SLOC by Gerry North

Here’s a snapshot, ca. 1960, that hints at the cultural diversity of South Central Street. After World War I, most of the clientele of the block were African American, but many of the shops themselves reflected the immigrant roots of the shipowners. At left, Frank’s Place was a sandwich shop run by Frank Provenza, a member of one of two Sicilian families who did business on this block. At right is the SLOC store—the anagram for Spend Less On Clothes, but the owners, a Jewish Lithuanian family, enjoyed the inside joke that Schlock is Yiddish for junk. That certainly didn’t describe everything they sold. The SLOC store was one of the best places in town to find the latest R&B and early rock ’n’ roll music. Frank’s Place is now the Pretentious Beer Glass Co., the SLOC store the Underground part of the lamented Crown and Goose.  Shared by Gerald R. North. You can read a short biographical piece by Gerald and growing up in Knoxville in the 1940s our Oral History Conservations page at: https://knoxvillehistoryproject.org/growing-up-in-knoxville-by-gerald-r-north/