I couldn't find a photo of Tommy's but here's a nearby street, same era.
Someone asked a FB group I'm in, "You Know You're from Sioux Falls...," what stores people missed. Before I posted "Tommy's Friendly Grocery," I scrolled through & was excited that someone named Jerry had already mentioned it. We got in a conversation: turns out he grew up 2 blocks away and had gone to Lowell, Edison & Washington with my next-older sister. A vivid little moment of home sweet hyperlocal world.
Tommy's Friendly Grocery was the scene of me getting dumped by my first "boyfriend," Bart. (Not to be confused with the first boy I kissed, when we were lining up for kindergarten—I loved Michael S. because when he went out in the sun in the summer, he got deep dark the first day; this impressed me no end!)
Every day Bart walked me home—we must have been in 2nd or 3rd grade. We would stop at Tommy's Friendly Grocery—screen door, candy on the left—& he would buy me a nickel chocolate bar. One day he stopped outside & said he had now spent one dollar on me & that was the end of things. And it was.
Bart's dead now & Michael is a pawnbroker in Albuquerque, New Mexico.
Tommy's Friendly Grocery was the scene of me getting dumped by my first "boyfriend," Bart. (Not to be confused with the first boy I kissed, when we were lining up for kindergarten—I loved Michael S. because when he went out in the sun in the summer, he got deep dark the first day; this impressed me no end!)
Every day Bart walked me home—we must have been in 2nd or 3rd grade. We would stop at Tommy's Friendly Grocery—screen door, candy on the left—& he would buy me a nickel chocolate bar. One day he stopped outside & said he had now spent one dollar on me & that was the end of things. And it was.
Bart's dead now & Michael is a pawnbroker in Albuquerque, New Mexico.