A long time ago, before Supermardets or up-market delicatessens, we had the corner shop. In South Australia these were sprinkled across the hills and suburbs, often on a street corner, though not always. At Hawthorndene where I lived we had two within walking distance of our house. These grocery shops contained a treasure trove of enticing, yet        simple foods. Biscuits were kept on a shelf in large boxes, with a picture of a Rosella parrot on them. The variety of biscuits was vast; there were Coffee biscuits, Iced VoVos, always appealing to children with their stripes of pink icing and jam in the middle, TicTocs with pink or yellow clock faces, Ginger Nuts, which was my Nanna's favourite and Orange Creams and Custard Creams. However, my absolute favourites were Chocolate Teddy Bear Biscuits, entirely chocolate coated, which melted in your hand on a warm day.

Biscuits were weighed and sold in crisp brown paper bags. There was something special about these bags, probably because of the contents.  Sometimes the shop owner would have bags of broken biscuit pieces on the counter, which they'd sell off cheaply.

As well as biscuits there was a tempting array of coloured lollies in big glass jars. My favourites were Raspberries, but there were also Milk Bottles ,Licorice Allsorts, Black Cats, Clinkers, Mint Leaves and Freckles to name but a few. 

These little shops had a unique smell, which spoke of all the goodies in there and was both comforting and exciting at the same time. It gave the shop ambience.

As well as all the sweets and biscuit-y goodies you could buy bread, cheese, milk and eggs and dried fruit, also in jars.  Cleaning things, shoe polish and shoe laces were sold too. Many a Mum has made a dash to the corner shop to buy shoe laces which had frayed and broken on their child's shoe that day. Of course I wasn't the least bit interested in cleaning products or shoe laces, I found the biscuits and lollies far more interesting. Wouldn't you?

My Mum felt quite confident about sending me off to the corner shop, armed with money, a small shopping list and maybe a string bag (remember those?), from about the age of six. In 1957, there was little to worry about in sending a child by itself to run a couple of errands. Nothing ever happened to me; I was never accosted or run over. There were the usual loving, but firm instructions from my Mum, not to talk to anyone and to always walk on the right side of the road, but I always enjoyed my little walks and doing some errands for my Mum. It's very sad that this isn't possible today but you couldn't safely send your six-year-old out alone, even to a friend's house. I'm afraid that's the way the world is now. I'm very glad that I was alive when things were safer and more innocent.

As I've said, we had two shops near us. One route was on a narrow white road lined with Hawthorn trees. In spring the pink and white flowers were thick with bees and you could hear them humming The air was filled with the scent of the blossoms. A small creek ran between the Hawthorn trees and it gurgled and splashed in the winter and often threatened to break its banks.

In the opposite direction the road to the other little shop was lined with homes, gardens and orchards. My Nanna one day went into a yard where some plums were growing and she very naughtily picked some. I was horrified and said ' Nanna, you can't do that, you'll be caught and we'll get into trouble'

'Oh, we'll be fine; I don't think anyone's home' she said quite casually. Just as well for us that there wasn't.

Another advantage of the corner shops was that you could catch up on local news, such as who was having a baby, who'd just had a baby, who'd got into trouble with the police or who had died or who was about to die. You don't get that in Supermarkets, unless you run into someone you know.

I miss our little corner shops, especially when I'm in the supermarket. The little shops had a charm all their own and are a special memory of days gone by.