Archived Topics
Long Ago
Posted By: RD <lancva@crosslink.net>
Date: Thursday, 1 February 2001, at 11:53 a.m.
Enjoy reading all the messages that recount all the businesses in Willi and how much they enjoyed those places. Some of the businesses I remember that I haven't seen mentioned are: SK Ames Butter/Cheese--they also had great ice cream; Mac's United Cigar--always got my comic books there; Lindy's; Raymond's; Rock Garden; Lucky Strike bowling; Smith-Keon; Joe Osso's on Jackson street--sold penny candy and those famous paper tatoos; Noheimer's; Brunnen's Bakery; Bergeron's Shoe Repair; the original Clark House; Welch's; and A&I's near the airport.
Posted By: Nancy Simpson <sneghs@mail.com>
Date: Thursday, 1 February 2001, at 2:21 p.m.
In Response To: Long Ago (RD)
Does anyone remember the Chagnon/Bacon grocery store? Alphonse Chagnon lived in our house for almost 30 years with his wife. He died in the mid-30's and she stayed on a couple more years, then moved to Hartford to live with her son.
Lucky Strike is still around, I remember the original Clark house. My parents used to go there for special things.
I can remember walking down Main st and looking in the window at the displays at Smith Keon, they are over at the Eastbrook Mall now.
Posted By: Ada Kerachsky Albright <aa19@cornell.edu>
Date: Thursday, 1 February 2001, at 3:30 p.m.
In Response To: Long Ago (RD)
Ames Butter & Egg store had a wonderful vat of homemade peanut butter--no sugar, etc. added. You could buy just a quarter pound if you wanted. It was put into a pleated paper container with a lid, and if you did not transfer it into a glass container when you got it home, the oil would seep through the paper container. It was delicious and how I learned to eat peanut butter--the brands available in a jar at that time all had sugar added and were homoginized. Speaking of dairy products, how many of you remember having milk delivered to your homes in glass bottles by Butler Dairy or Mountain Dairy? Is that still possible there? My father had home delivery until he died in 1986.
Posted By: Rick Simmons <gsimmons2@earthlink.net>
Date: Thursday, 1 February 2001, at 9:30 p.m.
In Response To: Re: Long Ago (Ada Kerachsky Albright)
My father delivered milk for Mountain Dairy.They still do home delivery.I think Butler Dairy had a dairy bar on Rt195,maybe about opposite where the East Brook Mall is now.I remember going there for ice cream cones on Sunday afternoon rides.You said something about your father's store somewhere in this forum once,did he have the hardware store on Union St.?I grew up in South Windham and delivered newspapers to him if that is the same Mr.Kerachsky.My wife and I also rented an apartment from him when we were first married in 1971.
1 post missing
Posted By: RD <lancva@crosslink.net>
Date: Saturday, 3 February 2001, at 1:20 p.m.
In Response To: Re: Long Ago (Robert Thompson)
One of the swimming places i use to go to was behind Butler's Dairy and was called Gile Flynn's. I think the city ran it because there were lifeguards there. There were two brothers who last name was something like "Slavaki" the other swimming place was called Diana's Pool which may also be the rock because of the large jutting ledge sticking out that some use to jump from.
Posted By: Ada Kerachsky Albright <aa19@cornell.edu>
Date: Friday, 2 February 2001, at 1:10 p.m.
In Response To: Re: Long Ago (Rick Simmons)
Yes, I remember occasionally going to Butler's Dairy Bar on Route 195 for a milkshake. And, yes, my father did own Morris Hardware & Supply on Union Street.(Willimantic Glass Co., a division was added for continuity because it was the previous name of the business when it had been on Church St.). If you delivered newspapers to him in South Windham, it must have been _The Hartford Courant_ because the _Chronicle_ did not have home delivery in South Windham at the time (and my father liked having a morning paper). Robert mentioned the taverns that lined the east side of Jackson St. I remember an incident when I was five or six years old. After having had lunch with my grandmother at her store on Union St., I was walking along, sniffling about something that had upset me, when an old drunk standing in front of one of those taverns said something to me as I walked by. I probably set a world's record running the rest of the way up Jackson St. to Natchaug Grammar School! Does anyone remember the wonderful old candy store on that same side of Jackson St. (across from the College Shop?), just before Valley St. Extension? There were more kinds of penny candy than one could imagine, Indian nuts, wax lips and teeth, etc.
Posted By: William Brainard <p020188b@pb.seflin.org>
Date: Saturday, 3 February 2001, at 10:40 a.m.
