Evalynne Gould Elias

I don’t remember how or when we kids got our red wagon. It seemed that we always had it. This was in the mid-50’s, and having a Radio Flyer was a sort of staple of childhood. You could use it for just about anything. But what I remember most was using it to do the kind of errands that made me feel grown up and important.

There was a little grocery store half a block from our house in Bordentown, NJ. This was

before there were any supermarkets near our town. It was owned by Italian immigrants, Jimmy Granata and his mother. My mother would call Jimmy with a list and then send me to pick up the groceries.

She never gave me money. I would walk down to Jimmy’s with my wagon, and he would always ask me: “Pay now or pay later?” The answer was always the same: “Pay later.” Then he’d load up the Red Flyer, and I’d bring them back home.

(An aside:  Jimmy was also a bookie.  Often while I was waiting for my groceries, Jimmy would be on the phone speaking in barely disguised code: “So you’d like an order of 4 bananas and you’ll pick up at 6?”)

As I grew older I forgot all about the wagon. When it came time for me to sell my parents’ home a few years ago, I learned that they didn’t throw out anything. There in a basement corner, rusted and alone, stood my Radio Flyer. I knew that this was not going to be discarded into the trash heap of long lost flotsam and jetsam my parents had tucked away. This was going to be rescued and resurrected.  I brought it to my home in Kentucky, where, I admit, for several years it sat forgotten in my own basement.
One of the positive side effects of this Covid quarantine  is that it gives us time to think to discover anew long forgotten projects. Out came that old Radio Flyer to be restored. It now sits on my deck, bejeweled with potted herbs. And whenever I sit on my deck or go out to cut some herbs, I can’t help but remember: “Pay now, or pay later?”