Lipot Gunst

Lipot Gunst

This is my paternal grandfather. The photo was taken in Szentes in 1918. My paternal grandfather was Lipot Gunst. I've seen the birth registration certificate and his name is registered as Leopold, but they called him Lipot in the shop, that's what was written on the sign: 'Lipot Gunst.' My grandfather was born in Szentes in 1844.

First, Grandfather ran a grocery store in Szentes, which went better and better for him, and by the end, he became an ironmonger. So the spices and ox tongue and such that he sold at first gradually fell off and were replaced with hardware, more spare parts, like car parts, tools for blacksmiths, carpentry tools. Later when bicycles got big, they became a popular item. And of course, there were enamel pots, grinders, knives, scissors and such. The shop was opposite the Post Office, in the fourth house from the Main Square. He didn't open his first shop there, but somewhere in Kiser, which was an outer suburb of Szentes. Then, I suppose, he must have steadily got involved there, where I was born and the shop was. What I can remember, the shops were already 80-100 square meters large and there were numerous warehouses on the ground floor and in the cellar, which must have been about 250 square meters altogether.

My father took over when grandfather started to get old, so I really only remember that period. There must have been four employees at the time. My father was a very diligent man. We closed the shop every evening at 7. At that time, you had to open from 7 to 12, then from 12 to 2 there was a noon break and from 2 to 7pm it was open again, so my father was very busy. It was open on Saturdays - and for a time on Sundays, too - at first until noon and then from 7 to 10am.

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