After four decades, Murray Goldwag of Kosher Socks fame is still very much a presence, manning his store on Main Street in South Fallsburg

If you want it, he’s got it in his South Fallsburg store, where merchandise spills over the counter, and boxes full of goggles, spray bottles, and children’s toys line the walls. A presence for four decades now, summer just wouldn’t be the same without him

O nce upon a time bungalow colonies were filled with actual bungalows whose roofs leaked floors creaked and tubs rusted over. In those days if you needed to cool down in the hot summer air you sipped on an ice pop while fanning yourself under a tree. Way back when Dad would drive back to the city for work on a Monday morning leaving Mom and the kids car-less until he returned the following Friday.

Thus did a cottage industry of bungalow peddlers emerge. Once a week Hymie the Milkman Mom’s Kosher Knishes or Murray the Sockman would pull up on the front lawn with a van full of food or merchandise a traveling store on wheels. These visits were always eagerly anticipated by the colony dwellers who were happy to shop for a container of milk a potato knish or a new snood without having to move much more than 30 feet.

Times have changed of course. These days the site where Hymie Kanowitz’s Dairy once stood is occupied by Dougie’s Barbecue and Grill and Mom’s Knishes has morphed into Izzy’s Knish Nosh. Though he no longer makes house calls Murray Goldwag of Kosher Socks fame is still very much a presence still manning his store on Main Street in South Fallsburg.

“I miss the old days ” he says remembering the years when he peddled his wares. “We would hit three to four colonies a day and everybody loved us. But there was a lot of schlepping involved.” He sighs. “And my hair was getting whiter and whiter.”