As I Walk Through This World, Nothing Can Stop The Duke of Earl

I grew up in the era that was between the locally owned drug store with a lunch counter/soda fountain and the Super Walmart with a grocery store, pharmacy, and Subway Restaurant inside.

It seems like these Dollar General Stores, and Family Dollars are popping up everywhere. They seem to be all that is left of what we used to call the Five & Dime stores. We had Perry's and TG&Y. My mom's first job was at the five and dime called Duke and Ayres in MP. One thing different about the variety store of my day versus these today was the smell of popcorn from the candy counter. You could get an assortment of chocolate covered nuts at the candy counter. Chocolate covered peanut clusters were my favorite. By the time I came along, the soda fountains were gone. I have seen them on TV, but never really been to a variety store with a lunch counter.

Sam Walton, the founder of Walmart started with a five and dime, called a Ben Franklin (Ben Franklin bought out Duke and Ayres). When I was growing up, the only Walmarts were in Arkansas. We had Discount Stores like Gibson's and K-Mart. These were much larger than Five and Dimes and had a lot more selection and more expensive items. These stores served meals, but weren't the soda fountain type counters. We also had Department Stores, like Montgomery Wards, Sears & Roebuck, and JC Pennys. We also had Skillerns Drug Store and Eckerds Pharmacy. Come to think of it I think Perry's may have been a drug store also.

These were the stores where we got most of our toys. I liked those Indian bow and arrow sets with the rubber stoppers on the end. You had to lick them to get them to stick to anything. We also got most of our school supplies from the five and dime. You always needed a Big Chief tablet, two number two pencils, an eraser, scissors, ruler, compass, and a cigar box. You could get it all from the five and dime.