April 27, 2004
Laundry and Dairy
My grandfather moved to Savannah in, I'm guessing, 1940 or so. From Atlanta. Opened a business called Laundry and Dairy Supply on Indian Street, just above River Street. My father worked for the company after WWII while he was studying law, and opened a short-lived Albany location. To this day I have no idea what they sold, or how the hell one conflates laundry supplies with dairy supplies.
I DO remember my father sending me into the store when I was 10 or so, and asking the hot young girl behind the counter (hey: this was my father, and his father. Who the hell do you think they were going to hire? Roseanne?) for an elastrator. I didn't know. I was a little fellow. Seems an elastrator (I soon learned plenty about them on that farm) is a device that stretches a rubber band over a baby bull's testicles, until they become necrotic and drop off, creating you a steer, ready for plumping up and slaughtering.
She was game, and fetched the device, and patiently explained its use to me. I believe that was my first chubby (I not being of woody age yet).
My old man. Fuckin' Ada. I wish I had a boy I could pull that kind of shit on.