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SID GORDON WRITTEN BY MEGIN POTTER | PHOTOS BY SUPERSOURCEMEDIA.COM
Sidney Gordon was born in 1929, and despite being given the name Samuel at birth, he didn’t know it until he was 12 years old. To join Boy Scouts, he obtained a copy of his birth certificate.
he’d become an uncle. The boy’s response, “Ok…what is that?” SARATOGA GETS ON TRACK By 1941, with Saratoga entrenched in gambling, the town was primed for the opening of the Saratoga Raceway.
Alarmed by the discovery, he returned home to 68 Putnam Street and showed the sheet of paper to his mother.
“I knew it had opened and went to the track to watch the races from outside. It was very exciting seeing them run there but I didn’t bet on them, I just watched them,” remembers Sid.
“Who’s this Samuel Gordon?” he asked. “Oh, that’s you,” she answered with a shrug. “We named you Samuel but I always liked Sidney better.”
He watched people come and go on horse and buggy while shining shoes on the porch of the Grand Union Hotel.
A CHILD DURING PROHIBITION Sidney “Sid,” is also the name his neighbors knew him by. Sid’s neighborhood was known as the “Gut” (the area between Broadway, Caroline, and Phila Streets) and his neighbors included an everchanging stream of customers for his dad’s coppersmith shop, as well as for the tenants who rented space in the Gordon’s building. Sid remembers there being a barbershop, restaurant, and gypsy tea room. In 1932, Sperry’s Restaurant opened nearby (an establishment you can still grab a seat at today). The infamous bootlegger and gambler Louis “Doc” Farone was one of Sid’s neighbors. When a baby was born into the family, a joyful Farone joked with five-year-old Sidney that 60 | SIMPLY SARATOGA | SUMMER 2022
“You could tell who the horse betters were because they had racing forms in their hands. They certainly buffed up the city financially (and gave me $1 tips!),” he said, nodding. TAKING A SHINE TO THE SPRINT Shining shoes was a good gig for young Sidney until the day he spilled polish on the Grand Union Hotel rug. “My heart almost jumped out of my body,” he said. “There was nothing I could do about the stain so I quietly finished, packed up my little shoe shine box, walked off the porch, and ran all the way to Congress Park.” “I never went back.” saratogaTODAYnewspaper.com
