Neighborhood Stores

Talking about the olden days, there were small mom and pop grocery stores in many neighborhoods.

I started thinking about the olden days and different neighborhoods that we have lived in. As I wondered through my olden day thoughts, it dawned on me that there was a store in most neighborhoods where I have lived.

These small family owned stores had the basic items that one would need. In most instances the owner would live in a small house at the back of the store. The store and house were one unit.

I had an aunt and uncle that owned a little neighborhood store. Hilderman’s Grocery (I hope I Spelled it correctly) was the name and although it had nothing to do with the name of the store, the store was located at the bottom of a hill. They were on the corner of Ranney Ave. and Hackberry St.  I went to Google Maps to look up the street name and the building that was the store/home is gone. There is some type of garage looking building there now.

These little neighborhood stores were the predecessor to modern day quick shops.

In the olden days (when I was a kid in the 50s) if your mother needed something she could tell you to get on the bike and go to the store.

In those days you did not have to watch your kid all the time; everyone knew everyone and other adults would tell on you if you did something wrong.

Most of these store sold items on credit.  If they knew the family you could get your items without paying.  They would write the items down on your “bill” and they knew that on payday someone would come in and pay your bill. 

These neighborhood stores were not where we bought all our groceries. There were larger stores that had more variety and better prices. They were not chain stores of today, just a larger version of the neighborhood store.

On another subject, Tejas was eating and Alex was lying on the floor beside him, not more than a foot away from the food bowl. I reached for the camera to get a photo and they were on the move.

Well, I was able to get a photo of the better side of both Alex and Tejas.

From the backside of                      Don Ford

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