Fond memories of Haarig shopping

To the editor:

I enjoyed reading "A big hurrah for Haarig!" in The Best Years magazine. It brought back fond memories.

We traded at Hirsch's store, leaving our order there to be delivered the next day by a young man named Fred Steimle. A few years later, he opened his own store next to the bank on Good Hope Street.

I enjoyed John Scortino's ice cream parlor where you could get a dish of ice cream for about 5 or 10 cents. He had a fruit market in the same building, including bananas that hung from the ceiling on a stalk. They sold for about 25 cents a dozen.

We didn't have a car until I was 5 years old. It was only used to go to church and out in the country to visit my father's brothers. Once in a while we got on the street car and went downtown to Woolworth's. I think it cost 5 cents to ride the street car.

My mother and I walked by St. Francis Hospital on our way to the store. I was deathly afraid of the sisters. When I saw them coming, I got close to the edge of the sidewalk. One day one of the sisters stopped and patted me on the head and said, "Little girl, I'm not going to hurt you." After that I wasn't afraid of them.

The stores are all gone now, but I still remember how I loved to go to Haarig with my mother.

MILDRED CARMACK, Cape Girardeau