Groceries, gas and green stamps departed

I was saddened to learn that one of Hillsville's supermarkets recently went out of business .

When Lowe's Food opened in 1973 I relished my first visit. It was the first real large supermarket in Hillsville. It seemed as though we had finally moved into the 20th century. This is largely due to the fact Lowe's had automatic sliding doors. Pretty far out for the time. For me that was like being on the set of Star Trek. It was within view of our house and every night I would stare out my bedroom window at what was the new Hickory Hill shopping center. The parking lot lights. The evening shoppers with their new jars of Koogle! I felt privileged to be alive.

It's just one of several stores that eventually bit the dust.

Dalton's Service Station in the heart of Dugspur announced it will be closing at the first of the year. It has been the nucleus of Dugspur commerce for decades. I dare you to find another full-service gas station anywhere near. Dozens of Dugspur retirees will have nowhere to go to hang out.

Also newly shut down is Junior's Store on Route 100. One of the very last of a dying breed: A neighborhood store with an account system. Junior's Store enabled entire generations to charge bread and milk purchases between paydays.

Another one of my favorite stores was the Mick-or-Mack on Main Street in Hillsville. In the mid-70s it became Sureway. It was like a 1950s version of a supermarket. You'd be hard pressed to find a friendlier bunch of people. Downright amazing comic book selection and they didn't mind kids treating the magazine rack like a library. The place also smelled indescribably fresh. Glade would do well to produce a scent so gratifying. If you asked the butcher nicely he'd give you a big box of meat scraps for your ... uh,dogs. Yeah, that's it, the dogs! Something completely forbidden in this day and time. It's a bank now.

Sureway was the first local store to do a cheesy contest. You had to collect gamepieces that spelled out 'Sureway' and place them on a special gameboard. Of course there was one letter that was totally elusive, I recall it being an 'e'. Within a month everyone had all the letters but 'e'. Rumors abounded at school that someone had found an 'e'. No one I know won a cent but the promotion certainly did its job. Parents would send their kids in separately just to get the game pieces. Bet none of those kids grew up to play Lotto.

Amazing how many fond memories can be traced back to those neighborhood shops. I even miss getting a fist full of green stamps. Seems every store, no matter how small, handed out green stamps with purchases. I still have no idea how this system of voodoo economics actually worked.

Will kids today ever know the sheer joy of helping their parents fill books with green stamps and trading them in for a blender that never got used ?

We can only hope.