University Daily Kansan, April 13, 1983
Page 13
Market vendor recalls life on the square
By DAVID SWAFFORD
Staff Reporter
KANSAS CITY, Mo. — Market Square at Fourth and Walnut streets was crowded last weekend. The smell of raw fish from the Hen House Fish Country Co. permeated the air. Spring is the busiest time of year at the market.
Across the street, a customer could be heard dickering from behind the struts of produce stands, and in the store where she was trying to sell his White Pekin ducks.
Along the north side, an Italian woman was selling flowers and, about a hundred feet away from her, a wine lay face down on the sidewalk.
Amidst the commotion was Martin Spector, who has worked at the market for almost 50 years. For the last three years he has been working at the Palermo and Cassio Produce Co., a wholesale establishment.
"HEY, MARIO, GET those potatoes out of that truck, man. Hurry it up too, we don't get all day," he shouted to one of his five hired hands.
Spector is white-haired and short and always has a cigar in his mouth. He is a kind man, but firm when it comes to the business. It is a trait that is a must at the city market.
He grew up at 33rd and Brooklyn streets in Kansas City and first started
working at the 75-year-old market in
1894, when he was in 75 years old.
*i swept floors and carried produce.
*i market is the only place I ve ever kept.
The only time Spector has been away from the city market was the three and a half years he served as a master
"People always yell and scream at each other down here, but they really don't mean anything by it. It's all in fun. I swept floors and carried produce. This market is the only place I've ever known."
Martin Spector
sergeant in the Marine Corps during World War II.
After the war, Spector started his own produce company.
out of their produce business, he continued working at the market as much as he could, and, through the years, learned how to please the public.
Even though Spector and his wife got
Spector said some vendors did not care about the quality of produce they sold, and some might try to dump off some bad produce on someone they did not know.
While chewing on his cigar, he said,
"I just can't do that. I care about what I sell.
If I did that, customers might never come back."
He said that all the city's Safeway stores bought produce from him.
BEING IN THE WHOLESALE produce business is more a way of life than just a 9-10 job. Spector must be at the market by a 4 a.m. to check that all trucks coming in from California have the correct orders unloaded. He said the produce was stored in underground coolers below the market.
"I leave whenever my work is done," he said. "I usually get home around 4 or 5."
He said his wife was so used to him getting up early that it did not really bother her anymore.
Spector said he enjoyed the market's atmosphere.
"She's beautiful," he said.
"People always yell and scream at each other down here," he said, "but they really don't mean anything by it. It's all in fun."
Spector, who is 63, said he stayed at the market because he liked it, but added, "What else could I do?"
HE THEN ADJUSTED his red baseball cap and started to talk about his children, who are all out of college.
He talked about them, it seems, to stress the importance of being well-educated, and he reeled off their accomplishments.
Bob graduated from the University of Missouri and works at an advertising agency. Linda works at a travel agency in Atlanta and travels all over the world. Cori is married to a chiropractor and lives in Kansas City.
"People should go to college," he said. "It educates them and it gets them somewhere. Look where my kids are. They've had a college education."
"And now look at me and where I am. I like my job, but I could have done lot better."
Just then a young boy stepped into the produce company.
The boy asked about Washington apples. Spector put his arm around the boy's shoulder and they disappeared down a flight of stairs to a cooler.
Although no longer in sight, they could still be heard.
"We'll find the best Washington apples this side of Washington," Spector told the boy.
A 13-year-old Lawrence youth reported to Lawrence police yesterday that she was raped Sunday night in an apartment at 178 Washington Avenue in Massachusetts Street, police said.
Jack Elder, Lawrence police officer,
said the youth left a video game parlor
with a man whom she said she knew.
The youth reported to police that the man took her into the alley, pulled a knife and ordered her to take her hand. Then she then raped her, the youth reported.
Rape of 13-year-old reported to police
Squash Evening
Tournament
Entry deadline—5 p.m.
