Though I must have gone there every week for years, I can only remember being at the Library Bus on a summer's day.  Walking there in sunshine, wearing shorts and a puffy sleeved top.  Carrying books and the library card.  Or maybe the books were in the basket of my baby sister's stroller or in the basket of my Schwinn in the days before you had to lock bikes up.

When I was a kid, our neighborhood didn't have a permanent library structure.  Every Friday, the Chicago Public Library sent the Library Bus to park at the corner of 100th Street & Yates Avenue.  We walked with our mom from our house four blocks away at 100th & Paxton.

The Library Bus was about the same size as a public transit bus, maybe taller and more square.  It was painted the same manila file folder color as my library card.  Inside it was lined with bookshelves.  We went in the front door where the adult fiction and nonfiction filled the entire front section of the bus.  The children's section was in back, past the exit door.  When I was a kid I imagined that someday I'd read every book in the place.

And speaking of mobile, there was also The Bakery Bus.  This was a large red truck or bus turned into a deli and penny candy store, that parked for a short time on each block in the neighborhood.

I spent two years of my life working behind the counter at the fabled "Moishe Pippic" hot dog emporium. Hot dog and hamburgers with fries sold for 25 cents plus a penny tax.

I also worked for two years in the Grocerland store just east of Moishe's.

Bennie's was a meat market, but he also sold penny candy which now sells for many pennies! Some of my favorites were buttons, tecolas, lik-m-aid, snaps, pumpkin seeds (with a thick coating of salt!), records (black licorice wound around a red jaw breaker), fake teeth, tongues, and lips, and the all time best: Big Sam's - some of the wrappers were winners, and if you got one, you'd get a FREE 5 cent candy bar!!!

Bennie's was also next door to the Maritime Union, the favorite hangout of Richard Speck, which was kitty corner to Luella.
 

I remember Bennie's really well. I also remember the Maritime Hall, Tastee Freez and the other "memorable" shops on 100th Street. My favorite Bennie's candy was the little wax bottles filled with that nasty, super-sweet syrup. I seem to recall Merle Lewin, Paula Harris and me strutting around with our Hoola Hoops and red wax lips. In fact, I recall that           Paula had a Hoola Hoop party in her back yard.

My mom was a regular fixture at the Beauty Parlor (Eli's??) on 100th Street, right near Moishe Pippic's.  There was also a little drug store and a little grocery store (Grocerland) over there.

Joey Izen, Howie Burnett and I used to collect glass pop bottles and return them at the Clark Gas Station across the street from Moishe Pippic's. The pop bottle funds paid for Archie and Veronica comic books and stash of Double Bubble Bubble Gum at Pinzur's on 95th Street.

Like most people, I remember the exact spot I was standing when told that the president was shot...waiting to cross 100th street to Luella, across the street from Bennies.  There are so many memories right there!  Recently I bought the same button candies I used to buy at Bennies, and I remember the Tastie Freeze close by that spot too...what a great spot for a summer treat!

Unfortunately, I also remember walking up to my friends home to get him for summer school only to find out they'd just removed the nurses bodies from the apartment 2 doors down from him, and being called bad names in Luella Park (just behind there) because of I was a Jew.

So many more great memories...seeing Jeffery Boulevard at a total stand still(sledding down the middle) during the '67 Blizzard!

I was thinking that before it became the Maritime Hall, they used to televise the Bozo Show from there.  I remember going to watch the show on days off from School.

I too, remember Bennie's, it was the hangout buying the penny candies.  My parent's wanted me to lose weight, so if my father came around Bennie would usher me out the back door.  When Richard Speck murdered the nurses, it was less than a quarter block away.  I was getting ready to leave for summer school, I opened our front door to find police all over.  An officer came to our door and asked if we had heard anything during the night.  Everyone was in shock, since prior to
that Jeffery Manor was known as the quietest neighborhood in the city.  After that the neighborhood was not the same, parents kept a closer reign on all of the children.

I recall my Dad and I going to the drug store at 100th and Yates testing tubes from our T.V. !  And there was a small candy store just east of the drug store ...

I remember going to Sol's Drug store and purchasing candy, baseball cards for a nickel from the front counter and also getting 45's with the hot new tunes that were out. Also Clark gas station, Tastey Freeze, and Luella Park just around the corner with the basketball court.

Moishe Pippic's was run by Michael Lituin's father, if I'm correct. When the neighborhood started to change I remember a paddy wagon in the middle of 100th street. The police were tossing in students from Luella because of a rumble that was going to begin.   I remember the old green chicago street lights that were on 100th street. There was a big tall girl that lived in the apartments across from the stores nicknamed the Candyman...