Into The Roaring ‘20s

When Rita was born, Warren G. Harding was President of the United States. He was extremely popular. There was a sense of well-being in the country. The economy was booming. The end of World War I coincided with unprecedented technological advances. This coupled with social change catered to large numbers of people immigrating to the United States. The stock market was skyrocketing. People were relieved that the war was over and social change rooted itself in lavish parties and overall faster lifestyles. Urbanization of cities grew as companies expanded businesses.

“Agriculture became more efficient with advancements in technology, equipment and the ability to mass produce.” Archived in the US Library of Congress, https://www.loc.gov/classroom-materials, accessed 6/19/2023.

People were steadily moving into the cities. The grocery mart Albert and Henry owned was overwhelmed with business from the influx of people who moved to Baltimore. The Harbor was always flooded with ships bringing in raw materials for factories that mostly concentrated on textiles, making shirts, pants, hats, dresses and many other items, thanks to new abilities to mass produce. There were also a few tobacco producing plants and some that made military clothing and equipment.

Albert and Ella were direct descendants of German Immigrants. Albert’s father Karl immigrated in 1888 before World War I started. And Ella’s parents, as well as Albert’s mother, were brought to the United States as children by their parents in the1870s. Both sets of parents settled in Baltimore Maryland.

“Textile plants as well as tobacco and cotton export industries were starting to gain steam in those times, which helped set the stage for the Industrial Revolution following World War I.” Archived in the U.S. Library of Congress, https://www.loc.gov/classroom-materials, accessed 6/22/2023.

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Many years earlier, before Albert met Ella and before they started a family together, Karl, Albert’s father planned for and opened his own business. He focused heavily on saving money in order to do this. And the family had to make sacrifices in order for his dream to come into fruition.

Albert’s father and mother, Karl and Sofia, both worked in the textile plants. Karl also worked part time on the Baltimore Harbor during surges in shipping and exports. The money he earned from that part-time income was put away for one purpose and one purpose only – starting a business. He dreamed of being independent, self-sufficient, and well equipped to take care of his family. Factory work in those days was grueling. Long work shifts sometimes exceeded twelve hours, six days per week. Physically and mentally demanding tasks, and no union regulations or support made for miserable conditions at times. Karl’s hopes, aspirations, and dreams of adventure were shot down by the reality that he would need to work hard, long hours in poor conditions to survive in this new world. The Unions, which improved working conditions immensely, did not make an appearance until the late 1930s, boosted by President Franklin Delano Roosevelt’s New Deal.

Karl was a hard worker and always put his family first but there was a weariness and sadness about him. He always looked worn out. By the time he saved enough to open a business, he was in his early forties. He was tall and wiry with brown and gray hair and a slightly disheveled appearance most of the time. Life had taken a toll on him both physically and mentally.

At first, Karl planned to open a hotel with a restaurant to serve those who visited Baltimore on business or for personal reasons. However, the more he thought about a venture of this nature, he realized it would be a 24-hour operation and he changed his mind. The expression to “bite off more than he could chew” came to mind. Not to mention managing employees that maintained a kitchen to cook and serve food. Maid service and other hotel staff would be needed as well. And a large time commitment by himself, his wife Sophia and his children was just too much.

Karl decided instead on opening a grocery mart. He studied the patterns of supply and demand as it related to the textile mill where he worked. He paid attention to the time periods between supply shipments, relationships between the company managers where he worked and suppliers. But he also had a knack in understanding how and what would be produced related to time of year, public demand, and export needs. He learned all of this after spending so many years on the docks in Baltimore and in Cologne during his youth. After evaluating everything, he knew he would be successful running a business that supplied the local area with groceries and home sundries.

Karl had one problem – Alcohol. The problem did not start negatively impacting his life until after he opened the neighborhood grocery mart. He was sharp, motivated, and eager to start his business. But after the alcohol abuse set in, he would rely more and more on his sons Albert and Henry to help maintain the grocery mart he worked so hard to open. They did so gladly as they understood how much both parents sacrificed to open the store. Cherished memories were made in those early days working with their mother and father at the store.

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Karl finally had the funds to purchase a run-down feed store that went out of business in 1909. Most of Baltimore had urbanized. Farming was done almost exclusively outside city limits, leaving the feed store progressively without customers. The building had good bones and was very spacious. This would allow for many foodstuff aisles. On his forty-second birthday, on New Year’s Day, 1910, he laid out a twenty five percent down payment equal to $2,500.00. The rest would be paid in installments over the next five years for a total of $15,000.00 for the building.

He saved as much money as possible for this moment for over twenty years, working long hours and earmarking wages earned at his part time gig on the docks of Baltimore’s Inner Harbor. These earnings were exclusively saved for his future business. He rarely splurged on gifts. Once, he made Henry a train-set out of some birchwood scraps he brought home from his job on the harbor. He worked on this gift for over a month after his son begged for a train-set he saw with a red caboose in the window of Hecht’s – a popular “department” store that originated in Baltimore and later propagated most mid-Atlantic states.

These types of stores started to crop up all over the country. Sears, J.C. Penney, and Montgomery Ward are some examples. They offered shopping all in one large space with different departments such as clothing, furniture, toys, kitchen supplies, bed linens, and home decorating, hence the term “department” store. Much larger than a general store or local mart, they gained increasing popularity as the United States began urbanization, especially after WWI. The Hecht Company, in 1900, opened its doors in Baltimore a few months before Christmas on Henry and Albert’s route to school.

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“First order of business was coming up with the name,” Karl thought. He looked around the empty, square building, with large beams attached to a 30-foot roof and sat down on an abandoned crate. The name just popped into his mind.

Simple, “Weber’s Grocery Mart.”

He was sure the store would flourish with himself at the helm and his boys working with him. All the research and time he spent planning told him so. He was overjoyed at the prospect of leaving something of real value to his children and generations to come. He also looked forward to working for himself.

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A major family crisis ensued within six months of opening the store. Albert’s mother, Sophia, was diagnosed with Tuberculosis and passed away three months later. The dangers of working in a factory, in cramped quarters, working many hours in the presence of mostly poor, disadvantaged people, sometimes in ill health led to diseases such as Tuberculosis in those days. This disease was highly contagious, but by the grace of God, neither of the boys or Karl contracted the disease.

The family’s firm faith in Catholicism would allow a path for his mother’s recovery. Albert was convinced of this. If he prayed in earnest and with his whole heart and soul for her recovery then God would heal his beloved mother. However, unfortunately, his mother never recovered and passed away when he was twenty-two years old. And Henry was only twenty.

Albert became depressed and anxious during this time – depressed in terms of losing his mother, but also anxious and worried for his father. Karl had been drinking even more after the death of his beloved wife. Albert became very concerned as his father slipped further into alcoholism. Karl stopped taking care of himself. He wore the same clothes day after day and appeared more than disheveled – sloppy at times even when working at the store.

Albert’s mood changed one hot, muggy evening in late July, when a young lady walked into the store just as Albert was hanging up the “Closed” sign.

She said, “Excuse me for stopping in so late, but is there any two-day-old bread available?”

She wasn’t beautiful in a way that women were judged at that time – well dressed, modest amount of make-up or the “bob” hairstyle, which was starting to gain popularity in the 1910s. It later became a trademark look for women during the Roaring ‘20s.

No, she had a more natural look, no make-up, and she was short and petite. He found himself attracted to her natural beauty. He felt an immediate...