Warren Leib
Born:
Died:
Married: Mary, the couple celebrated their 50th wedding anniversary in 2013
Children: eight children
Warren Leib graduated from Saranac Lake High School in 1954 and has many memories of growing up in Bloomingdale and Saranac Lake.
Warren spent his early childhood at the farm of his cousin, Sandy Hayes, in Bloomingdale. Then he moved with his mother to 53 1/2 Main Street, a building with four rental units behind the Linwood Cottage.
He had a number of odd jobs around town as a young man. He worked at E. J. Kennedy's, sweeping floors. He had to cover all the black dresses before sweeping so that they wouldn't get dusty. He took out the trash and burned it behind the store. On Saturdays he washed the windows and cleaned the large mirrors over the changing area in the back of the stores. The ladies in the store weren't pleased with him doing that work while they were trying on clothes.
Warren had a job delivering papers for the Adirondack Daily Enterprise. He delivered papers to the people who lived on the upper floors of the Main Street buildings. Many of them had been patients, and some were still curing for TB in the 1950s.
Warren also worked at Green's Market. He made 62 cents an hour. The ladies would come in and sit on the stools at the counter and give Nita Green their lists. He would go around collecting what they wanted, using a pole with pinchers at the end to grab things from the top shelves. He was "the official melon smeller." The ladies would say, "Have Warren pick out my melon," because he was good at being able to smell which cantaloupes were ripe. Warren remembers Charlie and his wife fondly. "Charlie was always hopping around the store, and we were expected to do the same."
Warren played on the Saranac Lake baseball and football teams. He used to go to the Teen Canteen and served as president of the group for a while. He remembers the Friday and Saturday dances in the auditorium at the Harrietstown Town Hall. He also spent a lot of time at Bernie Wilson's, playing pinball and drinking strawberry coke. He also hung out at Meyers Drugstore, where they had a soda counter and three or four booths. Warren was friends with Bunny Scheefer and they played on the Alpine Hotel softball team together.
He worked with contractors on the plumbing at the Sanatorium after it closed and was being changed over to the American Management Association.
Information provided by phone to Amy Catania, January 21, 2014
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