COBWEB CORNERS: A sweet dream
By Mel McFarland Back when I was in the fifth grade at Bristol School, I figured out what I wanted to do. I wanted to have a candy store next to a school. Nearly every school I ever went to had a store near it that sold candy to the kids, seemingly by the ton! ![]() When I started there, I noticed that right next door was a little neighborhood store that before and after school sold a lot of candy. By this time I had already learned, a candy store was what I thought was fun. I started at Whittier, and there was a store across the street in the middle of the block. Later I went to Buena Vista. It did not have a store across the street; it was at a better spot, over by West Junior! It sat on the corner of 20th and Pikes Peak Avenue. I spent a bunch of allowance coins on bubble gum cards there! Later I went to Palmer, now Queen Palmer Elementary, over on Bonfoy. It had two stores! One across the street, another one block away on Union! When I went to North Junior, there was no store even close. On the way home from school, we passed one on Uintah at Weber, which was a good stop on the way home. High school was a different story. I was in the first class to go through William J. Palmer High School (not Colorado Springs "Main High"). It had several food stores to choose from. At one time there were the Mayflower Café, across the street on Nevada Avenue, and a cafeteria half a block south, in an old Safeway store! Across Acacia Park was Barthel's and Colt's. There was also a drive-in on Nevada, across from the school, the Matchless. Next to Matchless, on the corner, was a row of stores. One of these was a hobby shop, where I spent a lot of time - not eating but looking! In those days the school had an "open campus," and many of the kids went into these spots for lunch. I suppose many like me avoided the regular school food. One thing I learned from this was that I did not want to have a candy store! I wanted a hobby shop. (Later I grew out of that idea, after working in one for several years.) Just going to school can be a great education, outside of the classroom! |