10. Stop 4 Variety

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Stop 4 Variety – 111 River St

This building was at one time owned by Baker Thompson, and it was a grocery and bakery store. Later, his son James Thompson, ran the business. These men were part of the Sunderland business club in 1926. In pictures of the building in early 1912, there was a small balcony above the main entrance with a wrought iron railing surrounding it. Sign above the store said J.W. Thompson. About 1940, this building became the Oldfield’s Bakery. It was run by the brothers Len and Reg Oldfield and their wives.

They sold bulk food, bread, cookies, meats, fruits and vegetables. The bulk foods were sold by weight, and they had one scale for small items and another one for large, bulky items. They had all kinds of candies, tobacco products and ran an ice cream parlor. The merchants would wait on the customers from behind the counter and would retrieve items from the shelves. They tallied the cost of the items and put them in the statement book. Many people had a running tab and paid off their debts when they could.

The Oldfields had routes throughout the year to deliver bread by wagon and sleigh. The bread was packed in a wooden bread box and placed on the sled in winter. In January 2008, Roy Oldfield did a presentation called Growing up in Sunderland telling of the store activities from 1949 to 1964. He talked about his experiences in the store. The cookies were Oreos, Fig Newtons or chocolate covered marshmallow with jam inside. Vinegar was kept in barrels and customers brought in their own containers. Oranges were always ordered around Christmas time so that the children would have them in their Christmas stocking.

The crates for the oranges were popular and were made into bedside stands or dressing tables. In the bakery they made about 120 loaves each day. The oven fire boxes were heated up late at night so that the bread could be ready early in the morning. Cedar wood was used to bring the temperature of the bricks up faster and then as the flames died down, the bread could be baked. The old fields sold cigarettes, cigars, pipe tobacco and chewing tobacco. At Christmas they would get flats of 50 cigarettes in a tin box, and they would have some decorative Christmas sleeves on them so that they could be sold as gifts.

Often when they delivered the products to the farm, the husbands would rush out to the truck so they could secretly purchase their tobacco supplies. Part of the store held an ice cream parlor. This was a busy place on a Saturday night. The first ice cream containers were five-gallon metal containers and later the tubs were made of cardboard. In those days, the ice cream sundaes were 20 cents, and the banana splits a quarter. Cones were 10 cents for a double scoop. For a penny you could get jujubes, black balls or licorice babies. Chocolate bars were only a nickel, soda pop was 10 cents, and you had a 2-cent deposit. Those were the good old days. As time passed, the store changed to a self-serve operation and many of the bulk food became prepackaged. Milk was once in quart bottles and cream in pint bottles. Many of the new products came in plastic containers. Thus ended the era of the ice cream parlor and individual customer service. The Oldfields sold their business to Lauren Frechett, and the store was turned into a butcher shop and a grocery. Finally, it became the Stop four variety.