We called this neighborhood grocery store the “Little Store”. It was located one block from our house. It was owned by two sisters, Dee and Babe. The front of the house was a small grocery store and the owners lived in back. It had a wonderful candy counter with a large selection of penny candy in glass display cases. We could go down with a few cents and pick out our individual pieces of candy and the sisters would put our purchases in a little paper bag and off we would go. We could buy wax lips, little wax bottles of juice, tootsie rolls, marshmallow ice cream cones and candy you can't find anymore.
My mother tells the story that when I was 3 years old I walked to the store by myself to shop. The owners had to call my parents to come and get me.
The store was located on the corner of 7th and Washington Street. The building was built in the early 1900’s. It was turned into a single family house in the 1960’s and has been remodeled many times.
Before the chain super markets came into being these little stores were all over the city in the local neighborhoods. There was no other places to shop for food. The neighborhood stores went out of business when the large grocery chains moved into the neighborhood. The chain stores were very different. They had a big selection of everything and it sold for less than the little stores charged. Soon we grew too old to care about the penny candy. I don't even remember when the little store closed.