by H. Bishop Holliman
"This was a small swimming hole created from the artisan well that flowed on the west side of town where 30 to 40 years later the East Side Mall was built. ‘Lokey’ was a black man who worked for Mr. Davis. He would come by the house to take grocery orders then he would deliver them later in the day or the next day. We all learned to love Lokey. He was highly regarded by our family, Grandma Lula Caine and Aunt Maud Cook’s family. He always came into the house through the back door, as was the custom of that era.
The other grocery store was J. T. Ramsey and Son, located on south side of town by the Seaboard tracks in a large brick building that was still standing the last time I looked (2010). We never did trade there. I guess because it was farther away from our house. At one time, I don’t remember the year that it opened or closed, the Jane Griffin family (Eloise, Janie, Joyce and Gerry) operated a store on the corner of 1st Avenue South and 20th Street. I remember buying a cap pistol from Mrs. Griffin when I was about eleven years old, for 25 cents!"
Bishop Holliman’s brother-in-law, above right, Charles T. Ferrell, worked at a Birmingham, Alabama A & P grocery of the late 1920s. Charles would graduate from Birmingham-Southern College and Yale Divinity School, be ordained a Methodist minister and in 1935 marry Loudelle Holliman of Irondale. Photo courtesy of Charles H. Ferrell. This store was similar to the Irondale groceries recorded above.
Next posting, more memories of an earlier Irondale, Alabama....
This is the third article of my father’s
memories of growing up in the small suburb of Birmingham, Alabama during the
1920s and 1930s, a time of economic deprivation prior to World War II. - Glenn N. Holliman
"Grocery Stores…I remember the two
stores that provided food for Irondale folks in the 1920s and early 1930s. We traded with R.H. Davis and Sons, located
on 2nd Avenue North and 19th Street. I remember stopping by the store when I was
in the first grade and buying a nickel package of juicy fruit chewing gum and
trying to chew it all before I reach home.
I did not succeed. And I never
did that again.
Our
groceries were bought on credit and Daddy (Ulyss S. Holliman, 1884 – 1965) would pay the
bill every two weeks. Mr. Davis would give him a little sack of candy each
time, and my sister Virginia (Holliman Cornelius, 1922 – 2011), brother Ralph (Holliman, 1924) and I looked forward to
that treat. Mr. Davis had a small truck
he used to deliver groceries, and it could be used for other purposes, such as
taking us once to ‘Blue Hole’. "
Above, Bishop Holliman, born 1919, in 2010 standing by the Irondale, Alabama tracks he crossed many times in the 1920s and 1930s.
Above, Bishop Holliman, born 1919, in 2010 standing by the Irondale, Alabama tracks he crossed many times in the 1920s and 1930s.
"This was a small swimming hole created from the artisan well that flowed on the west side of town where 30 to 40 years later the East Side Mall was built. ‘Lokey’ was a black man who worked for Mr. Davis. He would come by the house to take grocery orders then he would deliver them later in the day or the next day. We all learned to love Lokey. He was highly regarded by our family, Grandma Lula Caine and Aunt Maud Cook’s family. He always came into the house through the back door, as was the custom of that era.
The other grocery store was J. T. Ramsey and Son, located on south side of town by the Seaboard tracks in a large brick building that was still standing the last time I looked (2010). We never did trade there. I guess because it was farther away from our house. At one time, I don’t remember the year that it opened or closed, the Jane Griffin family (Eloise, Janie, Joyce and Gerry) operated a store on the corner of 1st Avenue South and 20th Street. I remember buying a cap pistol from Mrs. Griffin when I was about eleven years old, for 25 cents!"
Bishop Holliman’s brother-in-law, above right, Charles T. Ferrell, worked at a Birmingham, Alabama A & P grocery of the late 1920s. Charles would graduate from Birmingham-Southern College and Yale Divinity School, be ordained a Methodist minister and in 1935 marry Loudelle Holliman of Irondale. Photo courtesy of Charles H. Ferrell. This store was similar to the Irondale groceries recorded above.
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