Oh Addie, I have so many memories of our little store and I can still see it in my mind's eye, complete with a big jar of pickled pigs feet on the meat case counter. There sure wasn't one on every corner or we wouldn't have been able to survive. I remember when the first "super market" came into the area and Daddy and I went there to scope out the prices and check out the place, with packaged meat and every color of bar soap. Remember colored bar soap? We sure didn't have shelf space for every color of bar soap or colored toilet paper either. What a horror that all their meat was packaged without a butcher like my Dad.
It turned out that our loyal customers who had their personal charge accounts stayed with us even with the "super market" near by. We hardly ever had a problem with people paying at the end of the month.
Dad had the best meat money could buy, and cut to order wrapped in butcher paper. Cooking advice was available for the asking. I often went with my Mom to deliver groceries to customers who needed the free service. Dad was too smart to give food away when people asked for it, but he often handed them a broom or had them stock some shelves in exchange. Oh how I miss them, and that childhood.
Klemm's Loma Vista Market...circa 1946-1963.