The Supermarket(s)

We were pretty lucky when we lived in Rochdale.

We had two malls, one indoor and one outdoor, and we could pick and choose which supermarket we would go to to do our family's food shopping.

My mother liked the first mall's Co-Op Supermarket better than the second mall's supermarket. She found it larger and much more convenient to shop.

Occasionally, she would send me to pickup some items she may have forgotten, and maybe once or twice, we used the home delivery service that they had in the first mall's store (I don't remember if they had this in the second mall).

At that point in time, we only ate Kosher meat at home. My father was a butcher early on in our time in Rochdale, and he brought home everything we needed.

When he became a cab driver, that was all over, so my mother bought from the Kosher butcher. She never bought meat in the supermarket, because if my memory is right, they either didn't carry Kosher meat or the selection wasn't too good. I honestly don't remember.

But she was very, very picky.

As a young child, I just remember the first supermarket, that ramshackle shack that we actually lined up at to get into, before the first mall opened its doors.

I remember waiting with my mother for seemingly hours before we could get in.

The selection was very limited--a lot of White Rose off-brand stuff, as I remember--and I absolutely remember my mom buying Happy's Ice Cream, with the stick figure of a "happy" guy on the box.

Now, just about every time I go food shopping with my family, I think of those old Rochdale days, the first supermarket we had, and the other two supermarkets that we came to depend on.

We can all reminisce about the supermarkets, the malls, and just about everything else at the Reunion on October 5. Don't forget, the due date for payments is September 15, and that date cannot be extended.

So get your checks in if you haven't already done so.

And here's to the Co-Op Supermarkets of those days.

They provided us plenty of food for thought, didn't they?