By Abe Villarreal
I like it when old timers tell me about grocery stores that don't exist anymore. They always start their stories with something that sounds like a favorite memory. Something that sounds like they are holding on to an important moment in their lives.
Stories about the Pick and Save, and the Hinky Dinky. The Fresh and Easy, or the Piggly Wiggly. They all sound like places that were run by that one guy who was liked by everyone in town. Places where our grandparents had their first jobs as stockers in their teenage years. Businesses that allowed you to pay for items on time.
One of the old timers at a café I frequent was telling me all about his favorite grocery store that is now replaced by some big box store with no personality. It was called Benny's Market or maybe Johnny's. Stores used to always be named after their original owners. They did that because their name meant something to the community.
He recounted how he could buy everything in the store for under a dollar. That's how he remembered it. Affordability used to not be an issue with most people on most necessities. If you worked a full week in a job that only required you to show up, be willing to learn, and do your best, you could make an honest living.
You couldn't afford most fancy things, but life wasn't too hard. It's not that way anymore. I think that's what he was trying to tell me.
He told me that he knew every business owner in his town, "back in the day." He was young, married, and a professional. Most families looked like his. Young, married, and with a decent job. The grocery store, the butcher shop, the barber, and even the attorney. They all had a store, on a corner, and they were all run by guys he knew. Guys that had been there for a long time. That's how he remembers it.
Memories can be funny things. Good memories become better over time. Bad memories, the kind you don't want to remember, are sometimes forgotten. Sometimes they become worse. He only remembers good things. At least that's what he was sharing with me.
It must be something to be able to look back at life after 80 years of living. The ups and the downs. The changes you wanted and the changes that you didn't understand at the time. The way everything around you seemed familiar until it wasn't. Still, you are living and getting along.
We tend to think that old timers aren't flexible. That life is moving too fast. That they are too slow to understand what's happening around them. Old timers know how to adapt. How to make it past big changes. They are survivalists. They've seen more than the rest of us.
Sometimes life slows down and you find yourself with an old timer at a café with a cup of coffee. The only movement is the occasional car you see passing by through the big cafe windows. The only sound, the jingle the bell makes each time the door is opened.
The old timer has all the time in the world to tell you stories about the grocery store that was once was. The store where he frequented with neighbors. The store where he met a cute clerk he dated during high school.
The store that gave him memories of a time that doesn't exist anymore. A time I wish I could experience with him.
Abe Villarreal writes about the traditions, people, and culture of America. He can be reached at