In Response To: Re: Long Ago (Ada Kerachsky Albright)
Several years ago before I went to live in S. Fla. a friend and I used to go to Butches Antiques out on Rt. 6 by the airport. On his walls in one of the sheds he used for showrooms were two huge murals/paintings of Willimantic scenes. Think they were done in the early 1970s; one was of Railroad Street and the footbridge and the shops that used to be there and the other was at the rotary of US 6 and Rt. 32 showing Friendly's *before* they expanded it to its current design. When I was a child the above antique place was known as Homer and Irene's. Has anyone seen the above paintings? They were quite unusual.
Posted By: Ernie Gesner <egesner@aol.com>
Date: Saturday, 3 February 2001, at 7:18 p.m.
In Response To: Re: Long Ago (William Brainard)
William before I left Willimantic in 1953 the Bar and Restaurant by the airport was called Al's and Irene's. Does any one remember the ice cream fountain at Hickey's Drug Store and there was a real pretty gal by the name of Lorreta that worked there in the early 50s.
Posted By: RD <lancva@crosslink.net>
Date: Saturday, 3 February 2001, at 1:16 p.m.
In Response To: Re: Long Ago (Ada Kerachsky Albright)
I believe the candy store across from the College Shoppe was Joe Osso's at least that was the name of the owner and I believe it was stenciled on his storefront window.
Posted By: Ada Kerachsky Albright <aa19@cornell.edu>
Date: Saturday, 3 February 2001, at 9:25 p.m.
In Response To: Re: Long Ago (RD)
Joe Osso's candy store was a different store: it was on the corner of Jackson St. and Valley St. Extension, next to the St. Joseph's property. The candy store that I was thinking of was a large store with about three steps going up to it. It was next to the tailor shop, I believe, and was in the previous block, past the taverns.
Posted By: Rick Simmons <gsimmons2@earthlink.net>
Date: Sunday, 4 February 2001, at 3:19 p.m.
In Response To: Re: Long Ago (Ada Kerachsky Albright)
I did deliver the Hartford Courant and The Chronicle as well.I won a trip to the 1964 New York Worlds Fair from the Courant for getting new subscibers.I didn't get to see much of it as we went down on a bus and when we arrived we were just told to be back at the bus by 5:00. I was afraid I'd get lost and miss the bus home so I didn't go very far from the immediate area. My wife and I visited with my parents this morning, my dad thinks that the candy store you're speaking of might have been called The Friendly Variety Store.He also told me that my grandfather worked part-time at your father's store sometime in the 50's.
Posted By: Charlene Crosthwaite <wcrosthwaite@snet.net>
Date: Wednesday, 9 January 2002, at 12:30 a.m.
In Response To: Re: Long Ago (Bill S)
Happened to be reading about all the old candy and had a wonderful chuckle.
As one of six children, getting to eat out was a real treat. Going to Remy's Grinder Shop with $.50 would get you a little brown bag of wonderful treats like squirrels, peanut butter logs and fireballs. An extra special treat was a grinder with made with fresh cabbage and Italian salami.
I remember my favorite candy bars were Zero bars and skybars. Walmart now carries Zero bars and just the other night while shopping with my daughter in Stop & Shop we were walking down the candy aisle when she pointed out to the large package of skybars telling me that she'd heard from a friend of hers that they were awesome. I laughed and told her that
they always were.
some posts out of order
Posted By: Bill S <wsledjeski@aol.com>
Date: Monday, 5 February 2001, at 10:46 p.m.
In Response To: Re: Long Ago (Rick Simmons)
Ada,
The name of the store across from the College Shoppe was Joe Labbe's. Squirrels, wax bottles with liquid sugar, paper strips with candy dots, paper tattoo strips and skybars... good stuff. used to get a paper bag full for a nickel. He and his wife ran the store and lived in the back. It was an almost daily stop for me after leaving St.Joe,s heading home in the 40's.
Posted By: Ada Kerachsky Albright <aa19@cornell.edu>
Date: Tuesday, 6 February 2001, at 10:55 a.m.
In Response To: Re: Long Ago (Bill S)
Bill, Thanks. That name does indeed ring a bell. I had forgotten those wax bottle things (I did not have much of a sweet tooth--neighborhood kids could not understand why I never even wanted anything from my grandmother's little candy case in her store), but remember the candy dots on sheets of paper (still available in some places!), cinnamon gummy "wheels," etc. Ithaca, NY had a wonderful old candy store with a soda fountain until about four or five years ago. Unfortunately it is gone now.