Grocery procuring within the Fifties to Nineteen Seventies

By Mary Ellen Shaw

Looking for meals in Rutland again within the ’50s was a wholly totally different expertise than it’s immediately. The Rutland Listing for 1955 has 50 listings underneath the heading of “Grocer.”

Solely two of these shops had been giant chain shops. One in all them was the A & P (Atlantic and Pacific Tea Firm) at 105 West St. The opposite was the First Nationwide retailer positioned at 9-13 Retailers Row. Each shops had been on corners and parking was on the again aspect of every constructing. My mom normally shopped on the First Nationwide however there was usually one thing that they didn’t carry so A&P could be our subsequent cease.

I bear in mind the aroma of freshly floor espresso beans as you entered the again door of the First Nationwide. They supplied many decisions when it got here to grinding espresso. A retailer worker floor it for you as you waited.

There have been just a few grocery shops that had been mid-size — smaller than the 2 important grocery shops however bigger than the quite a few neighborhood markets. One of many important points of interest of those mid-size shops was their meat counters. A butcher/meat cutter supplied you with things like a steak of your selection or freshly floor hamburg. My father was the “meat shopper” and it was a weekly occasion for him to go to the Percy P Wooden Retailer at 109 Lincoln Ave. He at all times went on a Tuesday afternoon which was his scheduled day without work from work. It was a ritual for him to return dwelling with dice steaks for supper that night time. The nicely stocked cabinets normally had one thing else that we wanted and my father would choose up gadgets as he made his method from the meat counter to the checkout.

On the different finish of city was the South Finish Market at 102 Strongs Ave. That meat counter was additionally behind the shop. Their cabinets had been additionally stuffed with grocery gadgets that you could possibly buy when you had been in there. South Finish was nonetheless in style within the ’70s when my husband, Peter, and I started our married life. It was our “go to” place for meat. House owners and brothers, Ted and Sal Salerni, would customized reduce no matter we wished. I bear in mind they had been fairly dissatisfied after I instructed them I didn’t like meat that was “marbled.” They couldn’t persuade me that it was extra tender that method!

One other mid-size retailer that had a meat part was California Fruit Market at 186 West Road. For those who went strictly by its identify you’d count on to buy there for fruit, however meat together with quite a few grocery gadgets may very well be discovered there. The meat was properly displayed on the entrance of the shop. After I was a toddler within the ’50s, I bear in mind seeing proprietor, Tony Poalino, behind the meat counter. By the late ’70s, the following proprietor, Mike Henry, had the respect of offering prospects with meat. On Sunday afternoons my husband and I might cease there to get steaks on our method dwelling from a summer time afternoon at Lake Bomoseen. They had been a scrumptious deal with on the grill. The wives of each Tony and Mike had an energetic function within the retailer. The Poalinos’ son, Dick, additionally labored there. Operating the shop was a household affair.

Smaller in dimension than the three beforehand talked about shops however one other excellent spot to buy meat was Carrigan’s Market at 47 Woodstock Ave. Proprietor Marty Carrigan may very well be discovered behind the meat counter and his spouse, Mary (Mae), was usually on the money register up entrance. Their son, Tommy, additionally labored on the retailer — one other household enterprise.

There have been too many neighborhood grocery shops to say individually. It was a lifestyle again within the ’50s to have the ability to stroll to a close-by retailer and get the necessities. Most households solely had one automobile and the husband normally drove it to work. The vast majority of their wives had been “stay-at-home-moms,” so after they wanted one thing on the neighborhood grocery retailer they usually despatched their kids to choose up the gadgets. In my neighborhood we went to Pete’s Market on Terrill Road. That retailer even had a small meat counter. It looks as if meat was the draw to getting prospects inside many shops again within the day.

Within the good climate youngsters would experience their bikes and put the gadgets in a basket that was hooked up to the handlebars. We got cash for a popsicle or ice cream sandwich which we “scarfed down” earlier than we headed again dwelling on our bikes.

Life was fairly easy again in these days and the older one will get the extra interesting a easy life appears to be like!