Cooking & Baking

From 1949 to 1974, when my dad passed away. In the early years, the store was a combination grocery and locker. There was a big walk-in freezer lined with metal bins. People could rent them to store their frozen foods. They were probably the size of average chest freezers. Locker were popular right after WWII, and then people started buying freezers for the home.

The vegetables were arranged unwrapped.

The meat and cheese were displayed in a refrigerated case, white enamel with a sloped glass front. We used metal scoops to get the amount of ground meat a customer wanted. There were thin square sheets of waxed paper we used to line a piece of wrapping paper. The wrapping paper was lightly waxed brown paper for fresh meat, heavily waxed white paper for freezer orders. Dad had masking tape that stuck to the paper. We all learned 2 ways to wrap-one way for fresh and another way for the freezer orders. There was an analog meat scale right behind the case. The dial was double-sided, so we could see the weight and the customer could, too. The scales were examined by a certified tech on a regular basis.

We had grocery carts, no seat for babies. The register had rows of push buttons, and we learned dollars and cents and how to ring people up. The highest combination of numbers was 99.99. There was a duplicate tape that Dad took home daily, so Mom could check out the cash. There counter was lined with black linoleum, and didn't move. We had 2 checkouts. Early days, Dad had several employees and the 2nd register was often running so we didn't get a line. We had paper shopping bags. We bagged the order and offered carry out to the cars. We'd call out "carry out" if someone asked.