Deb Randall
My Home Town-Millinocket-2nd Installment
Sandwiches for Supper!!
Thursday Night!!! We got a special treat, we had sandwiches for supper. Boy didn't we thing we were special. Dad was the one who did the grocery shopping and that took place right after he got out of work at Great Northern Paper Company at 4 pm. He would swing by and picked me up so I could help him ,or so I thought, later I found out it was so he could pick up the grocery list my mother had made out for him. We went to First National which was located at the corner of Central Street and Main Street . Oh how I loved to go into that store. The produce was the first section and I loved the smell of citrus, the lemons especially. They were my favorite color too. As Dad proceeded to fill the basket I would meander over to the 8O'clock coffee section and waited for someone to come over and grind their coffee. (not sure if they had instant coffee way back then or not, but most folks took the beans and put them in the machine and voila just like magic out would come the darkest, richest coffee with the most wonderful smell. Of course I was too young to drink it-but when I sneaked a taste I was actually glad I couldn't drink it-it tasted awful. How can something smell so great but taste so bitter. When Dad was finished he would hunt me up and I would help put the stuff on the belt. I kept moving the last few items to the back of the belt and watch them slide down only to do it again until I got the look from the cashier, Dad would pay the bill and she would give him some kind of stamps which my Mom and I would later lick and stick in this little book.
After we returned home and carried in the groceries we promptly took a ride into the section of Millinocket called Little Italy. I thought it was a funny name but never asked why it was called that cause I pronounced it, Little Itly. Well, what is an Itly? Anyway, we would go into this store called Dinardo's. It too had wonderful smells coming from inside. They had hanging cheese and meat. Now that was a funny way to display your groceries. I thought it must be because it was a small store and they had to use all the space they could to cram their groceries in. I used to like to look at the man's hands. I had never seen anyone who actually had hair on his fingers. It was long and dark and you could actually see each strand of hair. The man was a very nice man but he also had something else that was peculiar. It looked like the sweat that was on his forehead and the sides of his neck were greasy. Can someone sweat grease? I didn't know and I sure knew better than to ask such a question. (Though it was very difficult to squelch the curiosity that was looming within me). But it really didn't matter as long as I got to go behind the counter and pick out my own penny candy which filled a little brown paper bag about 1/4 full. That was a lot of candy to me. I got all the 2 and 3 for a penny that I could get. I knew I'd have to share with my older brother and two sisters so I wanted to make sure I had some left for me.
Now comes the exciting part. When we returned we had a bottle of Olive Oil, some pepperoni, salami, provolone cheese and some other kind of cheese- and couple of big fat pickles that came out of a barrel, a bag of King Cole potato chips and one quart of Clique co Club soda. What a treat! We didn't get sandwiches chips or soda any other day but grocery day which was Thursday. (Probably cause that was payday!)
My mother would have been embarrassed if someone had come by to visit on those nights cause she would have thought they would think of her as a lazy wife and mother- not cooking for her family.
I wonder if kids today are as excited as I was when I got to have a sandwich for supper? NOT!
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