In each of my numerous computers I’ve kept a document file titled ‘IGA’. It was/is for the purpose of collecting and saving Marion Food Market/Bernie’s IGA Foodliner advertising, photos, clippings and memories. I’ve been at it a long time, but the file remains thin. And that is a rather odd thing considering that the business, and building were in my family for a long while.
I hung out and worked at ‘the store’ for most of my growing years and until, due to health, my aunt and uncle sold it, just as I graduated from MHS. I considered myself to be ‘working’ there as early as I can remember and so it was natural that my first paying job, at 14, was at the IGA. I got 50c an hour, maybe.
As I grew, my love of the IGA did not wane. During grade school, I was game to hang out with my Aunt Lola any time. It was a great adventure for a little girl whose whole world was a small, Michigan town during the 1950’s and ’60’s. We never knew who would come along, or what they might need. Each day was different. I was the queen of the world, well a princess anyway, when I stood next to my aunt at the check-out counter and bagged the sale. She liked it best when people who did not know otherwise mistook me as her daughter.
One of the things that falls into the useless category is that I still remember the price of a whole lot of groceries, especially from my time as a cashier. It was not uncommon for a weekly sale to have loaves of IGA white bread at 5/$1. That’s 20c a loaf. Small cans of frozen concentrate for orange juice were a deal at 19-29c each. Folks bought them by the dozen. Does anyone buy orange juice that way any longer and if so why?
Two or three times a year IGA would throw a Royal Guest canned goods sale. This was a big deal. Some of these canned items sold for as little as 10c a can. Some real favorites like hominy, mustard greens and spaghetti without meatballs were on that list, along with several kinds of beans. The infamous pork and beans carried one piece of cubed pork fat just so ‘pork’ could be used on the label. Royal Guest fruit cocktail was mostly diced peaches, just one half of a red cherry and the green beans often had an unsnipped top or two included. No one complained much. It was cheap food. That 25c can of fruit cocktail worked just fine for many family dessert. Only if your dessert was going to a church get-together or the President was coming to dinner or it was a holiday were you likely to purchase Del-Monte fruit cocktail and real Jello. Otherwise, Royal Guest and Royal Gelatin did the trick.
I don’t know why I remember this stuff. Maybe because someone has to. Who else is going to speak up for us all and the silly, but true, things we remember. I learned a lot of things, both good and useless at the IGA. I know now that I learned a lot about the history of our town, and the people I met at the IGA. I also learned how to make Uncle Bernie’s pickled bologna, how to cut up a whole chicken in a flash; who would write a check or charge their groceries and who ate veal chops for special occasions.
Of all the grocery store skills I learned and remember, these days I only use a couple. I still make pickled bologna for my family for deer season and the holidays. And I can still cut up a chicken with the best of them when I need to. My regret there is that I never got anyone to pay me a nickel for every one I’ve dismembered since I learned how at the IGA.
