You will be very surprised to know that my first job was ……selling candy. Two blocks away from my house was a store called Leah’s Southern Confection. I marched in there to buy a praline. Do you know what they are? They are a little round candy.
In the store was a lady named Marie Garrison. When no one was in the store I said to Marie, “Let’s change that.”
There was a silver plate with a doily on top. I crumbled up some pralines and went outside and screamed… “Who wants to taste the best praline in the city?” Once they tasted this delicacy they would come in the stores and buy buy buy.
In the back of the shop was the kitchen. A man named Charles used a large wooden paddle and he would stir all the ingredients together in a copper cauldron over a flame. In the cauldron he would pour white sugar…..brown sugar…a little salt….cream…butter… vanilla extract ..and pecan halves.
When the candy thermometer reached a certain temperature, he would take two spoons he would form the pralines on a large white wooden table with wax paper on the top.
Now I knew Marie did not make a lot of money. She only had a few dresses, skirts, and blouses, and her glasses had a crack in the left lens. I said to myself, “Oh no, this is not good.” At the end of the day I wouwld go into the cash register and take out a 5 dollar bill. I would put the bill in her apron. “This is our little secret,” I would say. “Fix those glasses and buy some clothes.” Yes, I was a little Robin Hood.
One day I took a break from the store and with two of my friends from school I went to another shop called the Black Orchid on Royal street. Behind us was a man with a camera. “Do you mind if I took a picture of you all with the pralines?”
As he left the store he said, “I am doing story for National Geographic and your picture will be in the magazine.” A few months later my father went and bought a copy of the magazine and there we were. I said to him “Look! I’m a star!“ lol
My second job was working at Musee Conti the local wax museum. Both my brother and I worked there.
Lenny would talk about the figures in the museum. I would stand in back of the figures and when the people came by I would jump out and say boo. I was hoping no one would have a heart attack.
When I graduated grammar school it was time for high school. There was an elite all boys high school called Cor Jesu. To be continued…..
