sheeny man, (1950's junk dealer with horse-drawn wagon)
When I was a kid, in the early 1950's, on Dorothy Street near Hamtramck, there would periodically come a junk dealer through the alley on a horse-drawn wagon, blowing a tinny-sounding horn. Everyone called him the "sheeny." I have since learned that that's probably an insulting term for a Jew, but that's what we knew him as. I think we would probably hail him as "Hey, sheeny-man!" to get his attention, but there was no insult intended. He bought old newspapers, scrap metal, appliances, stuff like that.
Anyone else remember such a guy?
pictures
"I'm going to give you to the sheeny man if you aren't good."
I remember the Sheeny man coming down the alley back in the 50’s. When his horse would take a dump near our house, my mother would have my brother and me shovel some into our wagon and bring it back home to put in the garden.
Attachment 27985