Memories of
Barbara Shelby and Sybil Rippetoe
In the late 40�s Morris "Pee Wee" and Willie Newman opened "Newman�s Grocery" on West Broadway where Annie�s Trailer Park is now located. It was a filling station and grocery store combined with living quarters in the back with a wall to separate them. They sold Ethel gasoline from the old gas pumps which were partly glass. You could watch the gas as it was pumped.
Willie had been cooking on an old oil cook stove. When they made the move from East Side Campgrounds, she got a new gas cook stove. The living quarters here were much nicer than the ones they had at The Campgrounds. The store carried everything a person would need for housekeeping and preparing meals. They had a hand operated meat slicer which they used for all kinds of meat from bologna to steaks.
They weighed it on old scales to give each person just the amount they needed. New babies were also weighed on the scales. They had chickens, and when the hens were laying, they sold fresh eggs to their customers.
Willie also sewed for the public. The first machine was a treadle, but later she got an electric machine. She would sit in the doorway between the living area and the store, so that she could watch the store when Morris was gone on errands.
The Newman�s let their customers charge by the week or by the month.
