The weather is the same as yesterday’s, light rain, white clouds and a temperature in the high 30’s. Over the weekend, we’ll have Sunday rain and a high of 56°. That seems like deck weather, but I’d have to shovel first.

So much has disappeared in my lifetime, and I’d like to resurrect a few. Woolworth’s would be first. It would be just like the one in the square when I was a kid. The floors were wooden and creaked. At the front was the check-out counter and the comic book stand. It spun. Rows of goods extended from the front to the back. I remember the toy section the best. It had jacks, yoyo’s, Fli-back paddles, Chinese finger traps, plastic green soldiers and card games like Old Maid. Nothing was expensive. Old ladies worked the register. They didn’t allow comic book reading. Sometimes I bought one.

I’d bring back the diner. It was one of my father’s stops. Sometimes I went with him, usually on a Saturday morning. I remember the diner in winter. You could feel the hot air as soon as you opened the door. The diner smelled of bacon in the morning and French fries later in the day. We ate in a booth with a tabletop jukebox, one choice for a dime and three choices for a quarter. My father would give me a quarter. When I was older, my friends and I would stop there after drill. I remember brownies with chocolate sauce.

I miss the milkman and the sound of clinking bottles. I miss the trash truck. I miss the guys with their barrels who picked up the trash and emptied in into the back of the truck. I remember their clothes were filthy. One of them would empty the garbage pail. It was in the ground. Its top had a pedal to open it. They’d pull out the pail and empty it into their barrel. I thought that had to be the worst job except for the nightsoil men in Ghana.

I’d bring back corner stores. They were the best stops for small items like bread or milk. They had large glass candy counters filled with penny candy and I remember one of them had a counter with everything Hostess. Corner stores had a feel about them, a personal feel.

I’m done pondering.

This entry was posted on March 6, 2026 at 1:13 pm and is filed under Musings. You can subscribe via RSS 2.0 feed to this post's comments. You can comment below, or link to this permanent URL from your own site.