Supermarkets

This topic came to mind when I went shopping recently in the new Wegmans supermarket in Prince Georges county in Maryland. When it opened last year it was heralded as a big "win" for the county - proof that "high-end stores" if they chose to locate there, could make it in this predominantly African-American population. Amazing how far we have come from the good old days.

In the 50's and early 60's we did all our family grocery shopping at the Acme in Westgate Plaza (R.I.P.). Since Westgate opened in 1958, and we moved to Chili in 1954, I'm guessing we still shopped somewhere in the West side of Rochester before the plaza was built. There was also an A&P at Westgate.

In the 60's a new grocery store came to Chili Center (Star Supermarket?). I really don't remember any Wegmans stores except for the ones at Midtown and Pittsford plaza although I am sure there were many more.

Acme gave out stamps that you could save up and redeem for all kinds of things. As they were probably worth about 1%, it took a lot of shopping dollars to get anything "free". One of the cruelest stories of my childhood was when the happiness of getting a new bicycle (my one and only) was mocked by one of the neighborhood boys who said "you can't ride on stamps!". Where do such thoughts and cruelties come from?

I can remember my Mom taking me with her to Acme and me keeping tabs of the total bill as she filled the cart to overflowing. I would usually be accurate to within the tax on the few non-food items. Yep - the human calculator.

Anyway, grocery shopping in those days was not glamorous and the stores were just grocery stores. Most are still that way but I have to hand it to Wegmans. They have become a phenomena in the mid-Atlantic area with communities pleading for stores and jubilant when they land one. We travel 15 miles to the nearest one to get my two favorite things that only they sell.....pop-open hot dogs and sugar/cinnamon/plain fried cakes. For me, they are the closest fried cake competitors to the all-time best which were sold at Sibley's.

Maps of Chili and Rochester

I found some interesting maps and thought I'd share them with all you fine readers :) Anyway, the first is a really old map of Chili from the early 19th century : It has the names of early residents (click on the link to see a bigger image and find the interesting source).

The next is a road map from 1908 which to me was fascinating. It's a highway map (there were so few in 1908) of Riga, Chili and Wheatland showing the importance of the NY Central railroad and the stations in Chili, Churchville, etc.

Then there is a highway map from 1954 which is apropos to this blog so I will include the picture here for flavor. It doesn't include all the new neighborhood streets like in Ranchmar or Chestnut Heights, but it gives a lay of the land in those days. It's kind of interesting to see what streets were considered most important and relatively important (Fenton Road, Marshall Drive, etc) enough to make the map. Of course, the new post-war neighborhoods were just being built when this map was drawn.

I  recommend browsing about the site these links point to for other maps of the Monroe County area, especially the highway maps of Rochester itself in 1904 which is in two parts. 

How little we knew of the history of our town and city when we were growing up there. Thank heavens for the breakthrough of cheap computer memory so now we can search through all these old documents.

New School Year

A new school year begins and when I see all the kids standing on the street corner waiting for the bus I recall those Chili days.

For our family, each school year began with a late summer visit to the National department store at Southtown plaza. Each of us got a new pair of shoes (how did Catholic parents possibly afford new shoes for all their children?) and that leather was one of the two key smells of the new school year. The second, of course, was the smell of the classroom on those early September days. Maybe it was the cleanliness after summer cleanings (or lack of sweaty kids for a few months) but those classrooms had a smell that I'll never forget. Our shoes and socks were are only personality items in elementary school wardrobe, the rest of our clothes were dictated by uniform....the boys wearing off-white dress shirts with green ties with the yellow letters SPX woven on them and the girls wore a green jumper (also with SPX I think) and a white blouse. I don't remember any changes to that uniform through the eight years of elementary school.

We in Chestnut Heights all took the bus to school. Others (like the Ranchmar kids) were able to walk. We had no parents at the bus stop. Today the bus stop area is crowded with cars and parents gabbing with each others besides the usual chaos of the kids....in our day it was just the kids.

It was always so interesting to find out who the teacher would be...... it was so important really because you would be with that person for several hours a day for the next 9 months. For the most part, all the teachers were very nice, but they did have reputations. I had two favorites as I mentioned before. I think it is just a matter of personality...different kids get along with the temperaments of different teachers and vice versa....as it would be with all people throughout life. But interestingly, my favorites were the oldest (Sr Britta 4th) and the youngest (Sr Felicia 5th & 7th). Both were very kind to me....they made my days.