Page 14 - Boca ViewPointe - December '20

Page 14, Viewpointe December 2020
Sweet Memories From Sour Pickles

By William A. Gralnick much care what foods go together. I figure they’re all bowl, sometimes holding slices, not whole pickles, but
gonna end up in the same place, so why not start their if it’s a good deli the bowl is like the horn of plenty. A
The other day someone said he was in a pickle. I journey at pretty much the same time? Thus, it wasn’t nice waiter or waitress might even accede to your wish
haven’t heard that expression in a long time. It was very unusual to walk away with a sour pickle and a bag of that your bowl have only sour pickles.
popular when I was young. potato chips and ingest likely a year’s recommended Many places will rachet up that salt quota by providing
For those of you who didn’t grow up in Brooklyn or amount of salt in about 10 minutes. sour kraut, even though now you’re at an age when you
have managed to get to whatever age you are and are not The barrel came to a sad end. Coney Island Avenue shouldn’t even look at that stuff, no less eat it. But as
familiar with this expression, let me explain. was an ethnic divide. If you lived between it and Ocean one friend said to me, “If I gotta go, let it be with a sour
Pickle comes from the Dutch word “pekel.” That Parkway you were likely Irish, Catholic, an apartment pickle in my mouth.” A little extreme, but you get the
refers to “piquant” — sharp, spicy, salty. To be in a pickle dweller, and less wealthy than those who lived between point.
referred to being jammed up like the cucumbers and other Coney Island Avenue and Flatbush Avenue or Nostrand Fair and flea markets are another place one occasionally
veggies stuffed in pickling jars. Let us remember that Avenue. The guys who lived on the side where the barrel finds that big barrel with all the brine-coated memories in
Brooklyn and much of NY was Dutch, commanded by the was became pretty territorial about it. Fights were not it, but it came with a reality. The nickel pickle has become
Dutch Trading Company and the never-to-be-forgotten uncommon if we interlopers decided our desire was a neighborhood memory. And now they cost about a buck
Peter Stuyvesant. Such an expression was, so to speak, stronger than our fear. Finally, the owner decided that when you can find them.
right at home. the barrel didn’t produce enough money to pay for the
But surely you must know I’m not writing this to educate aggravation. Columnist and author Bill Gralnick was born and
you in Dutch/English idioms. Of course not. We’re talking It isn’t that the pickle, and I don’t mean the ones in raised in Brooklyn. His latest book, titled “The War of
here about the once-ubiquitous “nickel pickle,” so-called jars, is gone forever. Any good deli that has Jewish roots the Itchy Balls and Other Tales from Brooklyn,” offers
because any one of them in the barrel was a nickel. If one is where to find them. Sometimes even before they throw more memories. His writings can be found at https://www.
were to look at enough of Kaufman’s pictures of lower the silverware at you comes a bowl of pickles. It is a small williamgralnickauthor.com/. 
Manhattan, one would see dark, wooden, probably 25- or
50-gallon barrels with matching wooden lids on them.
packed with really big, really fat pickles. You knew what taste As Far Back As I Can Remember –
Inside, depending on the hour of the day, the barrel was

you were going to get from the color of the pickle. Light green
For me it was the darkest green I could find. These Part 5
was dill, half and half was exactly that — half and half.

were the sours, so sour that sometimes your face puckered
all on its own, the brine twisting up the face muscles into By Jack Kulick nearby, decided to move to a co-op which was a new way
a cartoonish expression. What kind of expression? Of a of getting an apartment. I thought at that time, “who pays
man eating a sour pickle. Continuing my story. for an apartment”. Well a short time later we did. We moved
The oddity of lower Manhattan’s pickle bazaars was that As our little girl grew with a bunch of new people into a co-op at 27-05 Parsons
the barrels were everywhere. One expected them in front up, she acted like a young Blvd., Flushing, N.Y. known as Linden Hill.
of the deli, in front of the market, maybe in front of the lady, even though she was We watched our daughter grow up in this apartment
butcher or grocery, but in front the yarn shop, the notions only 4 or 5 years old. My and then when she left to get married, we had empty
store, the drug store? It was a cheap product to make and wife dressed her in very nest. My wife and I kept busy with work and then the
you never knew when the yen would hit someone — just a beautiful clothes. She was grandchildren came along. We watched them as often
way to add a few bucks to the till by the end of the week. a gorgeous child. as we could.
By the time I was old enough to reach into the barrel In 1948, because of We lived in this apartment until 1987 at which time we
myself, grab my own pickle, and pay with my own money, World War II, apartments were scarce. My mother found started our next chapter when we moved to Boca Pointe,
pickle barrels were a dying breed in Flatbush. There was us an apartment, a first-floor walkup above a tax office. It which I will cover in my next article.
one in my neighborhood, maybe two. The one I vaguely was awful, but better than nothing. So after a while our
remember was in Bohack’s. The one I definitely remember family outgrew this apartment. Friends of ours, who lived Jack Kulick, former Cortina resident. 
was across from P.S. 217, my elementary school.
It stood, beckoning us upper graders at lunch hour,
or after school. It stood, seemingly chest puffed out, in
front of the Irish deli, of all places. This deli had another
enticer: they made their own potato chips. I’m probably Residents Are Registered on
taking statins because of the oils the chips were cooked
in, dropped still dripping into the white paper bag which
was soon soaked through with oil. To this day I’ve never www.bocapointe.com. Are You?
tasted a better chip.
I’m from the school of eaters whose students don’t
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Boca Raton, FL
561-254-2550 yourdriverhb@gmail.com

Home for Sale by owner
boca Pointe

Pre-aPProved Proof of funding required
22710 El Dorado Drive
Gated Manned Community • Family friendly Community
Bus Stop picks up students at the corner
Boca Raton Schools Spanish River H.S.
Boca Pointe Club membership optional/not mandatory
Courtyard Home with Pool ( new heater)
Large Guest House with Kitchenette and full bathroom
Main House 3,300 Sq. feet on one floor,
nearly 4,500 sq. feet total
Wide Halls • 3 bedrooms with Private full Bathrooms
Powder Room • Large Living Room • Large Dining Room
Large family Room • Separate Laundry Room
Renovated Kitchen with Eat-in kitchen area and Breakfast Bar
New AC system • New Electric Panel • Landscaped
2 car garage
Asking Price $690,000
45 day close
For information: call Scott @ 561-843-2811