The picture below is of my grandfathers bakery. The Canonsburg National Bakery was located at 203 Forrest Street which today would be near the cul-de-sac at the far west end of what is now known as 4 Coins Drive. The actual bakery was located in the buildings seen on the right in the back of the picture.
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| From Left to Right - Mr. Fritz Lutz(driver), my grandmother Laura Kobierski, aunt Wanda, my mother Irene and my grandfather Frank Kobierski Not as clearly shown is my aunt Hilda who would make her grand appearance in about 6 more months. (Not sure of the identity of the four on the right) |
One of my favorite grandfather's story was from the Great Depression. In his efforts to survive through the economic grip it had on his business, he began to have whiskey(moonshine) delivered in 50 gallon drums (containers that previously held his flour) from Steubenville, Ohio. The bootleg whiskey would be siphoned from the barrel through a cleverly disguised plumbing system into bottles(fifths) and placed into the same type of paper sleeve that normally held fresh baked bread and then delivered along with the baked goods to small corner stores, restaurants and even residences of Canonsburg and the surrounding area. He would say, "that even though many did not have enough money for bread, they seem to always have it for booze".
Another facet of the story is this bootleg liquor trucked in from Stuebenville was often delivered to Canonsburg by a young man still in his teens named Dino Paul Crocetti. In November of 1940 this young man changed his name to Dean Martin, and as they say..."well the rest is history".