Christmas is approaching quickly and this week’s snow seems to have made folks realize how little time we have. So in December, we’ll share some Marion Christmas memories and stroll along a very different Main Street than what we know today. It may be forgotten by many, and completely unknown to the rest, but at one time Marion, Michigan, had three grocery stores, all on Main Street. Borders Store was at the main corner. That building was a grocery for most of its history and in the early 1970’s was the site of the original M&J Market. Today it is the Senior Center and meal site. Further to the east, in what is now the M-town Gym was Johnson’s Self-Serve Grocery, another building with long grocery roots. Oscar Johnson was the butcher and proprietor in this long time grocery store. Johnson’s began as the Clover Farm Store, owned and operated by Lee Duddles, Dave Duddles grandfather, in the 1930’s. The 1900 era Piper and Lowry Store became the Marion Food Market in the 1940’s and Bernie’s IGA Foodliner in 1956, (Merrifield’s in 1969 and finally Kime’s in the 1970’s), was located in what is now an extension of Artesian Springs Medical Center. The building was built in 1904, after the great fire and up until 1956, was a large, two-story building with two businesses on the street and a large meeting hall, a couple of offices, and two apartments above. The proprietors of Bernie’s were Bernie and Lola Berry Nevins Schumacher, my uncle and aunt. In our family we referred to the IGA simply as The Store, and those of us who knew it and recall it fondly, still do. Our little family lived in one of those upstairs apartments for the first two and a half years of my life. The grocery store below, all of its nooks and crannies, and the staff became my playground and playmates. At an all too early an age, I learned to open the door and steal down the stairs to the store. It was not long after that we moved to Blevins Street. But, it was too late. Life at the store was in my blood and would remain there. For my first 18 years, my home away from home was the IGA. Like my Uncle Jerry, Cousin Jack, and countless other family members and Marionites before and after me, I worked at the IGA, after school, on Saturdays and during the summer. Thanks to my aunt, his was where I learned a lot of local history and was lucky enough to meet a few early residents. I have always been a local history lover. The IGA was a busy place and a very exciting one when Christmas drew near. In early November a semi truck load of bulk candies, shipped from Brach’s, the famous candy company, arrived at the back door. There were cases and cases of wonderful things including chocolate stars, peanut brittle, peanut clusters, peppermint stars, orange slices, lemon drops and all manner of hard candies, filled and ribbon. There were nuts of all kinds in the shell, sea foam, cocoanut coated marshmallows, gumdrops of all flavors, taffies, kisses, malted milk balls, wintergreens, and of course, candy canes. There was enough to send all of Marion into sugar shock. The boxes were stacked to the storeroom ceiling; a sweetly aromatic mountain of Christmas candies, all waiting for the school aged crew to package, and for a while, everyone wanted that job. It was a smart move to let one and all have their fill at the start. Once the designated packers had sated their appetites for a favorite sweet, the task lost much of its appeal. The aroma of Christmas was always in the air and mixed well with holiday music from the store radio. There was an indefinable holiday excitement in the air the moment a customer entered the door. From deer season until New Year’s, the candy mountain at Bernie’s IGA was a tremendous attraction. A Christmas does not pass without my having warm thoughts of the IGA. The store was a very big part of my growing up, our family, and our gatherings for many years. Chocolate stars still twinkle brightly for me.