An earlier post on a post got me to thinking about the corner store of yore.
When we were kids in Detroit, we had at least three terrific corner stores within a two-block diameter, I would say.
The best one was the Cass corner store across the street from our house. That's because it was, well, across the street. Cass also had the biggest back yard I've ever seen in a Detroit neighborhood (not counting the ritzy Boston-Edison or Palmer Park-type neighborhoods.) And he had the most beautiful grass you'd ever seen -- green as a Crayola crayon. Naturally, his sprawling, "don't-you-kids-dare-climb-over-the-fence" yard was also like a big trap just waiting to snag our stray baseballs and tennis balls. (We played a lot of street games, and a lot of our balls fell prey to that yard.)
Anyway, Cass had a great candy spread, and I remember often spending my allowance, which I seem to recall was a quarter at one time, at his store. (I don't know if Cass was the owner's last name, but we all called him Cass.) I liked things like Lemonheads or Boston Baked Beans or Pop Rocks.
The Dayton corner, around the corner from our house, had a good selection, too, but wasn't the store of choice (until I learned that a boy I *loved" in sixth grade lived on Dayton Street). The store around the other corner going right from our house on Central had the best offerings, if memory serves. I seem to recall that it was almost truly a candy-only store. (Maybe it had a few loaves of bread and milk as a facade, but I remember endless plastic containers of penny-candy.)
Remember those wax bottles filled with a strange sugary juice? I loved to buy those and then just chew on the wax. Along with Lemonheads, you could also find Appleheads. Yum. There were, of course, Bottlecaps, bubble gum cigarettes, licorice wheels (I looooooved those), burnt peanuts, Swedish fish (O, I adored those), wax lips, zotz (I still have to buy zotz whenever I find them), hot dog gum, hot tamales, and way more.
It was something fine to take your own hard-earned money and buy a plastic bag full of Swedish fish or burnt peanuts. I took forever just to decide how to spend my quarter because the candy sure didn't last long. But what a feeling. It's too bad so many of the corner stores have been eaten up by the big chains.
That was true city life.
Anyway, if you want to reminisce about all the candy of old, here is a great site.
4 comments:
There used to a be a store around the corner from where I grew up (there's still a store, but now it's called Tabacco Road and it's a typical convenience store) that we always called "the station."
I think it had many names over the years, but it was always referred to in my family as "the station" and I made many trips for myself (candy) and for my mom (paper towels, ketchup, eggs).
When I was in middle school I befriended the high schooler who worked there and I would sit at the station with her for hours and chit-chat.
Before that, when I was younger, I would hand over all of my change to the cashier, no matter how much whatever I wanted cost. I could count, I just chose not to, and one of the cashiers (a guy with a strange birthmark above his eyebrow) would complain, "When are you going to learn to count!"
I never counted it though because I never knew how much the stuff was that I was buying, because it didn't have prices on it. So I'd buy one thing at a time, hand him all of my change and if he gave me change back I'd buy one more thing, and so on.
I'm sure I wasn't annoying at all. :)
Another time my brother Joey and I were racing to the station and I fell and split my knee open. I still have the scar and that part of my knee remains numb. :)
:)
I'm so inspired by you. You just made me think of another post, but I'll save it for tomorrow or so.
BTW, I would've loved to know little Gina during the times of her trips to the station. But would we have been friends? I wonder. I was a good Catholic girl, and I know you were a little hellraiser who stole the car way too many times before she was old enough to drive.
Thank goodness we met late in life.
:)
I wasn't really bad until I was about 14. (And even then I was only normal kid bad - you know, like doctoring report cards and "borrowing" the car.)
But I remember sneaking out for the first time when I was about 11. I wasn't tired and it was warm outside, so I thought I'd go for a walk.
When I got outside it was so exciting and liberating that I did split leap jumps under the street lamp at the corner.
Then I snuck back in.
So I bet we would have been friends. Because every 11 year old girl likes to leap down the street in the dark.
And then eat Lemonheads. :)
Never been a fan of candy, but I have always had a little love affair with Now 'n' Laters and RainBlo gum. I'd never eat them in anyone else's presence, as I can hardly stand the smell of myself when I eat/chew them.
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