Michael Perelman wrote: > > The grocer & his employees knew our family. We lived in the neighborhood. My > parents would pay when they came to the store. Other people would wait until > they > had ready cash. > > My brother stole some candy from another store. The owner saw what was > happening, > put it on our bill, & mentioned it to my mother.
Michael, I'm not sure what the dates of your experience aree. Mine are 1935-1944. (In some localities the depression lasted a year or two beyond its end.) And I don't think credit then was a mtter of neighborliness -- it was a matter of staying in business. And it was a gamble for the store -- not everyone did or could pay off the bill at the end of the month. As I mentioned in my previous posts, I remember my parents paying off some grocery pre-war bills in 1946 9r 47. I think my mother bought her gasoline on credit too. When the unpaid bill got too large at one grocery people would start running credit at another. I think independent grocery-oweners did the same with their wholesalers. There were always large crowds of shoppers on Xmas Eve because many of them had just gotten their paychecks that day. _______________________________________________ pen-l mailing list [email protected] https://lists.csuchico.edu/mailman/listinfo/pen-l
