Schwartz's Pawn Shop

Schwartz's Pawn Shop

Harry Buschman

"So, what's this you got ... you’re lookin’ to hock a watch? Let me tell you, watches I don't need. Here, look at these! Watches by the dozen! Nobody goes to a pawnshop to buy a watch today. Whenever it's hard times people come in here with watches. Nobody can afford to buy a watch in hard times. If you had maybe, a football helmet."

"Besides, who wears a pocket watch in hard times like this? You gotta have a suit and a vest to wear a watch. Nobody wears a vest no more. Everybody wears jeans. When was the last time you saw somebody inside a suit? You gotta have a watch chain with a pocket watch. On one end the watch, on the other end a pin from some goyem yeshiva in Masachusetts. You think you can carry a watch in your pants with your keys? Not a watch like this you can't. A pocket watch is like a kidney, a liver ... engraved in gold with your name on. It comes and goes from the family ... you don't understand me, do you?"

"This is your watch? It says, "To Algernon Finster In recognition of your thirty-five years in the Goldring Family of Commercial Loans," It's got a date. November 22, 1924. You are Algernon Finster? Pardon me for asking, but you look in pretty good shape for a man who retired in 1924."

"Your grandfather! ... and you would stamp on your own grandfather's memory by hocking his watch at Schwartz's pawn shop? So what kinda grandson are you? Think if your grandfather could see you in here."

"Take a look at these here watches I got. Maybe you could use another watch, who knows? Maybe when times get better you could use. Here's one tells you what's the time in Vladivostock, another one here shows you what the moon is doing. This one remembers birthdays. Put your ear down close to them, Like a nest of crickets, all ticking out of time. You're not in the market? No, me neither! Who needs to know what time it is anyway?"

"When I was a kid I would ask the Rabbi what time. Our Rabbi had a pocket watch like these. He would put his cigar down in his ash tray and get up from his chair. He would open up his coat and reach in his vest pocket for his watch. Then he would put on his glasses and snap open the cover. Not until then he would tell me the time. Who cared by then. It was too late already.