Thursday, April 14
208 Robinson
$1 entry fee and participants
must furnish own equipment
Elder said the youth suffered no physical injuries from the rape.
He said that police had the name of a suspect but that they had made no arrest.
THE CASTLE
TEA ROOM
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Fri., April 15, 9:00 p.m.
$3.00 Kansas Union Ballroom
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with
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Children 12 and under just $2.00
So Minsky's Munchers, March Down and Munch
Down on Minsky's Colossal Combo Nite—Tonight
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 Iowa
842-0154
No Carry Out or Delivery on this Special.
Other specials not valid with this offer
We Deliver
Concerned About Black Students at KU?
DO SOMETHING ABOUT IT! Run for a BSU office
Positions available: president, vice president treasurer, reporting secretary, corresponding secretary
Attend the
TONIGHT Templin Hall
GENERAL MEETING
Funded by the Student Activity Fee
737
New Hampshire
749-4121
Presents
Wed., April 13 & Thurs., April 14 from Kansas City
YARDAPES
Friday, April 15 & Saturday, April 16 Kelly Hunt and the Kinetics Come home to Lawrence
Wed., April 13 Tonight Reggae Fest '83
Special Event Monday, April 18 From New York City CMI Recording Artists
The Jazzhaus 9261/2 Massachusetts
REGGAE FEST '93
THE KILLER BAND
RADIO ROTATIC STEEL BAND
JAMAICAN D.J. "JOHN T."
Tomorrow — Sax Virtuoso
Gary Foster
(former lead alto with the Toshiko-Tabackin Big Band
and special guests
CARMEL JONES—trumpet
RUSSELL LONG—piano
MILT ABEL—bass
SCOTT BRODIN—drum
LAST SUMMER, DOUBLE rooms cost $490 and single rooms cost $890.
Great Jump Blues with Blueplate Special
But despite previous interest, no scholarship hall will be open during the summer, an All Scholarship Hall Council official said.
(cover only $2.00)
Friday & Saturday
Jan Short, co-chairman of the ASHC housing and contracts committee, said that only 10 women had received their scholarships during the summer,
JRP to be available for summer living
SHORT SAID THAT 25 women had indicated an interest in staying in the hall before the contracts were distributed.
Sunday Dance to the Island Music with Caribe
Food service and management of the hall will be the same as during the normal school year, she said.
Summer rates are $500 for a double room and $710 for a single room.
Joseph R. Pearson Hall will be open for the summer session, the director of the KU housing department said this week.
He said that although he did not think the hall would be filled to its capacity of 406 students, he hoped it could accommodate about 330 students.
J. J. Wilson, director of housing,
said JRP had been open for several
summers because the hall "is the closest to campus and its size is compatible to the number of students we're looking at."
The hall will be open June 6 to July 29, Wilson said.
Mikkelson said that the hall would provide co-educational living arrangements and that men and women live on different floors of the hall.
A scholarship hall has not been open for the summer in the past five years.
There is no deadline for submitting contracts to live in JRP during the summer session.
Ruth Mikkelson, associate director of the office of residential programs, said contracts were being submitted to her office at about the same rate as previous years.
Spring Evenings
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701 Massachusetts 841-5324
AVIATION OPPORTUNITIES
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- One, Two and three bedroom units from $285 to $415 per month.
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913-843-4754
SOPHOMORES
COULD THE NAVY INTEREST YOU IN 2 YEARS PAID TUITION?
If you are a sophomore at the University of Kansas, you may qualify for a Navy Two-Year Scholarship. The Navy will even include $100 a month spending money.
When you graduate, you will have a job in the fleet as a naval or marine officer. You will train in Nuclear Submarines, Surface Ships, Naval Aircraft or one of many other exciting fields.
TAKE ADVANTAGE OF 2 YEARS PAID TUITION
Call Lieutenant Ted Beidlor at 864-3361. He will be happy to tell you about the Naval Reserve Officer Training Corps (NROTC)
*Paid' Tuition, Spending Money, and a Job. That is Navy.ROTC.