Submitted by Karl Breckenridge
When last we met I mentioned a couple watering holes – the Pub ‘n Sub and Brickie’s. A reader asked, weren’t those once both grocery stores? Yup. There were a lot of grocery stores in Reno when you were a kid? Yup. One on darn near every other corner? Yup.
One cannot write of postwar Reno grocery stores without the mention of refrigeration – ice making – cold storage. It was in pretty short supply in the first half of the 20th century. Therefore it was incumbent upon a homemaker to visit a grocery store almost daily – at least every couple of days – to stock up on stuff that required refrigeration, which is a lot of what we eat. Going to a big-box grocery store was not an option inasmuch as the little woman (I’ll pay for that!) wasn’t about to run all over town to a store. And most households had but one car anyway.
Consequently, grocery stores – not big ones, mind you – sprung up all over town. A homemaker could buy about what could be carried in a Radio Flyer wagon or a cart that all homes had, slightly less commodious than today’s shopping cart. And a couple blocks’ walk would get the shopper home.
Refrigerators, if the home had such, were small, and had a frozen compartment about the size of a ’57 Chevy’s glove compartment. And, not all homes even had refrigerators – the Iceman Cometh several times a week to half the homes in town. A big delivery truck, about the size of a present-day UPS truck, would park as close as possible to the home, and a big dude with arms like tree trunks and a leather cape would exit the truck with a block of ice on his back as big as the icebox could hold. He got to know his customers well, how to get into their homes if they were gone and how big their icebox’s ice compartment was.
Into the icebox the block of ice would go, where it would last for a couple of days to a week – fewer days in the warm summer months. And it would melt, dripping into a pan below the icebox. It was my job as a little kid to dump that tray until the happy day that a pair of guys, one of which I think was Dad’s friend Julius Broili, showed up with a brand-spanking new “refrigerator” from Nevada Machinery & Electric, and the whole neighborhood dropped by to see it!
But – capacious it wasn’t – so Mom trekked every couple of days, down the hill to the Ralston Market or up the hill to the University Market, now the Pub ‘n Sub. Our Whitaker Park neighborhood was typical of most in Reno and Sparks – with a plethora of such tiny groceries within walking distance – the Quality Market (Quilici’s!) kitty-corner across the park on the corner of Washington and Seventh, the Hilltop at Ralston and Eleventh, or the Santa Claus on Vine Street.
But the king of the markets was on Fifth Street at Washington across from Mary S. Doten School – Johnny Beetschen’s Cottage Market, one of the few little neighborhood places in northwest Reno with a walk-in freezer and a butcher shop – that was high-livin’, to go occasionally to the Cottage and come home with steaks for dinner!
But remember, Mom had to cook them that day we brought them home because they probably wouldn’t fit in that new “refrigerator” from Broili’s…
And if Dad was having the golf guys over for a drink, or the campaign committee for Bill Beemer, his insurance-guy buddy who was running for the Justice of the Peace, he’d go to Union Ice down on the Lincoln Highway west of town and get a sack of cubed ice, like the bars and restaurants had to do…
As I write this I think of how much we take our refrigeration for granted – in days of yore keeping food edible was a chore, as was moving it from place to place. The big trucks had some pretty rudimentary refrigeration equipment, and it wasn’t that unusual to see a big ”sale” – often a giveaway – of meat and seafood or frozen food destined for a restaurant, usually, being sold on the side of a road because the truck’s refrigeration unit conked out with perishable cargo on board in the heat of August.
Time marched on, and the science of keeping stuff cold improved. Refrigerators in homes became larger, and the food-supplying industry responded by offering more and more products frozen for shipment and sale.
Here in Reno and Sparks we thought we had a handle on it, but had a rude awakening in the August of 1960 when a forest fire took out some poles, and therefore power, from Truckee to the Utah state line and our electric refrigeration went out with it for three days. That’s another column, we’ll call it “the Donner Ridge Fire” – we’ll read here as soon as I write it.
I’ll probably lead with our Reno High buddy Dave Quinn, that summer working for Sears Roebuck downtown, being dispatched by Sears to pick up dry ice in Sacramento. Returning to Reno, the CO2 fumes damn near killed him in the by then-freezing van and he nearly froze his butt off then died. Fortunately, Sharon Lyman rescued him and brought him back to room temperature, so Dave did the right thing and married her. And they remain wed, good pals to many of us readers…..an ATΩ and a Theta forever.
