Clarenville

Fruit chips ahoy!

Anyone that knows me reasonably well, knows that my favorite snack has to be chips.  Yes, I’m an unabashed chip-a-holic.  Growing up back home we had more brands than now, there were Lays yes, and Humpty Dumpty, but also Scotties (click the link for an image of those), and of course the big one of the time back home, Hostess.

Before the advent of the plastic bag we use now, chips came in these foil bags, we’d rip the top right off to get at them.  Often Hostess would have a contest, and we’d have to be careful ripping the top because the entry was printed right on the inside of the bag in this blue ink.  This ink also used to come off easily on your fingers, so I’m sure onto the chips as well…. yeah I’m sure that was good for me 🙂

Hostess also had these 3 … monsters? as mascots, they even had stuffed toy versions of them, I’m not sure if they had a name or not, but they showed up at all the events.

With a few exceptions (Dill Pickle, Ketchup (side note what ever happened to Catsup?)), I liked and like pretty much any kind of chips, but usually stick with the old standard “regular” or as they were and are known back home, plain. There were, however, three flavors released in the 70’s that even I couldn’t stomach.

I have a vivid recollection of them.  Going to the doctor in Clarenville was an adventure in patience as appointments had no real correlation with time as we know it.  I’m sure there’s a research paper about the effects of time dilation in medical clinics there somewhere.  The main medical office in Clarenville in those days was down on the lower road, and it had its own drug store (Budget Drug Mart I believe, though I’m not even sure it had a name then).  As a kid while waiting for an appointment I’d be up and down the stairs there a dozen times, looking at comics, wandering, alleviating boredom any way I could, often involving chips.  But for some reason, Hostess introduced Grape, Cherry, and Orange chips back then.  Being a chip-a-holic they all had to be tried.  But that was it.  I don’t think I could even finish a bag.  These had to be the most horrendous things ever produced as a snack!

And oddly, now I want a package, just to remind myself how bad they were.  Does anyone else remember these?  Anyone have a picture?!

 

The Bookmobile

As long as I can remember I’ve loved to read.  I can remember reading Hardy Boy books way back when they were almost as big as me.

This was instilled and reinforced I’m sure by the travelling Bookmobile from the Newfoundland Public Libraries.  I think there was a library in Clarenville when I was a boy, perhaps in the fire station building? I forget for sure, but most of my reading came from the bookmobile.  These travelling libraries used to come to some rural towns back in those days, perhaps most, I really have no idea, but I remember it fondly.

Many a Hardy Boy adventure, and lesser known adventures such as Alfred Hitchcock and the Three Investigators, Tom Swift, and quite a collection of English kids books by Enid Blyton (anyone else read Five Find-Outers and Dog?) were inhaled voraciously by me.

I am also pretty sure I first read one of the first sci-fi fantasy books I ever read from here, that being A Wrinkle in Time by Madeleine L’Engle.

I still love to read to this day, and will always remember the smell of books in that little mini-bus, the walls filled, a desk installed behind the driver so he could just spin a chair round and stamp the little pocket at the back.

Was an event and treat to see that bus come down over the hill and run out to wait for the doors to open.

If anyone has any pictures of it, or recollections to add, let me know!

Toy Time Around Clarenville

Growing up back home in eastern Newfoundland, There were no huge malls or big box stores, instead we had locally owned stores.  The names will ring bells for some, Western Tire, Stanley’s, Duffit’s, Junes, and a bit later The Chain Store, Ayres, but the granddaddy of them all for me was Cholock’s.

This was a huge department store or seemed huge to a kid anyway, located near the railway tracks in downtown Clarenville.  (The building later became home to the department of wildlife offices for those who may be trying to locate) I don’t recall a lot about the store per se, but what was the huge draw was ….. upstairs! …..

Image from http://clarenville.newfoundland.ws
Image from http://clarenville.newfoundland.ws

My memory may be foggy, as its been closed for many a year, but if I recall correctly, upstairs only opened a few weeks before Christmas, and it was full of toys, toys and more toys.  It was a magical place for me, and I’m sure many other local kids.

A little later on Ayre’s opened in Clarenville too, Riff’s was in that location after, followed by other places, but Ayre’s remains as a big memory. Their toy section seemed huge at Christmas time, I can’t recall if it was there all year round or not, and I’m sure it would seem small compared to today’s stores, but it was also a great place as a kid.  Another one that was less well known maybe was, I believe, called Martin’s.  Near Hyne’s Jewelry they sold musical instruments and I can’t remember what else.  I was and am musically inept, but I was always fascinated by the things in there.

We didn’t see toys all year round in stores then, or if we did, not locally.  To go these stores was to start Christmas, and I look back on it fondly, and wish that some of that magic passes on to you and yours this season.