I went out to the kitchen to grab a snack and decided for the less healthy option in the bag - some crispy/fudgey/coconut drop cookies that my Auntie Carol brought over the day after we moved into the house.
Carol rocks. She makes great food (and even made our wedding cake for us for free as a gift:
http://www.diabolis.net/albums/vacations_and_special_events/wedding_pictures_from_the_photographer/?viewmode=gallery&image=39 ).
Carol used to work at the Waltham Supermarket on Main Street (which became Shaws when the Super closed around 1990 and then Victory Supermarket a few years ago). From the time she graduated from High School she worked there in the bakery department where I remember the most amazing display cakes that were in a huge case behind a counter that had the smaller cakes and pastries. All of the ladies (it was all women that worked the counter) wore these powder-blue snap front shirts and had their hair up in those white baker shower-cap looking things. It was like something out of "Alice's Diner".
Waltham Supermarket wasn't that spectacular though it did have its charms. I remember they had this little waist-high motion sensor gate thing that opened when you came in the door (you had to stand there with your cart and wait for it to open because it was so slow). I guess they had one of the largest meat departments out of all supermarkets as I found trying to locate pictures online - the bag says it all:
http://www.waltham-community.org/images/WalthamSuperBag.jpg . They had these LARGE paintings of animals on the wall up near the ceiling over near the meat department - cows, buffalo, pigs, etc. And there were paintings of native american people holding and aiming spears - very odd and sort of scary to a small kid. The old meat department was over where Victory's deli is now and took up pretty much that whole wall (to give you an idea of how large it was).
Carol worked at that place from the time she graduated High School until they closed in 1990. Shaws let most of the old-timers go unfortunately and she was among them - she found herself in a position that she never thought she'd be in. She was a middle aged woman looking for a job as a baker (not many of those positions out there) while also losing the large extended family she had established over the years of employment.
We were over her house this past easter looking through old photographs and I found a bunch from those last days at the Super. I felt like I was 5 years old again and all those times spent with my grandmother doing her food-shopping or with my Mom sporadically running in for this and that (she was more of a Star Market person) came rushing back. And I got to see what it was like behind the scenes where all of the complicated machinery was operated by more people in smocks (only these ones weren't powder blue).
Now that Carol only lives 5 minutes away I think I should go grab these photos from her and scan them. I bet she's got lots of gems locked away in that little back porch room of hers where junk gets stowed away for lack of a better space.
*******
I think progress is a necessity and the new establishments that pop up are often times an improvement. But its sad to see places that were such a large part of your life go. I had forgotten about of these establishments in my search for Waltham Super pictures - we frequented many of them all of the time:
http://www.waltham-community.org/OutOfBusiness.html . The Wallex has closed too recently, pictures of that haven't made it up there yet - I hope that B didn't lose the photos that he took of it that were living on his camera.
Do you have any fond memories of old establishments that you used to frequent that are long-gone but etched in memory? Do you think that we should keep those memories alive or let them give way for bigger and better things?
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