Through the years on my infrequent visits to the Ridgewood area I've stopped into the Corner Store to see its many incarnations. I never stay long as I always want to remember it the way I did as a very young child. Back then there was an owner who ran a meat counter in the back of store and wore a straw hat when he waited on people. He was an old time meat cutter, who had saw dust on the floor, and he dressed the part of a man who knew meat.
I learned many early lessons in economics from time spent in and around the Corner Store. Firstly, it was explained to me why we never shopped at the little store for anything essential. It was strictly a convenience store as the prices could never compete with the local supermarkets or even the Superior Meat Market in the center of town.
The other lesson I learned early was about inflation. I saw the packs of hostess cupcakes go from $.10 to $.15 and then to .$20 and $.25. The same thing with cans of Coca-Cola, packs of Sweet Tarts, and boxes of Milk Duds.
The Corner Store is located on the edge of Midland Park and was surrounded by the homes of kids we went to school with and the Glen Avenue Fire House. It was a safe walk from my house near Willard and one we made countless times with no thought for our own safety. If we told our Moms we were off to the Corner Store they knew what we meant and the path we would follow. The homes in those days were filled with Moms looking out their windows as kids walked by. There were other keepers of the piece like the mailman who lived up the street from the Corner Store and who's mail route took him to all the homes in our Upper Ridgewood neighborhood. He was a kind man who didn't tolerate mischief from the kids in his neighborhood. He had no qualms about knocking on the doors and speaking to parents if he saw a child acting out.
It was quite a different time and we called things by different names than are used today. A mailman like ours would find empty homes or latchkey children today so probably wouldn't even bother with reprimanding the troublemakers. They have called the Corner Store many different names since I was a child but it will always be a place to me where got sweets and refreshments. It will also always be a place I recall learning lessons about life that have stuck with me to this day.
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This brings back some memories. I lived a few streets away, we never called them blocks, and my cousins lived in the house on top of the hill right across the street from it. We used to regularly be sent to pick up something like a quart of milk or some meat from the butcher counter. I forget the owners name but he supplied my parents with a whole pig that they roasted for a Luau and he was there to carve it up for everyone.
ReplyDeleteThank you for bringing back such nice memories.