Charles Guariglia

Charles Guariglia's father, Frank, was a "bread man" who delivered Stuhmer's kosher bread to the Jewish delicatessens and shops along Mermaid Avenue in Coney Island from 1947 to 1973. From age 9 until he was a freshman in college, Charles accompanied his dad on his route in the summer and got to meet the hard-working store owners, many of whom were Holocaust survivors. "As I look back, it was probably the one experience that helped form me as an adult," he says. "Hard work, honesty, tell the truth at all times. " In this interview, Guariglia, who is now 77, describes a different side of Coney Island. "Unbeknownst to so many, it was a lot more than the beach and the boardwalk," he says. "It was Mermaid Avenue, and the teeming commerce that was taking place there every day."

Charles Guariglia passed away in 2020 at the age of 78