Uncle Thomas Shelley owned the store in Heber when I was a kid. It was much smaller than the current store and I remember that it had a basement in it. It was also the location of the Post Office, as well as the location of the only public telephone in Heber. It was the old crank type that hung on the wall.
Uncle Thomas was a pretty tall old gentleman with white hair and we kids were a little bit afraid of him. He was a little abrupt with people sometimes and he didn’t mind correcting us if he thought we were doing something wrong. Aunt Eva who was his wife was a tiny little lady who was always very nice to everyone. I can remember as a small child being sent to the store for items. One vivid memory I have is of going for some cheese. The Longhorn Cheese came in “horns” which were rolls of cheese about six to seven inches in diameter and about eighteen inches long. We bought cheese by the pound. A pound of cheese was a slice from the horn about one inch thick. I remember Uncle Thomas had a curved cheese knife he used for slicing off the piece of cheese for the customer. That curved knife made him seem even more dangerous, I guess. Anyway it left an impression on me that remains until this day.
It was not uncommon at that time for kids to go to the store for their Moms with a list and some money. Some families had “charge accounts” at the store so they just sent a list and the cost for the item was added to the charge account. The accounts were settled at the end of the month or whenever pay day came. I can’t remember whether we had a charge account at the store or not. Mom hated being in debt to anyone. She would go without until she could pay for what she needed, if at all possible.
Uncle Thomas sold the store to Uncle Donnie Porter and it became Porter’s Shopping Center. Uncle Donnie added on to the original store and made it much larger. One of the conditions of the sale was that alcoholic beverages could not be sold in the store and they never were as long as Uncle Donnie and even subsequent owners ran the store. I doubt if those conditions are honored today, but they were for many years.
The store had an assortment of candy and that was a favorite stop for me when I was a kid. The top row of the candy shelf was for “penny candy.” As you might guess, items on that shelf cost one cent. The middle shelves held items for a nickel and the lowest shelves held items for a dime. Most candy at that time cost five cents. Only a few “special” candy bars cost a dime.
Most of my purchases came from the top shelf. It always had bubble gum of various types and suckers with straight sticks or with flexible loops for the handle. I think the flexible handle types were called “Safety‑pops.” I guess they were safer for babies or small children. There were also square taffy-type candies of various flavors, wax bottles filled with flavored liquid, pixie sticks, and candy you just sucked on. I’m sure there were others I don’t remember.
When I was growing up the most money I usually had to spend on candy was a few cents or a nickel. If no nickels were available, I would earn money by finding empty pop bottles and turning them in for the deposit. Seldom did I earn more than a few cents, but that was enough to buy some “penny candy.” Sometimes Mom would pay me a nickel for doing something for her. When she paid me, I usually didn’t waste too much time getting to the store to spend it. The nickel candy included most of the familiar candy bars such as Hershey’s, Mr. Goodbars, Baby Ruths, Milky Ways, Snickers, Polar Bears, Butterfingers, Three Musketeers, etc.
The dime candy bars were ones like Almond Joys, Mounds, Mars Bars and Cups‑o‑Gold and similar ones. I didn’t get to buy them very often but it was a real treat if I ever got to taste them. When I later worked at the store I used to buy candy bars by the box. At that time I could buy a box of twenty-four nickel candy bars for $1.10 and a box of dime candy bars for $2.20. I knew I was rich when I could afford to buy a full box of dime candy bars and sometimes I did, just to feel rich.
Even when I worked at the store, people would send notes with their kids with a list of things they needed and I would go around and collect them and we would charge them to their bill and the kids would take them home. Some of the kids got a little too smart for their britches and tried to forge notes from their parents to buy cigarettes or snuff. They usually got caught, needless to say.
Things were simple in those days in Heber. Everyone knew everyone else and people trusted each other. It made it easy to do business. I guess I grew up in a “trusting environment.” Even today I tend to trust people although some say I am naive. I think it comes from being raised in a place where you could trust everyone. I am sorry that is missing in today’s society.