Some guys used to sell the Encyclopedia door-to-door.
Never answered your question about Steve Allen and the high school, NH. Hyde Park High School was on 64/65 St. and Stony Island, across from the park and the Museum of Science and Industry. Englewood High School was further west on 62/63 St., between Halsted and the Dan Ryan expressway.
Remember both the days when ice and coal were an essential of living well. The ice man would have to lug it up at times to the 4th floor of a building. You would never get today worker to do that. I remember how we had to make sure that the water from the melting ice in the ice box was emptied out or it would be all over the kitchen floor. I remember with nostalgia the good old days but in retrospect I above all remember that they were not as good as one remembers them.
Phoenix, I think you and I were at the same movie theater. Same children's section. Same matron.
I remember people taking their folding chairs outside to sit on the street to escape the summer heat in un-air-conditioned apartments. It was lively outside until all hours. I remember punchball and stickball with manhole covers as bases. I remember the seltzer man delivering door to door--blue glass bottles with a spritzer. I remember when a penny could buy you something. And so coukd a nickel and a dime.
I remember not locking the door. Yes, in NYC.
I remember the kind of roller skates that required a key. (I've still got my key.) When I got them on really well, I wouldn't take them off. Went upstairs for lunch (third floor walk-up) with my skates on. My mother understood. She had the same kind of skates when she was a kid.
I could go on, but I'll stop.
