecks on clothing. One man in particular bought three new packages of underwear and sox every month. Mom was sure he was throwing them out rather than washing them.

A major advantage of working in a men's store was  that I always had new clothes and shoes.Anything I needed came from our store, or from  visiting the wholesale district to help my dad pick out new merchandise. If I needed dress clothing, the salesmen who visited our store got them  for me at a hefty discount. When I left for college, I had a trunk full of new shirts, jeans, socks, underwear and shoes. That first winter, Mom and Dad sent me a new wool coat, a heavy knit hat, two scarves and insulated gloves. You could say I was a clothes horse, but I never complained.

My mom planned on keeping the store open forever, but a bad fall on a ladder seriously affected her ability to work. The store closed around 1971.  Dad moved his practice a few blocks away and continued to work until he retired. Some years later, my brother, Bob became an administrator at nearby Holy Cross Hospital.
Today there is a health care center on the site of my parents' store.