The neighborhood men either were in business for themselves the owners of the local candy store, grocery store, jewelry store, dress shop, furniture shop, service station, and delicatessen, or the proprietors of tiny industrial job shops over by the Newark-Irvington line, or self-employed plumbers, electricians, housepainters, and boilermen or were foot-soldier salesmen like my father, out every day in the city streets and in people's houses, peddling their wares on commission.
NPR: Roth Rewrites History with a 'Plot Against America'