This picture is of a helper and Sidney on the right.

It filled most of the short block front on Brook Avenue formed by the intersection with 162nd Street and Washington Avenue. At first glance it may have seemed like the typical local drug store of story and film. Like most drug stores of the times, the display window had colorful pictures and tall exotically shaped bottles holding various colored liquids. Stories on the history of medicine accompanied them. During the Christmas season one window was always decorated with a winter scene of snow and ice and beautiful blue and silver displays of "Evening Of Paris" perfume's and other toilet articles.

Also like many drug stores Rothaus' Pharmacy was the social center of the neighborhood. On most evenings and on any weekend afternoon multitudes of young people gathered on the wide sidewalk and filled the ten stools of Rothaus' soda fountain. Many local romances had their start at Rothaus'. True, it may have been similar to any other drug store, but Rothaus' was different. The store was wide at the front but had a small triangular interior. It was always a beehive of activity. The soda fountain was constantly busy. Two brothers owned the pharmacy and it was the medical center for the neighborhood. They served as the emergency medics for all minor injuries and illnesses. If Dr. Jake would not patch you up, then you had a real injury and had better get to the hospital. There were two phone booths at a time when house phones were rare and they were constantly busy. There was also a pinball machine in the rear, which we kids had always in play despite Doc's reminders to us that we were not old enough to play.

The sidewalk in front of Rothaus' was unique.  First, it was the periphery of a "major league" curb ball field formed by the intersection of Brook and Washington Avenues and 162nd Street. Despite the heavy traffic on the avenues, every weekend and summer afternoon, curb ball games were constant and intense between the teenage guys and the neighborhood WW2 vets who played ball while living on their 52-20 checks. Rothaus' sidewalk served as crowded bleachers to this busy impromptu ballpark.

There was a large crowd in front of Rothaus' on almost any afternoon or evening. In the summer evenings the crowd was often diverse. Rothaus' shared its busy sidewalk space with clientele from Grasso's and from Jake's.  Jake's, on the corner of Washington Avenue, was a quasi-candy store that fronted for a bookie joint.  It had a constant cohort of Damon Runyon characters as customers. When I first went into Jake's as a little kid to try and actually buy some candy, the counterman laughed and told me to go somewhere else.  Grasso's Bar was just around the corner from Jake's.  It was a neighborhood bar and a decent restaurant at a time when fancy restaurants were rare in the Bronx. Grasso's had a very mixed clientele. There were many local people. Shuffleboard was new then and it was the mainstay of the young WW2 vets. There were also some boxing hangers-on and a gambling crowd, which seemed to overlap with the Jake's regulars. In good weather some of Grasso's crowd merged with the Jake's crowd on the corner and overflowed into the drugstore crowd, many of who were their younger siblings. It was this mixed crowd that made the Rothaus' crowd so untypical. Also, between Jake's and Rothaus', was a narrow fenced-in area which served as entry to some apartments squirreled in behind the stores around the corner. On summer evenings this fence served as the backdrop for regular dice games by guys from Jake's and from Grasso's which were watched by many youths from the Rothaus' crowd. Several of the regulars were "tough guys", at least to us kids, and a run of bad dice by one of them could lead to some tense moments.

For teenagers such as myself this beehive of activity was the place to be on spring and summer evenings. My small group of five guys and two girls were there nightly. Actually we were the youngsters in the crowd and were just spectators to the action around us.  Right beside Rothaus' was the hallway to an apartment house. My group usually stood in the doorway of this house and tenants passing often voiced complaints about the noisy scene. Looking back on it, the tenants, at least on the lower floors, must have been fools or saints to stand the noise of the social scene below. I went into the service soon after my seventeenth birthday. My group of friends followed in the next year or two. By the time I returned four years later, two of my crowd were still in Korea and everything looked different.

ADDENDA:   (3/27/2011)
HISTORY BY: LAUREL ROTHAUS WASSER

The pharmacy (918 Brook Ave) existed before 1900. It belonged to a druggist called Ginsburg. My uncle Harry(oldest) bought the store and my father Jack graduated Fordham in 1925 and went into business with Harry. Then came along Sidney and the 3 ran the store. Sidney left to open a store near Riverdale in the Bronx, and later went to Bay Ridge in Brooklyn and had a store there. The store in Brooklyn lasted till he died in 1963. My father Jack ran the store by himself after Harry died in 1942. He was 42 years old when he died. Jack closed the store in 1960 right after I graduated from Fordham Pharmacy. He brought lots of things home with him that I still have. I loved going to work with my father. He was very smart, and he raised most of those kids in the neighborhood. There was no welfare or Medicaid and most of the people never paid him. There were groups of guys from different years that "graduated" from Rothaus Pharmacy. Everyone loved my father. I have letters and post cards that the guys from WW2 wrote him. I met one guy named Charlie that worked in the Tru-Form shoe store on Broadway and W.231 St. He was one of the boys and he fitted my daughters with shoes back in the 60's and 70's. What praise I got from him. Then when my father died in 1971, my mother needed help from the Chase Manhattan Bank and lo and behold, the gentleman saw the name Rothaus, and asked if we were related to Jack. There was not anything he wouldn't do for my mother. And he did not charge her.

The automobile in the photo had to be from the late 20's or 30's. In the early 40's my father always had autos like that one. They had running boards and were comfy and were used, for we were poor like everyone else. My father knew Fats Waller and Father Divine and all the riff raff from Grasso's. The neighborhood people were the best and they were like family. There was a tailor around the corner named Mishkin. It was a really nice place with nice memories.

I never heard anyone say anything bad about my father. My grandfather Sam Rothaus was a realtor, painter and builder. He, I believe, had an "office" or place in the store. There were Murphys' and Valentines" that lived on 162nd st. They were all nice people, and even some of the ones that were not so nice, were really nice, if you know what I mean. My brother remembers the pin ball machine, and I think I do too. My father did not want him to play with it, but he did anyway. He remembers the old things, because he is 8 yrs older than I am. I even remember one of the telephone numbers “Mott Haven 9-9258” from one of the 2 phone booths. Also, before motorcycle police, they rode horses. My father used to make medicine in capsules for horses. They were gigantic in size. My mother always bought the perfume sets for Christmas. Even though I never liked the smell of “Evening in Paris”, I loved helping her set the sets up.

I appreciated what Paul Haran wrote in his MEMORIES, even though he called my father Jake. Ha Ha!

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