According to the manager of
one of New Bern’s leading
supermarkets, five out of six
housewives purchase marga
rine instead of butter. For our
part, we consider butter a
foolish luxury that we can do
without and never m’ss.
For years, through Its high
salaried Washington lobbyists,
the dairy Industry spent a
fortune to keep margarine from
gracing America’s dining
rooms and breakfast nooks.
They, and the spineless
Federal officials who yielded
to their Influence, were the
reason you were forced to mix
coloring into your margarine
for so many years.
Butter producers were
cognizant of the fact that some
housewives wouldn’t go to this
extra trouble, and besides m.ar-
garine looked less apetlzlng be
fore artificial coloring was
added. The dairy industry con
tended that margarine manufac
turers shouldn’t be permitted to
“yellow” their product. Seeing
as how the butter producers
weren’t above the use of artifi
cial coloring to glamorize but
ter, justice prevailed at
long last.
Today’s supermarket is afar
cry from the grocery stores of
yesteryear. Packaging of just
about everything revolutionized
the business, and deprived
customers of the happy
privilege they once had of
sampling cookies, crackers,
cheese and other tasty Items,
such as dried peaches and dried
apples. Open barrels and boxes
made eating a little of this or
that for free as easy as rolling
off a log.
You’re no longer young If you
can recall the grocer jamming
an Irish potato on the spout of
your kerosene can to keep the
contents from spilling, and like
wise If you remember the
pleasing aroma of drippings
from a molasses barrel. In the
good old days, before wrapping
and sacking was done in ad
vance, you could sniff what you
were considering buying instead
of just looking at It under
glass, or reading directions on a
sealed package.
Not only was this a distinct
advantage for discerning custo
mers but a perpetual picnic for
the ever present flies. Grocery
stores had their share of m'ce
too, distributing souvenirs, but
this particular problem was
minimized by the alertness of
a cat that dozed by the blg-
belly stove all day and hunted
its prey all night.
Surprisingly, the price of
fruit has changed very little in
the last half century. When this
editor was a small boy—hanging
around the store run by his
father—oranges, bananas and
apples sold for a nickel apiece.
Other Item.s have increased
several times In price, as If
you didn’t know, but not fruit.
A kid could hear some mighty
wondrous stories in an old-
time grocery store. Farmers,
on their Saturday trip to town,
would spin tall tales and in
dulge in rural philosophy, w.ille
standing around eating their
noon snack. It was always the
sams--a dlme'sworthofcheese
or a nickel can of sardines,
a bottle of pop, and soda
crackers.
Shopping was as easy going
and relaxed as yawning in the
sun on a creek bank. Gummed
tape was unheard of--every-
(Continued on Page 6)
Now Pii’-'lic Tiilrraty
The NEW BERN
% ' ISHED WEEKLY
•^saktof
Per Cw
VOLUME 5
NEW BERN, N. C., FRIDAY, MARCH 29, 1963
NUMBER 46
N.ATLRE’S HANDIWORK—It s a worki of peace on the
winding Trent these day.s. Shadows and sunshine, and
trees festooned with Spanish moss, enhance the tran
quility of a scene far removed from strife and hatred
,;iid woe. -Mortals rush like mad, but not the Trent, It
journeys gently to New Berii for a rendezvous with
the Neuse, and there joined as one they continue to
the sea.—Photo by .John R. Baxter, Jr,
''PKlXti SERE,MT'i 'I'll yi air. not for the rolling to have scenes such as this at their very doorstep, here
; lain, or mountain.^ to the >ky. as long as 1 can know the in the Land of Enchanting Waters. John R. Baxter, Jr.,
|o\ 01 rivers flowing by New Bernians are fortunate caught this view for a Mirror mural.