Its around this time of year that I would run home from school as fast as I could. I'd run into the house, forgetting to take off my shoes, and meet my Mom in the Kitchen. "Has it come yet?" I would ask. And I would hope for the words, "Yes its here, its in the living room -- Take off your Shoes!". Ok, the take off your shoes part wasn't part of my hope.
My local Steinberg's grocery store was located within the local shopping mall Elmvale Acres. While Steinberg's was not remarkably different than other grocery chains, I do have a couple of memories. Primarily the brown-paper bags that the groceries were placed within. These bags became the same bags placed within our kitchen garbage pail. And sometimes not that well - as paper bags do a terrible job in stopping liquids.
What was I waiting for?
The Christmas Catalogues from Consumer Distributing, Shop Rite, Sears Canada and to a lesser extent Eaton's and Canadian Tire. In those glossy, colour images, was a gold mine of hopes and wishes for Christmas Morning.
As I remember back to this joy, I wonder what else do I miss from when I grew up in Ottawa?
So here is my Top 10 list of things I miss:
#10. I.P. Looney's Restaurant:
A low-brow restaurant in the East part of Ottawa, provided the capital with a unique dining experience. From the warning at the front door that all ties will be cut-off to the "...waiters dressed like Batman or Robin or the Big Bad Wolf serve and sing..." (NY Times - Travel Section - May 1984). It was one of a kind.
#9. The Ottawa Rough Riders
The best part of growing up in Ottawa was CFL football. The Ottawa Rough Riders TV and Radio broadcasts were rarely missed events. I still recall the "Tommy Clements to Tony Gabriel" pass in the dying minutes of the 1976 Grey Cup against those other Roughriders. As kids we must have shouted that 100 times while passing the football in the school yard. It was shameful that the franchise and stadium have been left to decay over the years. Bring back the Riders!
You can relive the key 1976 Grey Cup play at the CBC.
#8. Steinberg's Grocery Store
My local Steinberg's grocery store was located within the local shopping mall Elmvale Acres. While Steinberg's was not remarkably different than other grocery chains, I do have a couple of memories. Primarily the brown-paper bags that the groceries were placed within. These bags became the same bags placed within our kitchen garbage pail. And sometimes not that well - as paper bags do a terrible job in stopping liquids.The second memory is that the groceries were not carried out to the cars, but rather, the bags were placed in blue bins with number/letters indicators stapled to the sides. These numbers are given to the customers, who then drive the cars up to the loading area. Once there, they provide the tickets - and the bag boys go and fetch the correct bins. Most importantly they load up the trunk with the bags (regardless of the weather). That was service.
#7. Smash up Derby
The next two items remembered are two toys items that I had when I was younger. The first is a rather a guilty memory of the past. I can remember wanting this so badly, and my Mom not happy when I received it from my God Father and Uncle Claude (Mom's younger brother). As you can see from the commercial on the right (thank you Youtube), the object of the game is straight forward - whined up the cars using long pull cords and release the cars on the ground. The cars speed towards each other - over a jump and bang into each other with pieces of the car flying apart everywhere. What kid wouldn't like that?! They just don't make toys like that any more (Ebay.ca has a few copies of "Smash-up Derby" including this one currently going for $250 US.)
#6. Plain Lego sets (no pre-designed kits)
Yes Legos are around today for kids to play with. But they are pre-defined kits.
Before the pre-defined, kit style lego sets, there were just plain Lego sets. They came in denominations of 100, 200, 600 piece sets. After many birthdays and Christmas' I had a trunk full of Legos.
With all the different colour and style of bricks, I built bridges, sport stadiums, carousel and spaceships. The spaceships used window shutters as bay doors which revealed missiles. My only limitation was my imagination.
Next posting:
I'll continue my count down and reveal what is the # 1 item I wish was still around.
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1 comments:
"My local Steinberg's grocery store was located within the local shopping mall Elmvale Acres. While Steinberg's was not remarkably different than other grocery chains, I do have a couple of memories. Primarily the brown-paper bags that the groceries were placed within. These bags became the same bags placed within our kitchen garbage pail. And sometimes not that well - as paper bags do a terrible job in stopping liquids.
The second memory is that the groceries were not carried out to the cars, but rather, the bags were placed in blue bins with number/letters indicators stapled to the sides. These numbers are given to the customers, who then drive the cars up to the loading area. Once there, they provide the tickets - and the bag boys go and fetch the correct bins. Most importantly they load up the trunk with the bags (regardless of the weather). That was service."
Was just thinking about this not long ago!
Living in Hong Kong now where you can get your groceries delivered to your house, reminded me of my childhood in Ottawa when we still had service, notably at Steinberg's.
As a kid, I used to think it was so cool that you put your bin of groceries on the roller belt - well no belt, just a conveyor of metal roller rods. Thought it was amazing that we just walked away from the groceries. Then going to get the car and driving up to the front of the store and have the bin pop out of the bin window. It was very impressive!
I also remember those Steinberg paper bags. Faced with our modern environmental plastic-bag conundrum, sometimes you'll hear people wishing that we went back to paper bags. While there were some things I liked about them, trying to carry a whole bunch of paper bags from the car to the house was much easier said than done. You'd be lucky if you could get a couple in each hand, and often remember that sickly feeling as the bag started to tear. And in bitterly cold winters, ice on the ground and that Steinberg's paper bag dash back and forth from the car to the house was a very tricky endeavour.