CLARA'S GROCERY

 4318

Just up the road, where Formosa becomes Dudley, and then another block, stood an old white wooden structure. Various signs decorated the outside of what had obviously been a house at one time. An especially large sign stretched across the gabled roof.

An older lady owned the establishment, and I expect you already know her name. Hers was an ancient forerunner of the modern convenience store. I think she sold more “cold drinks” than any other commodity. A red and white coke cooler stood on the left as customers entered the door.  Each time I walked through Clara’s front entrance, I raided the coke machine. Reaching my hand into some exceptionally cold water, I pulled out an azure colored bottle containing that almost black liquid.

Drinks were a nickel, and we were encouraged to bring the bottle back for a 2 cents refund.

We always did.

Those were the days. The children in our neighborhood, with names like Swofford, and Raiford, and Chumney and McCall and Palmer, played games like Crack the Whip and Hide and Seek, sometimes in the local cemetery or orange grove. We strolled past the ice plant and sawmill on Pearl Avenue on the way to school. We fished in Azalea Lake. We bought dime vanilla cones at the Tastee Freez. 

But one of my favorite pursuits, (as I have already inferred), was my almost daily trek to Clara's Grocery. But all things come to an end. Clara and her brother have long since left us, and are interred in Wildwood Cemetery. I have created an online memorial page for this dear lady, and her page features a caricature of that wonderful old drink box.

from "Snapshots" by Bill McDonald, PhD

https://macblogphd.blogspot.com