LETTERS TO THE EDITOR ============ Once upon a time there was a busy little town about 24 miles west of Toledo, it was a busy six days a week. There was a mill, they ground grain for livestock and chickens, they sold and delivered coal and fertilizer. We had two lumber yards, H.L. Miles and John Pelton. There were five grocery stores on Main Street, there was Jack Wagner, Corbins, Turpenings, Al Chappuies, and Maude and Bert McQuillen's Home Star, Joe Rupp was gone before the previous five, there were two drug stores, Drums and Gehrings, there was three restaurants, Fred McKeens, South Side by Harry and Louise Alcorn and Eva Guthrie, Dav Najaims plus a lunch room ran by the Alcorns and the Ketch-A-Bite by Haskel and Stella Spires, first I remember was Chrisman brothers Hardware then Mutzfield and Bowers and Don Davenport opened a hardware after operating a gas station on Main and Wood St. We had a Pool Hall, Dry Goods Store, P.C. Smith Clothing, Toggery Shop, Shrulls 5 and 10, Joe Gobelneck had a bar downstairs beneath the Lincoln Hotel, Gus White had a barber shop in his house on the corner of Main and Wilson before Chippy Keller had his shop, Rupps Hatchery was on Wilson just above the Creek bridge. We must not forget Clyde Arnold's father who had a fish market near the Delta Atlas, that Atlas building has been there a long time, if it could talk, what a lot of good stories it could tell. We had the Lyric Theater before talkies. There were auto dealers, Johnson's Ford then Doc. Kimbell had it, Bruner and Hines Buick and Pontiac, later Vern Wisner sold Chryslers and Walker Chevrolet. Mickey McQuillen had an auto repair next to Al Chappuies grocery near the Pet Milk ground where we had a medicine show every summer, snake oil and tin pans, there were many more. That was before we became such great shoppers and so mobile, oh yes we can go to Maumee and save a quarter-such bargains. The margin of profit on groceries is such that a business must have a large turn over to stay in business, the small town merchant has a rough "row to hoe", taxes and other overhead plus the help makes for some sharp figuring. He is there for you and unless the shopping habits, Well, Will the last one out turn off the light and close the gate. Encil Mizer -------------- Delta Atlas, Delta, Fulton County, Ohio; July 27, 1999 |
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