What is happiness?
Back in the '20s and '30s if you needed groceries you called the grocery store and gave them your order. At that time, there might have been five or six stores. I know there was the IGA, Buckley's, Beaston's, and others. After your call, a delivery wagon brought your purchases right to your door. There were two deliveries — one in the morning and one in the afternoon.
I've heard that if a housewife needed a spool of thread, she would ask the clerk to go to the dry goods store and get the thread and to deliver it with the groceries. Some women whose husbands might be a trifle stingy would ask the grocer to make a false charge and send her some money.
Everything was "charged." If we kids got hungry after school we could stop at the store for candy or pop and charge it to Dad. My younger sister and her girl friend would even buy some bologna and crackers.
When the monthly bill was paid, the grocer treated with a small sack of candy.
Now, we go to the grocery store, push a heavy cart around, filling it with the items we want, pay cash, and a clerk does carry your packages to the car. But when we reach home, we carry the heavy bags from our car to the house. Of course, most of it may already be cooked, so we just toss it in the microwave and there you are!
I may have already told you about the young boy who started his own business with a small cart and drove through the residential areas ringing a bell and shouting "Ice cream!" He soon would be surrounded by children with their nickels and dimes. He became a judge.
Sorry folks, I just had a flash back to simpler times!
— NORMA HANNAFORD
