Reading newspapers from the past and ads placed in school year books from the past, I am impressed with the number of grocery stores there were in Cardington. Although they were before my time, yes there were some things before ‘my time’, I’ve read ads for Farrington Grocery, Donovans, and Axthelms. Of course, there was the traveling grocer who took their goods to your house in a large van, I think those were dubbed Hukster wagons. That, I do remember.
I was reading a 60 year old Morrow County Independent, and exactly 60 years ago, July 26, 1962, the story was about the opening of the new Foodland Store on West Second Street, a self serve business. Owners were Mr. and Mrs. Art Kinsell.
Cardington always treated grocery customers well. I read about Donovans where at one time you could enter this store on one street and exit the other side. I can recall the V & S Market (Vern and Sylvia Merriman) on West Main Street, The Kroger store at the corner of South Marion Street and East Main, later the Red and White Store, Smiley’s on the corner of South Marion and Second Street, and People Food Shoppe which was later Kinsell Foods.
Looking back in old year books I find that the People’s Store had a huge meat department and Myers Meat offered just that.
I was privileged to work at People’s Food Shoppe for Ernie Kinsell and later when it became self serve after Art arrived, his Army duties completed.
I think many will remember the four dip $.10 ice cream cones dished up at Kinsells. Hmmmm, those were the good old days in Cardington – but today we are enjoying a new line of businesses that will one day be called ‘the good old days’, one of which is the mini grocery ‘Singing Springs’.
Returning to the opening of the new Foodland Store on the site of the former Cardington Lumber Co. and before that, in the ‘horse and buggy days’ it was the site of a livery stable. Today, the property is the location of the Upper Room Church.
Looking Back: July 1922: A conservative estimate of the number of mourners who attended the obsequies in the home of the late Phillip S. Moore, 57, on East Main Street, on July 9, there were over 1,000; a new gasoline service station was slated for construction on the southwest corner of the public square in Cardington.
July, 1942, 70 years ago: The Mathews family reunion was held July 5 at the county fairgrounds with 35 relatives attending.
July, 1972: Margie Bean, Barb Mosher, Denise Janick, Connie Curtis, Carla Moodispaugh and Denie Gordon, all members of the high school pom pom squad, attended a workshop at Bluffton College.
