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Source: Aurora (1921) Ad:
Students! Students!
LET GROVE
SERVE YOU
With his Delicious ICE
CREAM
As the temperature goes up, let Grove's ice cream go
down.
Let us help you plan your feeds.
Grove's Grocery
"The White Grocery Down the 'Van'."
Eel River 283 Rex 3
Source: NMHS Newsletter Aug 1993Grove's Grocery
by Ruth Anna Taylor
When I was in the first grade, my father took mother's
pantry and started a small store. Then he built a small
store on wheels that was drawn over the countryside by a
team of horses and after a year of this, they purchased
a store-the only one in the village-in Ijamsville, and
once again my father built a larger bed on a half ton
truck bed and went out into the country with groceries.
My father would take the grocery on wheels out during
early spring through late fall and my mother would
manage the store and try and keep my brother and me
busy.
We lived in Ijamsville for four years and the folks
purchased the Clark Grocery store in North Manchester
which was located on the northwest corner of North
Walnut and Seventh Streets. My father once again took
his truck with the grocery store thereon to the country
and mother took care of the store. Fortunately the store
and house were connected together so the folks had
buzzers put on the screen doors in the summer and then
on the store doors in the winter so mother could get
some things done in the house as she could hear the
buzzer when anyone entered.
I personally never liked selling. My mother always
admonished me that I was to go out when it was my turn
to take care of the customers and treat them well for
that was how we got our bread and butter. In time I got
promoted and became part time cook and always the dish
washing was my job. My father in the fall of the year
would go out to his customers and buy up their flocks of
chickens for the Thanksgiving market in Detroit and he
would do this again before Christmas and then sell them
to Ollie Burkhart in North Manchester. These were days
that you sold bread that was not wrapped, and PW
crackers came in a barrel and you would help mother lift
the barrel and transfer over into a glass framed case
and sell your customer any amount they wanted. Brown
sugar and white sugar came in the bulk and usually the
brown sugar came in a 20# wooden flat and in the winter
it would get so hard that you wondered if you could
loosen enough for folks. The white sugar came in 100#
burlap with white cloth inside with the sugar. You had
to learn how to start unraveling the stitching across
the top of the sack, and if you accomplished the trick,
then mother would wash the inside bag and we used them
for store wipe clothes and also for wiping dishes. Since
the sugar was in the bulk, we would sack sugar into 25¢
and 50¢ bags so they would be accessible when customers
would order. Some folks in those days would buy a 100#
bag and stash it away in a cool place so that with
winter baking, etc., they would have plenty to do all
their baking. I can remember when they first sacked
flour in different sized paper bags. We dealt with a
flour mill down in the Roann area and the miller was a
very particular man. In those days the women made their
own bread and pies and naturally were users of the
flour.
We are so accustomed today to having everything in
compact sizes and boxed well, but there are many fond
memories on my part as I look back over those almost 20
years at this location. My husband and I were back in
North Manchester in 1985 after several years of absence
and we drove through Ijamsville on our way to see his
family and discovered that the grocery store had been
either torn down or burned. That was a jolt! Then we
drove on to North Manchester and drove by the store on
the corner of Seventh and Walnut and the four lots that
the folks owned back in the 20's and 30's were bare
ground. That was quite a shock and I can truthfully say
it took time to get over that sight.
In the days that we have been speaking of it was not an
eight to five job. We opened the store in North
Manchester at six o'clock and the Manchester Bakery
would come in with a tray of fresh doughnuts and rolls
and folks would soon buy them while they were good and
fresh. The folks usually kept the store open from six
a.m. until 8 p.m. daily and from 6 a.m. to 10 p.m. on
Saturdays.
Ever so often after closing the store at ten, they would
oil the floor in the store part and then you had to keep
rag carpets at the kitchen and dining room doors and you
were supposed to wipe your shoes well before tracking
into the living quarters.
One task that often fell to me was on Saturday
afternoons folks would call and order chickens to be
cleaned and cut up so they would have chicken for their
Sunday dinners. This usually fell to my responsibility.
I never had the nerve to kill a chicken, but I have held
many a chicken's beak so my mother could chop its head
off. I think that I could still scald a chicken, feather
it and then clean and cut it up but I am mighty thankful
that today I can buy any part of a chicken that I want
and it only needs scrutinizing to make sure all foreign
substances are taken care of.
I thought that I had a hard life when I was growing up,
but I have had a wonderful time since we have been
married. The things I learned as I was growing
up-although I thought I had it hard-have certainly stood
by me in still being able to do my own thing. My
generation certainly has seen a world of changes. My
husband and I often say our mothers wouldn't believe all
that we have seen and done.
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