Gilda's Club in Park Slope: A Little-Known Resource

10-12-16_pp1-16_Layout 1 12/15/10 9:24 PM Page 1010 December 16, 2010 Park Slope Food Coop, Brooklyn, NYContemplating RetirementBy Joan ArnoldIam standing at the cashier waitingto pay. He notices my membershipnumber, knits his brow and looks up.“Fifty-five?” Yes, that’s my number.“Were you one of the first members?”he asks. I see his surprise that I’m relativelywell preserved.“No, I was one of the first to get aphoto ID. I joined in ’79.” Then I mightregale him with a picture of How It Usedto Be. “We just had the store upstairs.You had to pre-order your vegetables.We had no carts. You loaded up yourbox and kicked it around the store.”I am a baby boomer. I am a lattésipping,arugula-munching, granolachomping,Washington-marching,organic-eating New York Jewish liberal,dyed in the wool Coop material. Imoved to Park Slope in 1979 to joinfour other 30-something women in abrownstone on Garfield Place, downthe street from the boarded-up buildingsthat are now snazzy condos.Membership was a requisite for joiningthe household.Over all the intervening years ofworking and shopping, I have witnessed,from a distance, the wranglingover new products. Could we sellPepperidge Farm cookies? Whitesugar? Meat? I have seldom joined inthe weighing of our many controversies:the descent from upstairs todownstairs, the acquisition of Cline’sCarpet for expansion, the question ofexpansion itself. And latest to bedebated and decided was the unthinkable:liberation from the work shift.With the exceptions for pregnancy,parenting and disability, the Coop’sbasic tenet is that everyone who canworks. That strikes a deep chord. Ibelieve that participation in themechanics of our food supply affirmsmy connection to the world, andmakes the Coop successful. When Iheard I could actually retire from myshift, I felt giddy. As a self-employedbodyworker, this is probably the closestto retirement I’ll ever get. Still, thefact that I can shop without workingdoesn’t sit that well.You’d think I’d be relieved. Who hasnot, except the most compulsiveamong us, unthinkingly missed a shift?Who has not slapped his or her foreheadwith the horrified realization thathe or she would now have to do twoshifts? The first time I saw my new husbandin the depths of despair was sucha time, as he contemplated an endlessfuture of multiplying makeups.But in fact, I love working at theCoop. For all these years, I’ve done an8:00 a.m. shift. I’ve floated in and outof squad leader-hood. I made the leapfrom weighing vegetableson hangingscales to the whiz ofthe scan system. I’vefought with checkoutpeople when I was ina bad mood or theywere. I’ve seen thecrazies and theunfailingly cheerful.When my doctor leftthe medical professionto raise organicbeef upstate, I lost adiagnostician butgained a reliable proteinsource. I’ve been grateful for thevegetables that nearly jump off theshelves, for the research, screeningand selection of good local sources.I’ve been alarmed at normal grocerystores, with their groaning vegetablesand the inevitable sticker shock.I’m amazed that an organizationof 16,000 human souls actuallyworks, that by cooperatively shoulderingthe burden of an essentialservice we can make it economicaland life-enhancing. And what a community!On Thursday mornings Icatch up with the yoga teacher, thetheater actor/director, the fitnesseditor/writer,the philosopher/rockclimber and the guy with the greatestIPod lineup, laying down a groove forour morning.And now I can retire. I am over 60with 30 years of membership. No one’sforcing me. There are too many membersand too few workslots, so I couldbow out for the next generation. Iapplaud those who do. We’ve paid ourMemberContributiondues. And I could use that 2½ hours.But I feel the tug of community, tobeing a participant, not just a shopper.The Coop provides endless opportunitiesfor drama and satire, and I haveshared belly laughs or sadness at someof the hilarious or tragic collisions thatoccur in a multi-ethnic, variously sane,multi-everything collection of realhuman beings, trying to get somethingimportant done.But the fact is, we do. When ouronce-hopeful democracy is breakingour hearts with dysfunction, we arehere in a Brooklyn bubble. We getgood food at good prices. We getentertainment value. We have amazingconversations.Ask me again in a couple of years,but for the moment, I’m staying. ■Joan Arnold is a writer and teacher of theAlexander Technique and Anusara Yoga.Winter Holiday HoursChristmas Eve, Friday, 12/24Christmas Day, Saturday, 12/25New Year's Eve, Friday, 12/31New Year's Day, Saturday, 1/18:00 a.m. – 5:00 p.m.8:00 a.m. – 2:30 p.m.8:00 a.m. – 5:00 p.m.10:30 a.m. – 5:00 p.m.The Membership Office will be CLOSED onSaturday, December 25, and Saturday, January 1.COMMUNITY CALENDARCommunity calendar listings are free. Please submit your event listing in 50 words or lessto GazetteSubmissions@psfc.coop. Submission deadlines are the same as for classifiedads. Please refer to the Coop Calendar in the center of this issue. An asterisk (*) denotes aCoop member.CarrotmanPHOTO BY JULIE GABRIELSUN, DEC 19Brooklyn Public Library ChamberPlayers: Free Concert in theDweck Center at the CentralLibrary at Grand Army Plaza.Music of Schubert and Ewazen.Adela Pena and Harumi Rhodes,violin; Ah Ling Neu, viola;Roberta Cooper, violoncello;Peter Weitzner, double bass. 4p.m. www.brooklynpubliclibrary.org.WED, JAN 5FOLK OPEN SING: Come singwith us the first Wednesday ofevery month. Bring voice, instruments,friends. Children welcome.Cohosted by the FolkSociety of NY, the Ethical CultureSociety & the Good Coffeehouse.At the Ethical Culture Society, 53Prospect Park West. 7:30–10:00p.m. Info: 718-636-6341.SAT, JAN 8Peoples’ Voice Cafe: Reggie Harris;John Fromer. 8-10:30 p.m.,Community Church of New York,40 E. 35th St. (between Madison& Park). Info: 212-787-3903 orpeoplesvoicecafe.org. Suggesteddonation: $15 general/$10member/more if you choose,less if you can’t/no one turnedaway.SAT, JAN 15Peoples’ Voice Cafe: Tony Bird.8-10:30 p.m., CommunityChurch of New York, 40 E. 35thSt. (between Madison & Park).Info: 212-787-3903 or peoplesvoicecafe.org.Suggesteddonation: $15 general/$10 member/moreif you choose, less ifyou can’t/no one turned away.Read the Gazette while you’re standing on line OR online at www.foodcoop.com