Memories of Irondale, 1925 to 1942, Part IV

by H. Bishop Holliman

This is the fourth in a series of reflections on an earlier Irondale, Alabama by my father, Bishop Holliman, born 1919. Below he continues to remember the grocery stores in the small community. - Glenn N. Holliman

"The chain stores eventually came and Mr. Davis could not compete with Hill grocery Company nor with the A & P.  J. T. Ramsey stayed in business much longer. Another grocery opened on 1^st Avenue, I am not sure of the year, by Ed Fortenberry.  We know he was in business when I went off to war, and I don’t know how long he was there.  But Hill’s and A & P, I am sure, soon took all the business from local merchants.

At one time, though, there were two grocery stores there on First Avenue, North.  Hill’s was in the same block as the A & P and Fortenberry’s Grocery  where the drug store, operated by Dr. Brock and the hardware store owned by Mr. T. C. Burgess.  In 1943, Mr. Burgess retired and his store bought by Robert Daly, Sr. (my brother-in-law) and his brother, George Daly.  

The announcement of the Daly Hardware opening is on the right. Below is Robert W. Daly, a Woodlawn, Alabama banker. From early 1930s until 1946, he and his wife, Vena Holliman Daly, lived in the 2300 block of 3rd Avenue, North in Irondale.  When the war ended they built a larger home on the east side of Irondale adjacent to the current location of the United Methodist Church.  The house was demolished in 1969 for a business complex.

In 1947, the building next to the Robert and George Daly Hardware Store in Irondale collapsed.  Below are photos of the event.

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Also in the same block was Bess Fortenberry’s hamburger stand that gained fame as the ‘Whistle Stop Café’.  We young boys always bought our baseball equipment each spring from the hardware store and Dr. Brock helped us young men fill out the questionnaire we received from the draft board in 1940 and 1941. 

Incidentally, the chain grocery stores provided about the only job opportunities available at that time for boys.  I worked at Hill’s on Saturdays ‘off and on’ almost to the time I left for the Navy.  I was going to Birmingham-Southern at the time and was paid $2.50 for working from seven in the morning until 10 that night.  Three cents was withheld for Social Security!"

More memories of Bishop Holliman next posting....