I found myself at Utica Square in Tulsa the other day at lunch while running an errand. I needed a bite to eat but the little deli I usually go to was closed. I was by myself and just wanted a sandwich, not go to a sit down place.
I wandered into Petty’s Fine Foods, a small locally owned Grocery Store. They made me a sandwich at the deli counter. They did a great job, roast beef, bacon, lettuce, tomato, onions, mustard on wheat. They wrapped it all up for me in butcher paper, I grabbed a pear in the produce department, a small bag of chips, and a soda. Paid for it and ate it at one of their tables out front.
Anybody remember when you could go to any grocery store to the meat counter and they would make you a sandwich? A good sandwich. In a previous life when I was a real engineer who actually built stuff out in the gas fields of the Oklahoma, Texas, Louisiana, and Mississippi. If I was out roaming around the country checking my projects and got hungry I would often go to almost any small family owned grocery store in a small town and get my lunch (or dinner as they call lunch in Texas; they call dinner supper.)
Of course I didn’t have to pump my own gas either. If I wanted to check in with the office (remember offices?) I had to find a pay phone (remember pay phones?) And I talked to my secretary instead of voice mail (boy do I loathe voice mail!)
That was in a different era when small towns actually had a retail economy. I had forgotten all about it. But hey, things aren’t all bad, thanks to Al Gore inventing the internet for us we get to read each others blogs and Facebook updates.
All I know is, I know where I’m eating lunch next time I’m running an errand at Utica Square.
I’ve got an even better one, Yogi. Remember when you could go to K-mart and get a sandwich??? Sub, lettuce, ham, mustard. Oh, the memoires of my L.A. childhood.
How about Queenies? I love that place too.
Sounds like a down home kind of place. Not many family owned grocery stores any more, much less ones that will make a special order sandwich…
You brought back some great memories!!
And, what about the blue mailboxes that you could find almost everywhere?!? Now you have to drive to a post office to mail a letter (if not from your home).
@Jen – Hey I never got a sandwich at Kmart – I missed out.
@Baloney – Queenies was packed. Its a little too “girlie” for me.
@Dawn – Yeah the whole mail deal is different. You can’t hardly even buy stamps any more. Does anybody send letters? I mean personal letters handwritten to another person anymore. I don’t.
Yogi I used to work at Pettys in the Deli(almost 20 years ago). They do have great sandwiches.
I still write letters to my Aunts every once in awhile.
Isn’t Petty’s such a hidden jewel? Well, guess it’s not so ‘hidden’, it’s just not one of the mega-super-montrous stores where people are herded like cattle. I work across the street from Utica and Petty’s is one of my favs!
Oh–in my teeny tiny rural Kansas hometown, our drug store still has a soda counter! It’s still the same as when I was a kid…SO fun and retro!