www.ThomasCapone.com: 5 pennies for your thoughts

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Ideas people! I need new ideas for Q1 2024.... GO!

Here are 5 but they will cost ya....

What does a penny for your thoughts mean?

“What's on your mind?” or “Tell me what you are thinking,” especially when someone looks pensive, or they haven't said very much and have been quiet for a while about a specific topic. First used by English statesman Sir Thomas More in his 1522 book Four Last Things, the idiom “A penny for your thoughts” has retained the same meaning for nearly 500 years. In the 16th century, a penny was a lot of money. The phrase means that someone is very curious to know what another person is thinking about. Today we often say it when a person seems to be far away in thought.

Tringali Iron Works is going out of business. I know this because I got a postcard in the mail from Bud. You know, Bernard "Bud" Knudsen, the son of Barney Knudsen and Jean Tringali.

Well, here's my 2 cents on that news...

In the mid-1920’s Liborio Tringali (Bud Knudsen’s grandfather) emigrated from Italy. He was an experienced blacksmith with a family background in the iron works business. He leased and operated an iron works shop in lower Manhattan in an area called “Tribeca” (Triangle below Canal). In those days this was the center of the wholesale grocery trade with its numerous warehouses, delivery trucks, horse and wagons, and overhead elevated trains.

Blacksmithing was commonly associated with horse shoeing. With the location of an iron works shop central to the warehouse district, a large part of work shifted to installation of protective steel plates over wooden warehouse floors in order to facilitate storage and movement of merchandise in the warehouse.

Throughout the 1930’s the scope of the work continued to expand, and included fabrication and installation of custom ornamental iron works, steel stairways, light structural, specialty tools, equipment repair, and mechanical contracting. During this period, the leased building at 401 Greenwich Street was acquired and Tringali Iron Works finally had its own home. When the war broke out in 1941, the business was called upon as a subcontractor to provide specialty steel items for government contracts. To meet production schedules, Jean Tringali (Bud Knudsen’s Mother), a top-notch secretary, pitched in after hours and on weekends as a punch press operator. She recalled her experiences as her contribution to the war effort and the thousands of steel holes she punched in steel plates and parts.

In the 1950’s the wholesale grocers gradually located to College Point and as premises were vacated, the lofts were bought and renovated into posh and trendy residences. Since the warehouses are subject to control by the Landmark Commission, very little exterior alteration has been allowed to this day.

In recent years, Tribecca has been considered to be one of the most desirable areas in New York City and has become the home of many notables. After nearly 75 years, the building from which Tringali Iron Works had operated as a family business through three generations was sold.

In April 2000 the business was relocated to historic Boonton Township, New Jersey and continues the family tradition with a greater emphasis on specialty and custom iron works designs under the sole direction of Bernard “Bud” Knudsen as part of that third generation. Gee, I wonder how many metal signs they made, over the last 100 years...

And now, Bud has announced his retirement.

Yesterday, I met Patty the dog. While walking Konta in the woods, Patty came bounding out of nowhere... and Boom! Instant play date for Konta. And that is how I met Bud's dog... Patty.

Oh yeah, the postcard. We are on the TIW mailing list. Bud did work for us at the house many (many) years ago... Oh right. Wow, how many times did I walk by their little shop but I never went inside... I always meant to go inside... but I never did.

The postcard. The dog Patty. Coincidence? A sign? I had to hurry to get back home, as the kids were in town for the weekend. They should be at the house by now... "Hey Tommy, TIW is having a retirement sale, right now. You might like want to check it out... might have some tools and whatnot..." Nah. Are you sure? Nah... ah, maybe tomorrow. Ah...hum... OK, let's go. And just like that, off we go to 4 North Main Street BOONTON USA.

Oh man. This place is a time capsule. Do you remember Two Guys? Oh man. I had that Marx Presidents display from the 1960's. Oh man, I had that....oh man, I remember this... oh geeze...

And then I saw the sign. Wow. It used to cost a nickel to use the bathroom. I remember pay toilets! I also remember how my parents would argue about how men could use the free urinals, while women were forced to pay to use stalls. Therefore those businesses who installed pay toilets were partaking in sexist business practices that were illegal. Yeah, Mom was a rebel...

The first pay toilet in the United States was installed in 1910 in Terre Haute, Indiana. These first pay toilets cost a nickel. That would be roughly $3.25 in 2023. As can be expected after these machines were placed nationwide a lot of people started complaining, protesting and even boycotting. Prior to protests, many businesses were making loads of money playing these locks on stalls within bathrooms, or even on the bathroom door. However, once the backlash began these places of business started to lose money as now, nobody went to that location, because of their use of a pay toilet. I remember my Mom making her opinion known like it was yesterday: "We don't go there - they make women pay to pee!"

Tommy bought a few things yesterday. I showed him the "Pay Toilet Five Cents" sign. "Ha, I don't think Danielle would find the humor it...." Buy it for me, and I'll pay you back.

So now I have the little sign, reminding me about growing up in the 60s in the USA. And going to Two Guys with my mom. And collecting the Marx Presidents, all of them, right up to Kennedy. And then, Lyndon Baines Johnson, often referred to by his initials LBJ.

And then, I saw it.

The Turquoise 1959 General Electric Model T129 AM Radio. The one that Mom had in the kitchen when we lived in Cedar Grove NJ. I remember coming into the kitchen, and seeing my mother crying. Crying so deeply, it was my first true memory. I can still "see it" crystal clear in my mind, even today. When the news came across that GE Radio, that On November 22, 1963, when he was hardly past his first thousand days in office, John Fitzgerald Kennedy was killed by an assassin's bullets as his motorcade wound through Dallas, Texas. Kennedy was the youngest man elected President; he was the youngest to die. My mother, crying. I'll never forget that image. I wanted to buy that Turquoise 1959 General Electric Model T129 AM Radio yesterday. But it was already marked "sold".

My last thought is this: Mom told Patty the dog to fetch me yesterday to come to Tringali Iron Works retirement sale. And that I should bring her grandson Tommy along, too. The grandson she never met. Yeah, Patty the dog spoke sign language to me yesterday.

Happy Retirement, Bernard "Bud" Knudsen.

And thanks Liborio - and Barney and Jean for all the memories.

I'm signing off now...