The ol' McCleary vegetable tradition

July 28, 2018

McCleary has a second Food Bank other than the official one which operates out of the kitchen in Beerbower Park. This supplemental Food Bank is evident starting around this time of year when local gardeners who were ambitious in their plantings realize they produced more vegetables than they could use. So what to do with them? Leave them in the Post Office of course! A central place in town.

I don't if this would be allowed in Century 21, but back in the 1960s my brother and I would sell vegetables we raised to Ardy Lencioni and would resell them in his produce section. This was right after he sold the old Quality Market (located where Sam's Food Mart gas station is now) and revamped the grocery store that is now Gordon's.

Blue Christmas

Christmas morning, 2017. Actually this is a very rare White Christmas in McCleary, but the old flip-phone camera captured it as blue, making me imagine this lonely little snow-covered bear is singing, "I'll have a Blue Christmas without you." Cue in Elvis!

As you can see, Sam's Food Mart is one of the few places still open this morning. It might be my imagination, but it seemed there was more snow in general south of Pine Street where the elevation is a little higher.

Night scene, 3rd and Mommsen

Feb. 25, 2014.

Gassing up

Feb. 25, 2014.

A quiet night

Jan. 18, 2014. Sam's Food Mart. I don't know what the story is on those lights in the sky, so in that sense they truly are unidentified flying objects, or just a lens reflection.

Food mart

Jan. 18, 2014

Newspaper boxes

Jan. 18, 2014. Sam's Food Mart

The Dead Phone

Dec. 27, 2013. At Sam's. It has not been operational for several years, but there it sits, mocking the desperate since there is no other public phone in town.

The Odd Room

Oct. 28, 2010. That odd little square on top of Gordon's has several legends attached to it, too many and complicated to relate here.

The building was originally constructed in the 1940s and was called Lumbermen's Mercantile, selling a wide variety of goods. It even included a mezzanine. I recall in the 1960s the eastern third was walled off and was a separate hardware store. The entrance to the grocery store at that time faced Simpson Ave.

Ardy Lencioni purchased the store in the mid-1960s and knocked out the wall that divided the space. Ardy and his Dad, Ugo, had previously operated the Quality Market, which was located where Sam's Food Mart is now operating. 

What the heck is it?

Oct. 14, 2012. A close look at that mysterious box at Sam's Food Mart leaves more questions than answers, and now resides in the borders of our minds where we place all items of ambiguity.

The mysterious box

Oct. 14, 2012. That grey distribution box intrigues me at Sam's Food Mart. What is it for?

Crows at Sam's

A couple crows scout the parking lot at Sam's Food Mart, June 19, 2011.

This spot was the home of the Quality Market, operated by Ugo Lencioni and his son, Ardy until the 1960s.