Aunt Sal and Uncle Herb Changed My Life

My Family: Herbert and Sally Baker

James Patterson

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Sally Johnson was born in East Alabama in March 1913. One of six siblings, including my grandfather Sam Johnson, Sally lived and worked in the town of Fairfax. After World War II, she followed another young woman from Fairfax to Boston, Massachusetts. Sally lived the rest of her life in Boston.

?As an employee of the W.T. Grant Department Store, Sally worked in various sections of the large store. The store merchandise included clothing, home furnishings, electronics, and appliances. The store had a restaurant for employees and shoppers and a candy and warm nuts counter. Sally liked selling candy and nuts because she could “sample the goods,” she said.

It was at Grant’s that Sally met Herbert Baker (1921-1987). Mr. Baker was a Jewish veteran of World War Two. His large family lived in the Boston area. Mr. Baker was in the vending machine business. He started the business with candy and peanuts. He branched into a more profitable product: Cigarettes.

Uncle Herb explained to me that his customers, restaurants, cafes, delis, and local area fast food places sold cigarettes as a convenience for their customers. Cigarettes were in big demand after WWII. Since Uncle Herb’s clients sold cigarettes from behind a cashier counter, they had heavy losses from damage and theft. Cigarette vending machines, where smokers put their coins in a slot, safeguarded the cigarettes until they were purchased.

Uncle Herb made a fortune on cigarettes. Cigarette vending was not without risks. As The Boston Globe Business reported on June 17, 1954, “Gun battle blamed on ‘muscle – in’ try,” an “old- fashioned gangland war” had started over the city’s cigarette vending business. Uncle Herb and his brother Henry described an incident where a guy used a .45 caliber submachine gun to shoot into their office.

The Globe reported that “police were looking into the possibility of a connection between the wild shooting and the larcenies of cigarette vending machines from several Boston businesses during the past month.” Instead of stealing packs of cigarettes, the paper said crooks stole the entire [vending] machine.” Uncle Herb learned that the cigarette vending business was not without risks.

Uncle Herb also branched into another profitable product: Entertainment. He entered the jukebox business. People used coins to play their favorite songs from a jukebox.

Uncle Herb physically supplied 45 R.P.M. records to his machines. This meant he changed old records for newer ones. Every Christmas he mailed a big box of old 45 R.P.M. records to me in Fairfax. I recall that most of the records were not big hit songs. Many of the records were songs by young TV stars, like Johnny Crawford on “The Rifleman,” "singing" awful songs like "My Dog Has Fleas."

The best record that Uncle Herb sent me was “Palisades Park” by Freddy “Boom Boom” Cannon. “Tallahassee Lassie” was another Cannon hit. Cannon’s songs are at https://www.freddycannon.com/freddyboom/ and YouTube.

In the early 1960s, Uncle Herb and Aunt Sal began visiting my grandparents each summer. They flew to Atlanta or Columbus, Georgia, where they rented a car. They usually stayed at my grandfather’s house on Hill Street in Fairfax for one or two weeks. It was an education for Uncle Herb. He thought that Alabamians talked like the characters on The Beverly Hillbillies TV show.

It was during one of those summer visits that Aunt Sal convinced my mother and grandmother to let me visit with them in Boston. In 1969, my worldview broadened with my first summer trip to Boston. These trips continued for 10 years. While I was an undergraduate at Auburn University, most of my friends took class breaks in Florida. I went to Boston.

Uncle Herb took me to my first Major League Baseball game. We saw the Boston Red Sox with Carl (“Yaz”) Yastrzemski playing against the New York Yankees in an exciting game at Fenway Park. Yaz was a tremendous player!

Uncle Herb’s customers included nightclubs where entertainers, musical acts, comics, and singers, performed before a seated audience. Uncle Herb and Aunt Sal were friendly with some of the entertainers, including singer/comic Frank Fontaine (1920-1978). I had seen Fontaine on The Jackie Gleason Show.

?Another of Herb and Sal’s showbiz pals was female comedian Rusty Warren (1930-2021). Warren’s act consisted of sexual comedy and songs. Her biggest hits were “Knockers Up!” and “Bounce Your Boobies.” She often sang “Red River Sal” for my Aunt Sal. These songs are on YouTube.

Rusty Warren was a lovely lady. We kept in touch until late in her life. She was kind, generous, and funny until the end.

After a heart attack, Herb sold his business in the late 1960s. Sal left the W.T. Grant company. He enjoyed all-night card games at his club, The Montclair Men’s Club. Sal enjoyed bingo nights at any of the many churches in her area. She also enjoyed bowling. She had a cabinet filled with bowling trophies. Her team was the South Shore Bowlerettes. In the 1970s, the Men’s Club voted to let wives join. Fontaine performed at the club.

Herb’s former customers kept him stocked with liquor. Though he had given up drinking, he enjoyed the sight of his well-stocked bar. They had a stereo system in their basement. We often listed and laughed at Warren singing about her “boobies.”

Uncle Herb died in 1987. When Aunt Sal died in 1989, I lived in Washington, D.C. I flew to Boston for her service. Many young men who memorialized her told me how important she was to them when they were children. When the boys had no money, Aunt Sal gave them candy and warm nuts at W.T. Grant’s Candy Counter. She often took them to the store restaurant. Aunt Sal was a great lady.

Aside from the nightclubs, Uncle Herb and Aunt Sal took me to museums, libraries, universities, and abundant historical sites across Massachusetts. They took me to the United Nations in New York. We had great times at their house playing cards. Herb and Sal had amazing skill at card games.

During my school year, they sent articles from Boston and New York newspapers. They sent books. They shared letters and photos with Fontaine, Warren, comic Phyllis Diller, and many others.

Uncle Herb and Aunt Sal were influential people in my life. It took courage for Uncle Herb to visit us in Alabama. As a Jewish man, he had heard stories that gave him a negative impression of the state. Civil rights violence was in the news. My dad served with Alabama's Army National Guard for the integration of the University of Alabama at Tuscaloosa in 1963 and for the third march from Selma to Montgomery in 1965.

In the 1960s, Alabama was a tough place for a summer vacation. Herb and Sal could have taken a cruise. They could have gone to Las Vegas. Instead, they went to Fairfax, Alabama. I am forever grateful they made that long-ago decision. ?Uncle Herb and Aunt Sal made a big difference in my life.

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James Patterson, a former U.S. diplomat, is a writer in the Washington, D.C. area. He recently wrote "Public Service Requires Sacrifice" for the Gerald R. Ford Leadership Forum. https://fordforum.org/2024/05/30/public-service-requires-sacrifice/ and https://dcjournal.com/author/james-patterson/

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