Our "local" grocery store was Calbeck's "a name you can trust" about 10 miles away in Waterford. Most of the time, I hunkered down on the bottom shelf of the magazine rack and read Highlights or (later) Tiger Beat. I really have no idea what the rest of the kids did, at least not in the spring, summer or fall. But in the winter? We (those of us under 10 and not allowed to stay home) never even made it into the store - we'd spend the 45 or so minutes that the shopping took sliding down the huge piles of parking lot snow, into the poorly lit parking lot. Even if there was no other car in the lot but ours (and there always were - Thursday was everyone's pay day) those piles must have been composed of not much more than ice and garbage and every toxic chemical they spread on roads in the 1970s. I'm surprised now thinking none of us was ever hurt.
Friday, January 23, 2009
Calbeck's
For my dad, Thursday was payday. So for my mom, Thursday night meant grocery shopping. Until you were 10 or so, staying home wasn't an option, so for a long, long time, there were 3, 4 or even 5 kids in the car with my dad and my non-driving mother. Where on earth did they put a week's worth of groceries!?
Our "local" grocery store was Calbeck's "a name you can trust" about 10 miles away in Waterford. Most of the time, I hunkered down on the bottom shelf of the magazine rack and read Highlights or (later) Tiger Beat. I really have no idea what the rest of the kids did, at least not in the spring, summer or fall. But in the winter? We (those of us under 10 and not allowed to stay home) never even made it into the store - we'd spend the 45 or so minutes that the shopping took sliding down the huge piles of parking lot snow, into the poorly lit parking lot. Even if there was no other car in the lot but ours (and there always were - Thursday was everyone's pay day) those piles must have been composed of not much more than ice and garbage and every toxic chemical they spread on roads in the 1970s. I'm surprised now thinking none of us was ever hurt.
Our "local" grocery store was Calbeck's "a name you can trust" about 10 miles away in Waterford. Most of the time, I hunkered down on the bottom shelf of the magazine rack and read Highlights or (later) Tiger Beat. I really have no idea what the rest of the kids did, at least not in the spring, summer or fall. But in the winter? We (those of us under 10 and not allowed to stay home) never even made it into the store - we'd spend the 45 or so minutes that the shopping took sliding down the huge piles of parking lot snow, into the poorly lit parking lot. Even if there was no other car in the lot but ours (and there always were - Thursday was everyone's pay day) those piles must have been composed of not much more than ice and garbage and every toxic chemical they spread on roads in the 1970s. I'm surprised now thinking none of us was ever hurt.
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5 comments:
Enjoyed your story. We all went with Mom to the store too, it was a small grocery about 10 miles away. I remember the wooden floors, and I especially remember that mom had an "account" and paid her grocery bill once a month. Weird memories you have invoked, lol.
I can remember going to grocery store with my sister, mother and grandmother - We would walk there and then take a taxi home...
Boy, you sure stirred up a bunch of memories today...
My mom never had a driver's license, so we always went on Saturday morning with my dad. I read Archie comics and later 16 Magazine in the liquor deprtment magazine section at the front of the store while Mom shopped. Or I walked myself over to the department store in the shopping center and bought a Nancy Drew book with my $1 allowance: 96 cents plus 4 cents tax = one book a week for many weeks...Thanks for the memory stir, Dorothy =-)
I remember going to Giant Foods with my mom and getting the free tea cookie from the bakery. Every time I gave birth my parents would bring me a Ledo's Pizza and tea cookies from Giant, even though I was 700 miles away. They have now moved to Florida. I may have to go back to Maryland to get some tea cookies. Ledo's opened a restaurant close-by.
Cool story.
How did your mom keep her sanity, grocery shopping with umpty jillion kids afoot? Must have had nerves of steel.
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