Remembering-
When I rode down Willow Street recently I guess it was inevitable that I couldn't help but realize how dramatically the scene had changed from what I remembered when I was growing up in Pocomoke City. Today, with the exception of the One Room Schoolhouse museum at Front & Willow and the rear of the Discovery Center building, the street is a virtual ghost town of mostly vacated buildings and empty spaces where buildings once stood.
Back in "the day" (i.e. 1950's) Willow was a bustling street where some of the active points of commerce included a large laundry/dry cleaning company, appliance store, large grocery and fresh meat market, fountain and confectionery store, radio station studio, county liquor dispensary, telephone company headquarters, two auto dealerships, hotel/restaurant, Western Auto, office supply store, electrical repair shop, and other enterprises; also a Willow Street entrance to the original J.J. Newberry's store that fronted on the west side of Market Street near County Trust Bank.
R.I.P. good old Willow. It was pleasant to remember you and I suspect your pavements won't see resemblances of your former life again.
-tk for PPE
(Reader comment)
Anonymous said...Leslie Bunting owned an electrical repair shop on Willow. He was noted for having the same panel truck his entire life. When it got rusty he just painted over it with a paintbrush and a can of silver paint.
tk for PPE says: Didn't know that about his panel truck but I remember Les. On occasion I'd take something in to his shop for repair. My dad, Bill Kleger, would call him for help if there was a problem with the refrigeration compressors at the store (Peoples Food Market on Willow Street; later renamed Bill's Foodland).
(Reader comment)
Anonymous said...I don't recall Bill's Foodland but I do remember John Lee Taylor had a little market around the corner on Second Street.
Every spring Jeff Trader and I would catch bullfrogs, cut the legs off and skin them and put 5 pounds in plastic bags which we sold to John for $5.00 per bag. That was big money for high school boys in those days. Of course, that was before health department and USDA food regulations. We also caught shad during the spring shad run and sold the roe sacks to Billy Hudson at US 13 Restaurant for his famous shad roe sandwiches. I bet there's not 10 people left in Pocomoke who have ever eaten shad roe or local frog legs.
(Reader comment)
Anonymous said...Whoops, John Lee Taylor's market was on Clarke, not Second. Old age strikes again.
tk for PPE says: I believe that's the store I remember as Merrill's grocery in the 1950's. My dad's store on Willow was in operation from the mid 1940's until his passing in 1964 and then new owners ran it a few more years.
