Issac (Ike) Street Grocery

Issac (Ike) Street Grocery operated at 822 Main Street from 1925 to 1942. Ike managed the store until 1933. Ike was well liked by the townspeople. Children visiting the store would get a “pinch bottom sack” filled with candy whether they had a penny or a nickel to pay.

During the Depression, Ike would trade for goods if customers did not have money. Many other customers purchased goods on credit. After the Depression, Ike gave his customers a chance for a new beginning. Ike burned the credit slips of any customer who agreed to continue trading with him.

His 18-year-old daughter, Erma, managed the store until 1944. Erma met her future husband, John Busenbark, at the store. John delivered pop and beer to her store for Witwer Grocers. The Street store was closed in 1944, a couple of years after Erma and John married.

Store hours were long, not just for the grocery store, but for many of the Main Street businesses. Typical store hours on Tuesday, Thursday and Friday were from 7 a.m. to 6-7 p.m. On Monday and Wednesday, the stores were opened from 7 a.m. to 10-11 p.m. On Saturday night, the stores stayed open until midnight. Erma remembers that the town bustled with activity on Saturday nights. Parking spaces were at a premium. People would come from the country to obtain the week’s supplies. After business was conducted, the men would head for the taverns, card halls or billiard rooms. Women would take advantage of the opportunity to socialize in the various stores.

Erma has many fond memories connected with the store. When she was a child, she and her sister, Iris, played a practical joke on the men who sat on benches in front of the store. The girls lined the door of the basement coal chute with firecrackers they got from the store. They lit them while the men were engaged in serious conversation. The surprised men threatened to “get even” some day.

Erma remembers the country folk coming into town during tough winters on a bobsled to get supplies. People would trade their goods for groceries. On a typical Saturday night, farmers would trade as many as 100 cases of eggs for groceries. The dealers would arrive at midnight after the store closed to purchase the eggs.

The Benion Poultry Hatchery took over the building after the grocery store closed.