Dormont Isaly’s Memory from 1965

While a senior in high school in 1965, I was lucky enough to have worked at Isaly’s in Dormont, Pa. I remember in October of that year I actually became the head clerk working 40 hours/week, making a huge $1/hour. It really was a good wage for a high school kid and let me save money for college books and also take my girlfriend out 2 to 3 times a week. The work ethic of the career Isaly employees provided lessons that were the foundation for success in life. We were known for our skyscraper cones, and klondikes. plus whitehouse and Maricopa ice cream. Skyscraper cones required practice to make them correctly, because if you made them too large, the customer could end up with a huge 15 cent cone and Isaly’s would lose money. I wish I could remember my managers name, because he and the assistant manager, Mr. Fonner, ran a great store. The daytime porter, Bill, (we called him the old Dad) prepared all the food sold on the lunch steam table and made the best ham salad in the world. The general public didn’t know it, but all “ends” of the deli meats and cheeses went into the mix of the ham salad. In reality, the mix was probably 90+% baked ham, boiled ham, chipped ham, kosher corned beef, corned beef, and even a small amount of bologna and salami. I had pride knowing that Isaly’s sold the best quality foods and look back fondly at those experiences. I remember some of the prices of our products in 1965. I do recall that the ice cream cones were 7 cents for the child single scoop, 10 cents for the small sky scraper and 15 cents for the large skyscraper. Klondikes were a dime. Chipped ham was 59 cents/lb. – (49cents/lb. on sale.) Baked ham was 89 cents/lb. – (69 cents/lb. on sale.)