It is always with interest that I read my colleague JoAnne Kosey’s column in the Landmark. I really do not mean to piggyback on her last column, about Shannell’s grocery store, but cannot help putting in my two cents about a store which was a neighborhood phenomenon while we were growing up.
I remind you that this was the building, now a residential property, on Northgate Road, right where the old water tower used to be, almost backing up to 26th Street.
Apparently, JoAnne and I were patrons at the same time, maybe even running into one another but probably not knowing it, as we visited the little store during our childhoods in Riverside.
Old Mr. Shannell (and I, too, am unsure about the spelling) was always good with the kids, reminding me very much of the small, storekeeper I remembered as a 3-year-old in Berwyn when the little, family stores were on just about every other street corner in Berwyn.
Most small towns had them, and they were a neighborhood mainstay. Mr. Shannell was always good with a little piece of free sausage, but usually only when I was shopping with my grandmother, Frances Shuss. I think he was more inclined to impress her than me.
But, she did not come along often, since she and my grandfather, Jim, usually did the heavy duty shopping at the A&P, which then morphed later on in life into Henninger’s Pharmacy, soon to be a condo complex.
It was a coming of age, if you will, for me to go to Shannell’s alone. Since we lived at 29 Northgate Road and far west of the store, almost on Desplaines Avenue, it was quite a hike for a little kid of 4. JoAnne would have been coming from the east, probably about the same age.
The summer was the biggest draw because of the Popsicles. I especially remember the turquoise blue ones, because they were not only good on a hot, summer day, but they were also a beautiful color. It would be so hot outside that they would never make it home with me, melting quickly along the way, aided by many, many licks.
I, too, would notice the sawdust on the floor, and since the shop we had frequented in Berwyn also had a sawdust floor, I was surprised when the sawdust was gone one day, some kind of a giving in to sanitation or something like that, my folks told me. I missed the sawdust, since it was a great place for little feet to make designs in the floor while waiting to be pay for one’s Popsicle.
Once in a while, Mrs. Shannell would stick her head out from the back of the store, where there were living quarters. In a way, and because of the goodies their store always held, they made me think of what Mr. and Mrs. Santa Claus might be like if they lived in the neighborhood.
One day, as JoAnne noted, they were gone and the store, overnight, became Ernie’s. I, too, have no idea what Mr. Ernie’s last name was?”he was always simply “Ernie.”
Ernie brought in that great, new invention from the Popsicle company, the Dreamsicle. I insisted on daily trips to the store to get one of these overly sweet bars that had ice cream in the middle, and some kind of an orange ice-type topping. Just the thought of it, today, makes my teeth go whirrrrr as this childhood delight was oh, so sweet!
Always being an avid gum chewer (to my family’s consternation), I used to buy my trading cards and baseball cards at Ernie’s, often staying around a bit after the purchase to see if other card buyers might come around and be willing to engage in a little trading. Trading cards were the rage. Printed on one side in patterns or scenes, they were duplicated in a variety of colors.
One would consider it a prized set if one could get four of them in one sequence?”in pinks, blues, yellows and greens. I would carry around a wad of cards that looked like one-sided pinochle deck, which I’d bring to school for recess exchanges during the early days of elementary school.
The baseball cards were a source of great pride to me and, again, worthy of trading, so that one could build up whole teams. I memorized all the names and statistics so that I could talk baseball with my dad, Bill Baar. He was so proud of the fact that I knew my baseball?”and all from the cards.
Walking home, looking at my baseball and trading cards, licking my Popsicles, it was a long haul for a little kid. The street was awash with waving prairie grass, since most of the houses along Northgate Road were not yet built.
I must admit that I miss the little store. Always think about it when I pass it. I realize that zoning pushes for residential properties, but there is something so warm and neighborly about the placement of small groceries like this, places where people can gather, exchange gossip, feel a part of things. But as JoAnne said, times change, we along with them.