By Adam Kramer
Every weekend throughout the summer you can find Alexander Kenner sitting on the same corner of Baisley Park laughing and joking with anybody who stops. Kenner, a neighborhood institution, has been selling watermelons out of the back of a U-Haul truck at Baisley Boulevard and Lakeview Road since 1992.
The gregarious 69-year-old Kenner, who will celebrate his birthday at the end of the month, started the corner shop after he gave up the lease on his grocery store — Al’s Supermarket. He said he opened up on the corner because he wanted something to do and needed to get out of the house.
“Sitting in the house I would be gone by now,” he said. “All these people know me. That is why I sell so many melons. I love dealing with the public. It is what I enjoy … especially when my wife is gone.”
On Tuesdays, Kenner hops into his truck and heads South. He drives all night to Akins, S.C., which he said is just outside of Columbia, where he knows many of the farmers and market hawkers. After loading up with about 600 melons, Kenner turns the truck around and hits the road back.
For July 4, “which is a big weekend,” said Kenner, he left the city over the weekend. After stocking up, he departed from South Carolina Tuesday at around 9 p.m. and drove all the night straight to his corner, arriving at 12:30 p.m. on the holiday.
“I got to go and get some rest,” he said. “I had a blowout on the road, it was tough.” The melons filling the truck should be gone by Saturday because “anytime there is a holiday, it is a big day,” he said.
Kenner moved into the Jamaica neighborhood in 1954 a few years after he had left his home in Ridge Spring, S.C. at the age of 15. He said he moved out of the South because the only jobs were on the farms, which paid 25 to 50 cents a day. “Working on the farm down there is no way to make any money,” he said.
After arriving in New York City, Kenner started driving a truck up in Harlem for the Crib Dipper Service. He worked for the company as a truck driver for 17 years, but in 1960 with the invention of Pampers the company started losing business. He realized he needed to find another job where he could be relatively autonomous and would not have to kowtow to the company’s every whim.
“I wanted to go into something I would succeed at,” he said. “In the country when I was 8 or 9, I had a cousin who owned a grocery store. He sold everything. All I knew was the grocery business. I figured I could make it and I did — 30 years.”
He started Al’s Supermarket at 160-20 Baisley Blvd. in 1962 and decided to lease out the store in the building he owns in 1992.
Kenner said his wife died in 1987 and his son succumbed to diabetes in 1992.
About eight people worked for him at the store, which included many neighborhood youths who have gone on to become police officers, postmen and firefighters. He still has local kids helping him out.
“I hire them to keep them out of trouble and off the street,” he said. “It gives them something to do.”
In addition to the melons, Kenner sells whatever fresh fruits or vegetables he can pick up down on the farms and markets he visits. He sells the melons from $5 to $8.50, but it depends on what price he pays for them. He said he gets a good markup on melons, but one has to take into account the gas, time and wear and tear on the truck.
“I went home and cut through the one he just sold me and had to come back and get another because it was so sweet,” said Earnest Miller from South Ozone Park. “It is not just about the watermelons — he has a nice personality, which makes you go the extra block.”
Edwin Rodriguez, who lives in the neighborhood, said he has been buying watermelons from Kenner for the past couple of years.
“They are always sweet and delicious,” he said. “This is our little spot, a typical neighborhood variety store.”
Reach reporter Adam Kramer by e-mail at Timesledgr@aol.com or call 229-0300, Ext. 157.
