Saturday Night Shopping

I bet a lot of you from Oliver will remember the little ritual of your Dad parking the car on Main Street on late Saturday afternoon so we could people watch and do all our shopping too.  This was a regular thing during the summer months.

Oliver used to have late night shopping on Saturday night and it seemed like everyone came to town to do their shopping and to visit up and down the main street. I remember old Chief Manuel Louie and his wife would also come to town and stop at the Orchard Café for their meal and then just walk up and down the street saying hello to all they met.  Chief  Louie’s wife always wore a bandana in her hair and ALWAYS walked a few steps behind her husband!  They too did their grocery shopping.

We were fairly young but were allowed to go to Collen’s to see what new clothes they had and also to the Five and Dime to look at the records and the trinkets.  Gwen Boult worked there and could be pretty grumpy unless you knew her.  She told Mom one day that she liked Sandy and me because we could be trusted not to shoplift anything!!

When Mom would be ready to go to the Overwaitea for groceries we tagged along and of course we waited with anticipation to go to Coy’s Meats as it was always fun with Don talking in his Donald Duck voice.  We always got a slice of cooked ham to eat or a hot dog.  I used to kneel on the metal rail in front so I could watch Don slice the bacon!

After our shopping was done Mom would buy us an ice cream cone and we would either sit on the car or in the car and just watch people going by.  It was like a grand parade….everyone would stop and say hello and chat for a bit and then walk to the next car or group of people.

Dad worked until 9pm so we hung out until he was finished work.  Sometimes we would go into Fairweather’s but Mom didn’t like us to bother Dad. Usually we would go in and say hello to Helen Barillaro who was the cashier. She always had a candy for us!  At Christmas time though we were all over that store admiring all the new things.  Mr. Fairweather was a very nice man who always treated us kindly.

Sometimes Dixie would come out and sit with us for a bit.  She always brought a huge plate of French fries with lots of vinegar and ketchup and a small milkshake for each of us.  I think we were very spoiled!!

I have often wondered if other small towns had some kind of the same tradition.  We waited all week in eager anticipation for Saturday night so we could walk up and down Main Street, visit with our friends and look in all the stores.  When I was older, Saturday night was changed to Wednesday night and then Friday night and now there is no night shopping….at least not in the same way.  Too bad…it was a lot fun and we got to see our friends!