Maybe this is just a boomer thing but do you remember the corner store?
The buildings that housed these stores can be found all over St. Paul, and like this one, located on the corner of Forest Street and Conway on St. Paul’s East side, most have been turned into apartments.
When this was a corner store the owners lived upstairs. The name of the store was Harry’s. My parents would send me to Harry’s to buy some milk, or maybe some vanilla extract, or a can of beans. It was convenient for them because they could just give a kid some money and we would walk to the store, purchase the goods and deliver them to our parents. Today these stores have been replaced by convenience stores, and I don’t think kids walk much any more.
What I remember the most about Harry’s besides the wooden 
floors, is the penny candy. My brother Alan, and I would walk past the store on the way to school each day. Yes, I did say walk, we walked to school and it was uphill both ways and almost always snowing. 🙂
On the way home from school we would stop and buy candy. We could purchase candy for a penny and an entire candy bar for a nickle. We would search for pennies, or turn in glass pop bottles and use the proceeds to purchase a piece of bazooka bubble gum, and maybe a tootsie roll. We could even buy candy cigarette’s, hard to imagine, today’s parents would probably have a stroke if the kids brought these home.
I don’t remember when
the small corner stores disappeared but would guess that it happened in the mid-seventies, when the 7-Eleven convince stores came to town. The chain stores probably put these little guys out of business.
There are still some corner stores left, like this one on Earl Street near Indian Mounds Park. The store has been there my entire life, and has evolved and changed with the neighborhood.
Every time I drive by an apartment building on a corner with an unusual looking entryway I remember walking into Harry’s with my brother, or my friends and can almost see the wood floors and taste the tootsie rolls.
Oh wow, I thought when we exchanged e-mails a while back we had a lot in common, this one takes the cake.
When I was young my twin brother and little sisters would visit my grandma in the German Village area of Columbus, Ohio. She lived in quaint multi-level townhouse and just a few doors down on the corner was the quintessential corner store. Creaking wood floors, Ice Cream Cooler with a slow leak, rows and rows of penny candy right down at little boy/girl level. We would stuff those paper bags full and the lovely old man behind the counter always took about half as many pennies as we did candy. At Christmas time he would crouch down and he would tell us about why we need to be twice as good because we were twins. I bought it hook line and sinker. Sometimes when I go into an old store in those out of the way places on my travels, the smells will remind me of that old place.
Teresa, The small corner stores are still there. There’s one 3.5 blocks from my house over on Jackson and Pennsylvania that’s still functioning and another on Minnehaha and Fairview (that one’s for sale). One block from my house is a closed corner store that’s for sale. They converted it to two units but both are “loft-like” so there are no real bedrooms. Kitchens and baths in both units are nice but it’s overpriced. I remember 19 cent hamburger, 1/4 pounder Baby Ruth candy bars for a dime. Memory lane . . . it’s almost painful!
Michael – how could I forget those little brown bags, about half the size of a lunch bag. That brings back even more memories. 🙂
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Teresa,
My sister lived above a corner grocery store in Milwaukee almost 15 years ago now probably. Once I drove to Milwaukee from Ohio on a Saturday and had to hang out and wait for her to get home. Great people watching for someone who is more used to suburbia.
I remember the corner grocery store in my grandparent’s Chicago neighborhood… even more years ago.
Thanks for the memories… I was lured over here by a Dear Abby letter.