"Town"
"Town", originally uploaded by lavocado@sbcglobal.net.
These stores were about two blocks away from my house. My little pals and I would walk there. It was our equivalent of going into town. We crossed Palms Boulevard, the street at the right side of the photo, with the light, but we were forbidden to cross Centinela Blvd. the street to the front and left, without an adult.
The liquor store is the only one that is the same now, but it had more candy then, which we bought. Next to it was our favorite, a dime store. It had candy too, and inexpensive toys. I was very proud of myself when I saved up four weeks allowance and bought something there for a dollar. It was run by tow or three sisters. The one who worked there most of the time was tired of us, but another one came in only occasionally and made a fuss over us.
At the other end of the very short block was an old fashioned drug store with a soda fountain and lunch counter. You could get a lime phosphate for 5 cents, the cheapest thing they had. My friend Carol's parents once gave her enough money to have a meal there. It must have been quite an emergency, because none of our families ever did anything like that.
We hung out in those stores, and in front of them and behind them, a lot of the time. The vacant lot in back had microscopic pieces of broken glass which I sometimes walked over barefoot. Most of the time, they did not become embedded in my feet, and they never cut me. Shoes were an inconvenience I did not care to bother with.