For Two Cents Plain

by Harry Lewis Golden, Carl Sandburg (Forward)

From the Dust On the Lower East Side of New York where Harry Golden grew up "majoring in America," a small glass of seltzer cost a penny. For a large glass you said, "Give me for 2 plain." A spoonful of syrup cost an extra penny, and here is where the bargaining came in. The fact that a "for 2 plain"now costs a nickel in way dampens Harry Golden's rich nostalgia for his New York, and For 2 contains dozens of heretofore unmined nuggets from the author's memory-- from "The miracle of Goerick Street" to "Chicken soup was the cure-all." Thousands of readers who have never been near the Lower East Side have written to Harry Golden that "it was just like that for me."

Genres: Nonfiction, Biography, Essays

313 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1958

Reviews

[Boris · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a compilation of observations by a Jewish syndicated columnist from New York living in Charlotte, North Carolina in 1958. He reminisces about the good old days. His cultural references are those of a man in his fifties during the fifties. He talks about his favorite books, music, political heroes, movie actors etc. The book is an education in the popular culture of the United States from 1900 to 1958.

Large sections of the book deal with his observations of the struggle to end segregation in the south.In 1958 the battle was just starting to heat up. This was pre Martin Luther King don't forget. It is so interesting to see where a liberal Jew in Charlotte is coming from in his advocacy for racial equality. This is just after the 1954 Brown vs. Board of Education Supreme court decision. Golden loved the south and felt that it was just hurting itself by trying to prolong segregation.

There's a chapter titled "In Quest of a Linotype Machine." In it he talks about how "the conduct of the Southern Negro... will someday be recorded as one of the most noble stories of the human spirit.... It is fantastic that the Negro has not done a single thing wrong."
He relates the story that there is a white high school in his state that has a linotype machine so the students can learn how to set type and get a good job when they graduate high school. No Negro school has such a machine.
"And so when the white men get together they talk about how the Negroes want to go to bed with white women, and when the Negroes get together they talk about a linotype machine... I have yet to hear a Negro... express 'desire' for a white woman. The white man has slept with the Negro woman for two or three hundred years, and now he fears retaliation."
Golden goes on to talk about how the Negro can sleep with as many white women as he wants to, all descendants of white men having slept with Negro women. The whole argument just seems so weird and embarrassing.
Then I remember the book I just read that won the Pulitzer Prize in 2005, "The Known World." It's written by a Black man. A big part of the story is a white man sleeping with and having children by a Negro woman. How about Harlan Cobin's book "The Innocent," another story where a white man is having sex with a Black woman. We still seem to be fascinated by this dynamic.

[Ellen · Rating 3 out of 5]

A collection of essays written by the Jewish humorist, Harry Golden, this book is like a trip back to memory lane for Jewish people who grew up in the 1940s. The stories of life in the Jewish neighborhoods in these olden days make for fun reading. Although I didn't grow up then, I did grow up in the 1950s and '60s, and do remember conditions during those times. I'd recommend this book for anyone who wants to take a look back to how it was to be Jewish in the time after WWII.

[Chuck · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book was written long before 1976. My guess would be 1958, but I have no information or the original copy of the book in order to upgrade the Goodreads selections.

I have since found a copy and have updated the Goodreads information.

[Manatee · Rating 3 out of 5]

The Lower East side is a fascinating place.

[Mary · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is the first book about Jewish-American life that I remember reading.

[Milt · Rating 4 out of 5]

Worthful. Pertinent still.