MORE STORES: “Rack ’em, Smitty!”

Who in Bradford doesn’t remember those words? Bradfordians of a
certain generation certain recall that refrain from Smitty’s Pool
Hall.

These were the days before pool tables were coin-operated and a
human being would actually get paid for the game, and then rack up
the balls for the competitors.

Yes, more store stories today:

Kristie Bentley, Virginia Beach, Va., writes us about Sal’s:
“That was a staple store for our family. Oh, my mother might stop
at other stores if they had a terrific bargain in the sale ad but
it was at Sal’s that we did the majority of our grocery
shopping.”

“It was also our meeting place when my sister and I walked
downtown after school on Thursday afternoons.

“We would run our errands and then meet mom in Sal’s Restaurant.
If it was close to the time Mom was to arrive, I would order a Coke
for myself and a coffee with an icecube for Mom. I can remember
slipping in from the store through the door behind the register to
‘utilize the facilities’ while shopping from time to time. The
waitress always just nodded. It made us feel so special that they
treated us like family. It was the place that my grandfather ate
his lunch nearly every day with his cronies. Where mom would send
us in for a loaf of Colella bread.”

Pat Witschi of Lake Wales, Fla., writes: “I vaguely remember a
small donut shop on Main street where they made the fried donuts in
the front window. It was by the Hooker-Fulton building and we would
stop on our way to St. Bernard’s school and get a fresh hot donut
for our breakfast. That was in the late ’40s and early ’50s.”

Ron Paterson of Rehoboth Beach, Del., writes about the
Montgomery Ward catalog store where he worked in the late 1950s
while attending Bradford High. “When I began there, the store was
located on Kennedy Street just off Main Street. While I was working
there, the store moved to a larger facility on Congress Street. I
also might mention that the Sears catalog store was then located on
Main Street near the Holly Hotel. A good high school friend of
mine, Harold ‘Butch’ Brocklehurst, was the stock boy there at the
same time I was working at Montgomery Ward.”