SARDINES

SARDINES

If You Can Get Past the Smell

Summer tastes like a can of sardines. It was the fifties. Joito my cousin on my father’s side convinced me that moving up to New York would be the best thing we could do as far as finding an excellent job. I had no ways or means to continue with my schooling. I cannot say who of my parents was to blame. She kicked him out and he promptly left. Never contributing again to the health and welfare of his once upon a time family. My parents had made the proverbial split and he had moved up north and started a new family.

Mom had to go to work at a cigar factory for a menial wage with four kids to clothe and feed. My older brother was a bigger boy so his secondhand garments when they passed on to me wore the tell-tale signs. I felt sorry for my younger brother when it was his turn at the clothes. My baby sister was the only girl and had enough in laws and friends giving her frocks I do not think she felt the pinch as much as us boys.

Once Joito and I got to New York we moved in with my dad. He was nice enough but living with his new wife and kid got a mite unbearable. I stayed up at night sometimes contemplating on Mom and her measly job with no help and four kids. I never could understand how she would vacate a husband to live in such poverty. As far as I could tell they were always loving to each other.

That fiasco cost me many sleepless nights. If you never see your parents fighting or not getting a long, how do you explain it to yourself. The breakup I mean! Neither Mom nor Dad ever gave me a satisfactory answer.

Back to the sardines. Joito and I heard that the automobile plant Lincoln Mercury in Metuchen, New Jersey needed some men to work on the lines. We left My Dad’s and headed across the bridge to New Jersey. We found a place to rent which was not much more than a flophouse. If we could land these jobs our troubles would be over. They paid more money than I had ever made. Still our resources as far as money goes was slim and none.

Every day we would come and sit and wait and hope that they would call one of us in for an interview. Each day would become more critical because of the money. Finally on a Friday of the second week they called Joito in for an interview bingo he got the job. Now it was just me sitting in the front for at least a half a day waiting to be called. I knew that I looked noticeably young and figured that they might not ever call me at all. I would have to go back to the mainland and stay with my father or work my way back to Florida.

It was Monday of the third week and there I sat trying to look unconcerned about the job. I had heard somewhere that if you acted like you did not need the job that would help you get the job.

Somehow something happened. They called me in and two minutes later I had the job, and I started the following day. I picked up Joito after work we wanted to celebrate until we checked our money and found we had about four dollars to last another whole week and four days until Joito would get his first check.

“Let’s check some of the local markets and see if there are any sales” Joito suggested.

We did and the best we could find was a market offering off brand sardines for ten cents a can.

For two weeks our breakfast lunch and dinner consisted of ten cent sardines. We were working making good money and thriving on the best tasting ten cent cans of sardines I will ever know. If you can get past the smell you have got it licked!