Judy darlin', if you make it all the way up to my store, you can have a sign! I will reward your efforts.

We moved here almost six years ago and have become country bumpkins. We love it. A town of about 700 folks now. Whoo-hoo, we are growing. It's a simple down-home life and it lets me concentrate on the things that are important to me. No hustle-bustle of the city. T'ain't for me anymore.

Would really love to meet you. It would be grand. Sure we'd have a lot to talk about.

Thanks for posting the site. Praise to you for your work and efforts. Here's to keeping history alive.

Don't suppose you be looking for an English gardener? Not only gardening, BUT, I could become your beer taster

for any new beers that the store buys in..... mmmmm Duff Beer !!

Yankee Queen;

Thank you for the very nice note you wrote me. I just read it. I checked

on the picture of your father. He looked about as young as me !! Better lookin'.

Love all the above pics. of your handiwork. God knows He made talented

people, this includes M-1. Just an ordinary dogface vet. Roque )Rocky)

Boy this topic sure went every which way.

Don't suppose you be looking for an English gardener? Not only gardening, BUT, I could become your beer taster

for any new beers that the store buys in..... mmmmm Duff Beer !!

You're hired. You garden, you get paid in beer. Sound like a deal?

M1, am I too late to sign up for bartering horticultural

labor for BEER ? I love gardening and !

I am insanely jealous of your Alger Market! It's GREAT!

When we lost so many hometown markets and country stores,

we were all the poorer for it.

Many of my memories of childhood contain trips to those places.

Two blocks from my house, there was Sutton's Market which had

been in existence since the mid 1800s. It was one of the first places

that my mother allowed me to venture unescorted. She'd give me a

dollar (imagine!) to buy grnd hamburger. I can still recall the wide

plank pine flooring and Mr. Sutton would disappear into a huge

meat locker (which scared me) and then bring the meat out to a

chopping block & handgrinder. The hamburger was then wrapped in

paper & tied with a string. At the front of the store was a large freezer

with popsicles and Mumma always gave me 5cents so I could buy a

fudgicle (my favorite! my brother Fran always wanted an orange sherbet push up).

My dad was an aficionado of the "Dover Country Store" in the neighboring town

& he'd often take me with him & let me buy penny candy. There was a section

at the back of the store which had "second hand" furniture (discards then would

now be viewed as valuable antiques). I still have one of the first presents my father

bought me - an Eastlake music cabinet with shelves meant to hold sheet music.

It started out as a place to keep all my paper dolls (remember them?), later

used to hold stationery for penpals - and now it occupies an important place in

my living room and contains photographs. It's one of my most treasured possessions!

Good memories of these small places ! How can anyone ever have fond reminiscences

of Target or Walmart?

m2