Bake Sale - David Roth

Louis Lichtman had a bakery at 86th and Amsterdam

You’d smell the rising bread at least a couple blocks away

For forty years a wedding cake of one kind or another

Would occupy the Lichtman’s Bakery window every day

Then the world turned from pastry and from challah and from cookies

From the independent merchant to the supermarket mall

And the rents were rising faster than the loaves that they were earned on

So the «Going Out of Business"sign appeared on Lichtman’s wall

The lights are out at Lichtman’s now

The building’s cold and empty, with a cake stand in the window

Your credit’s fine, no money down

And the Upper West Side doesn’t smell as sweetly as it used to

Back when Lichtman’s Bakery graced our little town

The final day of business came and with it Lichtman’s regulars

Paying their respects and taking in the sad details

Mrs. Kaplan bought a dozen cakes, another, thirty strudels

As the auctioneer prepared to start the sale

Some sixty other bakers bid on ovens and on boxes

There were mixers, there was shortening, there were bowls, and there were pans

And the years were sifting through the racks at Louis Lichtman’s bakery

Like the flour and the sugar through his hands

The lights are out at Lichtman’s now

The building’s cold and empty, with a cake stand in the window

The Daily Special sign fell down

And the Upper West Side doesn’t smell as sweetly as it used to

Back when Lichtman’s Bakery graced our little town

The last of all the lots was sold, the frosting tubes and freezer

Mr. Lichtman clutched his rolling pin and went to stand outside

He didn’t want to watch the auctioneer conclude his business

And he didn’t want his friends to see him cry

A note left hanging on the wall

It said that Mrs. Rosenthal still owed him 7 dollars

That was a long, long time ago

And the ceiling fan once spinning round for one last time was slowing down

As forty years came turning to a close

The lights are out at Lichtman’s now

The building’s cold and empty, Mr. Lichtman moved to Jersey

The neighborhood has changed around

The Upper West Side doesn’t smell as sweetly as it used to

Back when Lichtman’s Bakery graced our little town