THE STORE

"THE STORE"

We each took turns going to the store; this was done on a daily basis. Looking back, I guess it was done that way because we did not have electricity and once we did, there was no fridge for many years. Usually, we'd carry the groceries home in our arms or in the parcel carrier of our bikes. But in the winter time, we'd often put a box of groceries on our sleds.

The store sold everything from flour to penny candy to rubber boots. But my favorite thing in the whole store was fudgesticks. I would spend hours collecting pop bottles just to redeem them for .05 cents so I could have one. I would make it last until I reached our house and let our dog, Sandy, like the stick.

Years ago, when I first walked up to the store with my Dad, Mr. Albert Brown and his wife Benice, owned it. He was also the Organist and Choir Leader at our Church. After many years, they sold it to our neighbor,Mr. Bob Swim and it was his store until it closed around 1990.When I was little and sent to the store, many times no money exchanged hands. Instead, it would be "put on tick." Quite often, Dad would exchange dozens of our brown eggs for groceries on Saturday nights. We would sit together cleaning and weighing the eggs in our big warm kitchen. Then they'd be put in fillers and counted.

My parents would make a list of foods they needed as they had an idea how much they could spend. When Dad walked home on those Saturday nights with his box full of groceries, it would seem like Christmas to us. Sometimes he'd have a treat for me like mints or a stick of peppermint.

The only foods they purchased were things we couldn't grow such as flour, sugar, cocoa, shortening, salt, canned goods and some meats. Usually, we had our own milk, cream, butermilk, churned butter, pork (including Cottage Roll and pork chops), chicken, rabbits, geese, wild ducks, deer meat and all of our own vegetables. We seldom had fruit unless we picked blueberries, blackberries and raspberries. Every Fall, Dad would buy a barrell of apples from someone who came down from the Valley selling them.Mom made our own bread, rolls (Hot Cross Buns), biscuits and Johnny-cake. Out of all her many pies, cookies, cakes and desserts, my favourites were always her Cinnamon Rolls and Molasses or Oatmeal Cookies.

The "Store" was the best place to be in, besides Mom's kitchen, of course!!