Once again I’ve tangled up my writing, by starting to write of the Pub ‘n Sub and Brickie’s (née Hansen’s Market) and writing about refrigeration. But – come back to This is Reno over the weekend, and we’ll visit a few old neighborhood markets.
Have a nice week, what’s left of it, and, be safe, huh?
Karl Breckenridge
Karl Breckenridge was slowly going nuts. So he decided to help out This is Reno by writing a daily out-of-his-mind column for the duration of the coronavirus shutdown. Now that it’s over he’s back to his usual antics, drinking coffee with the boys at the Bear and, well, we’re not sure what else. But he loved sharing his daily musings with you, so he’s back, albeit a little less often, to keep on sharing. Karl grew up in the valley and has stories from the area going back to 1945. He’s been writing for 32 years locally.
Read more from Karl Breckenridge
Cheers 4 – the Lear steam bus
The latest news on the Lear Theater has Karl remembering some of the Lear’s other projects, including a steam-powered bus.
Cheers 3 – the groceries II
Karl did not limit his column to ten items or less, so get out of the express line to read this history of Reno grocery markets.
Cheers 2 – the groceries I
Karl got a little distracted this week, starting off with a list of Reno’s great groceries of yesterday then slipping on some ice.
Cheers 1 – Of wine and Little Italy
Karl is back, making us all wonder why we didn’t spend more time during stay-at-home orders pressing grapes into homemade wine.
Day 75 – Karl’s retired to the Bear
From the get-go our pal Karl said he’d write “a short squib on a daily basis – nothing political, nothing controversial,” well, except for that one column.
Day 74 – the Truckee’s picturesque islands (updated)
Karl’s pal Jody shares the rich history of bootlegging, decorating, and engineering within the confines of the Truckee River’s banks and its picturesque islands.
Day 72 – Hobos, tigers and leprechauns
Karl recollects the series of eateries that drew diners to the corner of Virginia Street and Gentry Way for several decades.
Day 70 & 71 – in Flanders Fields
Karl shares a poem by John McCrae to mark Memorial Day.
Day 69 – The Nugget shark: John meets Jaws
Karl was talking about baby shark, doo, doo, doo, doo, doo, long before the kids these days had ever been born.
Day 67 – What I like about Reno High
Karl, er, Carmine Ghia, writes an end-of-school-year essay to turn in to Mrs. Lehners about everything he likes about Reno High School.
Day 67 – 25 Bret Harte
Karl saddles up and heads to Newlands Manor where Western movies star Reno Browne grew up, and Lash Larue paid a visit or two.
Day 66 – Out for dinner we go
Karl goes out to eat at the El Tavern Motel, a truck stop outside the Reno city limits on the Lincoln Highway.
Day 65 – Dawn Bunker
Karl is back in action with a fresh story of which students of Mrs. Bunker’s class at Jessie Beck Elementary School still won’t spill the beans.
Day 64 – abducted
Karl Breckenridge called in to This Is Reno editors this morning with a hands-in-the-air, what-can-I-do sense of resignation.
Day 63 – Wedding chapels
Karl’s enjoying coffee with pals at the Bear, so today Jody stands at the altar to share the history of Reno’s wedding chapel industry.
Day 62 – the mansion at 2301 Lakeside Drive
Karl’s 7-year-old alter ego rides his bike down to Virginia Lake to explore the Hancock Mansion, a nifty home complete with a bomb shelter, sunroof and doll collection.
Day 61 – Basque hotels
Karl wanders back in time to 1960, a time when multiple Basque hotels served up minestrone soup, English lessons, banking, and accommodations.
Day 60 – the bygone Greyhound terminal
Karl’s synapses are firing today after hearing mention of Reno’s Greyhound bus terminal on Stevenson Street, now razed.
Day 59 – Don’t tell Mom
Karl rewinds to Mother’s Day to share a story from the archive about Grandpas without a Clue and another ragtop adventure, by reader demand.
Day 58 – School stuff
Karl considers the value of a school name as the WCSD moves to rename one of the area’s older remaining schools and open a new one.
Day 57 – Pedalin’ around Vine Street
Karl rides his bike through history, remembering some of the places and people that helped to build Reno into the city it is today.
