Memories take me to North Main Grocery

When I wrote about paper dolls a few weeks ago, this memory took me back to a place I haven’t visited — not even in my mind — in decades. It took me to the old North Main Grocery in Portales.

Some of you children of the 1940s, ’50s, ’60s and ’70s may remember this small mom and pop — and Winnie dog, as some reminded me — store that was located in north Portales about a block up from the current Allsup’s, going toward the Bethel Highway.

North Main Grocery, referred to as South’s by many, due to its lovable owners, is now a renovated building that houses a church. But during the store’s heydays, it couldn’t get any more mom and pop, with its plain white front and wooden floors that creaked when you walked across them.

The store catered to the sweet tooths and housewives alike, carrying an adequate supply of “milk nickels,” and ice cold colas, and old-fashioned scales used to weigh produce and other goods, and, according to Judy Aguilar, the owners even permitted her mom to weigh her and her siblings on them when they were babies.

I didn’t think many people would remember North Main Grocery, which I knew as “The North Main Sugar Shack” when I was a little girl in the 1970s.

But when I put a posting on the Old Portales Memories Facebook page last month, I got more than 50 comments from about a dozen and a half folks with fond memories of this seemingly insignificant place that I realized served as a hub for us north Portales folks.

It also opened my eyes to how many other mom and pop stores there were in north Portales at one time. I will write about these other old mom and pop stores in North Portales next week.

The name, North Main Sugar Shack, stuck in my mind, because I remember looking out from my bedroom window on North Avenue B many times and seeing my Uncle Benny walking to and from it, always returning with a small paper bag of candied goodies for my sisters and I.

One of my friends, Diane Archibeque-Lucero, said she would go into North Main Grocery to buy candy and gum.

“I bought the Tom’s candy and bubblegum from a big glass container with a lid,” she recalled. “I would buy a Dr Pepper in a bottle too, and got a nickel back if we drank it and left it there.”

Another person, Grace Alonzo, commented, “I remember my mother would send us there to buy Pepsi and chips. I remember the sodas were a dime and we could buy five big candy bars for 25 cents. Thank you for bringing back such special memories of when I was a child.”

While many of us knew North Main Grocery for its sweets, thanks to Keith McCrary, I now know some of the names behind the faces, as well as the history behind this special grocery store that remains open in my childhood memories.

McCrary informed me that North Main Grocery was owned by Mr. and Mrs. E.B. South, who were the parents of his wife, Sue South McCrary. He said his father-in-law died in 1968 and his mother-in-law ran the store for as long as she could.

“The Souths opened the store right after World War II, in the 1940s, and Mrs. South didn’t close it until the late 1970s, when she was not able to continue working. She was in her late 70s when she closed the store.

“She lived with us here in San Antonio her last five years and passed away when she was 95.”

Linda Ann Bell recalled the friendly personality of Mrs. South at North Main Grocery and her memorable dog.

“Mrs. South was so nice. They had a long weiner dog that never barked and could hardly walk because of being so fat,” Bell said. “Oh how we all loved to go to that store and get cold Cokes or candy or ice cream bars. I remember I worked for them several times.”

McCrary said the dog’s name was Cindy and said it was so fat because she lived on nothing but leftover meat from their meals.

“If there was none left, Mrs. South would cook some for Cindy,” McCrary said. “The dog also loved Hershey bars, two or three a day.”

Another person, Kenya Heap, is the one who informed me of the term “milk nickels” from those days.

“I remember South’s store. We got ‘milk nickels,’ which were ice cream bars for five cents, and ice cold Cokes from the old chest-style cooler,” she said.

Doralene Braun recalled milk nickels from North Main Grocery, too, saying, “On the last day of school our bus driver would stop and buy us a milk nickel. Great memory.”

Sharlene South, a classmate of my sister Becky’s in the Portales High School Class of 1984, informed me that the Souths at North Main Grocery were her grandparents.

“I spent many days at that sweet place. Thank for you remembering North Main Grocery,” South said.

Next week I will share comments from a side conversation that sprung up about other mom and pop stores that once thrived in north Portales.

Helena Rodriguez is a Portales native. Contact her at: [email protected]