Little Store

Right next to Midvale Elementary School was The Little Store. The store was a very small neighborhood grocery store, a mom and pop affair. The school children loved the store because it had an old fashioned penny candy counter. Some of the candy was even 2 for a penny! Immediately after school there would always be a crowd around the glass counter. The owner and his wife were kept very busy trying to help all the kids. The owner would have you put your money on the counter so he knew how much you had. He would then make you decide quickly (of course, some kids wanted to take a long time, there were so many choices). If you didn't decide fast enough he would just grab something and he didn't care if it was what you wanted it or not. You learned to hurry.

In those days coupons were not common. They occasionally came in the mail and it was kind of a big deal. Kids knew that the owner of The Little Store would give you candy for some coupons. So, when we could get our hands on coupons we would go over there and tell him we had them. He would have us wait for him at the back of the store. When there were no adults there, he would go through the coupons and figure out which ones he would accept. We would then get 50% of the face value of the coupon in candy. He gave us back the coupons he wouldn't accept. I didn't realize until years later that what he was doing wasn't exactly legal. Sure enjoyed the candy, though!