There was a Ben Franklin right up the block from where I lived as a kid in Omaha. We called it the dime store and they had bins and bins of candy. I remember getting the wax lips that had fangs during Halloween and some piece of candy that was round like a life saver and you blew into it and it blew like a whistle (I think it was actually gum but I can't remember for sure). There was a Woolworth in the Crossroads mall too in Omaha. There was a long aisle of candy there and I remember getting those wax "coke" bottles that are filled with fruit flavored liquid and come packaged like a 6 pack of coke in glass bottles came. It was glorious.
Memory's of big white rolls of paper with dots of candy to pick off, sold by the foot. Small bits of chocolate shaped like a baby and the wax whistles and coke bottles with the syrup you mentioned Beg.
We have an abundance of food stores in this area, Super stores by the plenty, Target, Wallmart, BJ's, Shaw's, Market basket, two very pricier meat stores, a couple of dollar stores, Rite Aid has taken over the druggists here and also sell some food.
In the south we had Piggley Wiggley, Food Lion, Giant Open Air Market, and Target.
At one time there was a A&P smack dab down town that was a God send to the elderly that lived in the area. Today the oldsters ride a bus a mile or so to shop but in this weather waiting to board is very uncomfortable for them.
For restaurants we still have Applebys but lost Uno, Texas Grill, Long Horn, Boston Market, and Spuds. It is a struggle to keep the upscale restaurants in business here, Summers and tourists are one thing but winter time the locals are not going to spend $85.00 a plate for some kind of food we never heard of.
Competition is fierce here and the influx of Asian and other ethnic groups such as Hindi food or even Italian is remarkable. So far I have not heard of one German or Turkish restaurant in the area.
Allot of cottage industry's have sprung up, woman will cook at home for their ethnic group and sell the food at work. They buy Styrofoam containers with lids , same as the restaurants give you for doggy bags at about 3 cents a piece from restaurant suppliers and can feed 60 people a hot meal for $30.00. They charge $2.00 pr meal and make a fortune 5-7 days a week. Tax free.
The Asian supply stores are few and far between, they some how keep out competition and these places unless you need 100 lbs of rice and know where they are, are hidden in small places. I enjoy shopping twice a year or so at the Asian stores, they never have a sale and as a Westerner I have to get use to the decidedly different smell from that of a conventional Supermarket.
Summers we have these folk beside the road with their produce from so called local farms that is actually brought at the local supermarket and the price hiked as to call it home grown. I finally caught on to these crooks when I began to wonder how one stand could sell produce that was 2 weeks from being harvested in our area.
We also have this Mass. outfit called Schwans that comes door to door in refrigerated trucks with possibily the best frozen food I have ever bought. I have not see their trucks out in a couple of years and our comunity will not allow door to door sales----not even Avon.
We have just one or two fish markets in the area, we locals will head for the docks to buy our seafood right off the boat.
However, when it comes to fried clams, Gloster Co. out of Mass. does theirs to perfection but does not sell to anyone but businesses. They soak their clams and oysters in water with corn meal or flour, the clams inhale this stuff and it cleans out all the mud or grit within them. In years of eating fried clams these are the only ones that I will eat the belly on, they are as clean as a whistle.
Aside from apples, cherrys and concord grapes or local pears most everything has to be imported from somewhere else Very hard to find raw peanuts for a peanut boil, no such thing as Old Alpaso corn taccos in a tin can any longer.
The taste of fruit has changed as we import, no longer do we put sugar on mellon or grapefruit, now it is salt to make them taste sweet.
We no longer live to eat, we now eat most anything to live. Bring your camera and a 4 year old up here and take lots of pictures of the little one when a lobster is put in front of them.
