UPDATED: Despite what the signs say, the service for Manny is on Oct. 29 at 2 p.m. at Most Holy Redeemer.
Manny the Peddler, a decades-long presence along Avenue A, recently passed away.
Manny, aka Emmanuel Howard and a father of four, sold second-hand items here for more than 40 years. Although the city often came by
and dumped all his sale items, Manny remained resilient and continued to run his sidewalk shop.
We don't have any further information about his passing. He was believed to be in his early 80s. There is a small memorial (since removed) where he was often seen arranging his items for sale on various tables between Second Street and Third Street ... (thanks to Carl Bentsen for these photos) ...
There is a requiem mass for Manny on Saturday afternoon at 2 at the Parish of the Most Holy Redeemer on Third Street between Avenue A and Avenue B...
He worked as a print shop delivery boy, metalworker, lathe operator, carpenter, and handyman, and around 1979 he began vending in front of the Con Edison substation on Sixth Street and Avenue A.
It became a bonanza.
"People used to come down from upstate and buy out the whole table for six, seven hundred dollars," he says, and then give him their business cards so he could call when he had good stock. Mr. Howard says he once made $4,500 in a week; he had never had that kind of money before.
With a pocketful of connections, he could sell whatever people brought to him, and the temptation got too much. In 1997 he says he spent nine months of a six-year term on Riker's Island for possession of stolen goods. He suffered a heart attack while in jail and served the rest of the time on probation.
"I messed up big time on that," he laments, and has since returned to selling donated items from neighborhood residents, many of whom he's done odd jobs for over the years.
"Manny is organic to the neighborhood," says a café owner on Avenue A ... explaining that his spot is like a public space, connecting people from different backgrounds. "I see people gathered around the tables, all different layers of society. I think it is very healthy to have that."
... there was a sign in the window reading: "No Cafe. No Food."
