...before my time, I think
When you entered the front door, the sound of a little bell announced your arrival in the unusual case that no one was minding the store. You all knew each other. Your receipt was written with the stub of a pencil on the paper bag where your groceries were placed,
the addition written in the same place.
the addition written in the same place.
Your meat was wrapped in waxy white paper tied with string.
When you walked in everything was right there in front of you: no need for a big wire carriage. No need to walk a mile searching frustratingly for what you needed. Anyway, you were probably a kid with a list and a few dollars from your Mom. If you paid, a clanging sound on the cash register, along with the slap of the drawer, announced the fact. Otherwise, you were adding to your credit account.
Cynthia Luz Mendes remembered that although it was open there was not always someone in the White Front Market. You had to call upstairs for Mrs. Aguiar who came down and helped you - even if it was only for some gum...
Here are some of the long gone costs of items in the little grocery stores in the Village.
This price list is from a small neighborhood grocery store in Kingston, N.Y.
http://www.fohk.org/wp-content/uploads/momandpopstores.pdf.
If you are interested it is an interesting
http://www.fohk.org/wp-content/uploads/momandpopstores.pdf.
If you are interested it is an interesting
website about this very subject.
We went to Serras'Market.We had a book and paid every Friday.Rose would add up the total with a pencil just as you had said.Sometimes the store was very busy,but she calmly continued adding.I remember her red rough hands from hard work at the store. I think I developed my love for math just watching her. She went to Fuller School too. _
ReplyDeleteI would ask my mother why certain people would continue going to these little stores after the supermarkets started becoming quite popular.She told me that people never forgot how good these grocers were to families when they were down and out during the depression. Some to the point of tearing up the bill. _
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