I guess you have figured it out by now, but I LOVE the south side and especially BEVERLY and MORGAN PARK! I love it that I can walk, bike or drive in about a minute to a wonderful local grocery store like County Fair enjoy home cooked meals at Ken's Restaurant, when I don't feel like cooking, or hang out with some authentic Irish folks at Keegans Irish Pub,(that is when I get bored with the authentic Irish dude that I live with!). Never! I can walk with my daughter to a beautiful tree filled park like Crescent Park or any of the other beautiful parks in the area and enjoy an ice cream treat at the Beverly Coffee Shop at 111th and Fairfield just steps from where I grew up. All the while meeting and greeting wonderful friends old and new! Well, I made a new friend the other day. I heard the jingle, jingle of Tony the knife guy and his custom made sharpening cart. He has been traveling around Beverly and Morgan Park for years sharpening residents knives and tools. When I went out to meet him several other neighbors brought their wares out and we had a little impromptu get together while waiting for our things to be sharpened. I had a little chat with Tony and found out he is from the southern area of Italy, "down in the boot", and has been here in this country for many years. I found out he used to bake pastries in Italy when he was young. He told me about one of his specialties and promised me he would bring a sample to me. A few days later he arrived at my door with lovely white pastry box and inside were the delights that he enjoyed making long ago. They were thick, crusted, spiral shaped, horns filled with a creamy, lemony, ricotta cheese mixture, bellisimo! Life is strange and wonderful! Sometimes I just stop and think about how much I enjoy life and all of it's interesting twists and turns and living in Beverly/Morgan Park is a big part of the reason why.
3 comments:
For years I have been trying to find him, hoping and praying he will come down my block. I have about 15 knifes I need sharpened.
He was on Central Park from 103rd and south about 3 weeks ago! I love this guy!
Great article! It was like a blast from the past for me. As a boy back in the 60’s, the neighborhood I grew up in had an old (probably younger than me now) Italian guy that always came around in the summertime. Money was scarce back then, but as I recall, it seemed like everyone waited for the “Knife Man” to come around to sharpen their knives, scissors and lawn mower blades. It was kind of like a summer tradition.
I was too young to know if he was the best, or only outlet for this service at the time, but people were very loyal to him and as you mentioned, would gather around and talk with their neighbors as he did his job. Regretfully, I don’t remember his name, but he was a nice guy and growing up in a neighborhood that was largely made up of parents that were immigrants, it was fun listening to the stories he would tell about the “Old Country” in his broken English. My Mom was an immigrant, and always referred to her native Ireland as the “Old Country” too, so I was always a little confused as to how the Italians and Irish came from the “same place” and spoke with such different accents.
The “Knife Man” had a cart very similar to the one Tony has, and one day he got the wheel of his cart caught in the railroad tracks and was still pulling on it trying to release it when it was struck by an oncoming train. The poor old guy got one of his thumbs torn off and I remember a bunch of the older kids were sent to look for his thumb, until someone found it. I remember asking my Mom why he didn’t just get away from his cart and she said, “because it was probably the only thing he had this the world, and couldn’t just let it go without a fight.”
I don’t know what ever happened to our “Knife Man” after that, but I never saw him again. Thanks for rekindling some old memories and sending us all back to a simpler and better time in America, when people still looked out for one another and patronized the communities they lived in.
Please let me know if you find out the next time Tony is going to be in Mt Greenwood, I’ve got a little work for him.
Jim McMahon
mcmahon351@aol.com
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