VANISHED STORES IN DOWNTOWN PAWTUCKET

I WORKED AT TWO OF THEM,
                          BUT I SHOPPED AT ALL OF THEM.

Maybe I should just make a list but I am sure that I would miss so many. So let's be satisfied with those that I can recall and that  I actually patronized.
Where to begin--for me it is the early to late fifties and ROUTE 95 has not yet devastated the city and its surroundings.
So I will include the shops around the Main Street  Bridge. 
Foremost for me was THE BRIDGE BAKERY.  It sat on the 
downstream side of Main Street and the east side of the bridge. So it was for me the last port of call.  I would stop there when I had decided that I would walk home and could use the bus fare to buy a treat to sustain me while I walked home.
The store was an English bakery and it specialized in shortbread, and eccles cakes, and fig  and apple squares. I could buy only one and the choice was difficult but I usually chose the apple squares.  I would have liked to work there but I never did,
Walking up Main Street after the bank buildings  on the corner  of Main and East Ave I reached another temple of greatness--THE FANNY FARMER  CANDY store. I went in there  just to smell it as I walked by. They also offered free samples--I ONLY TOOK ONE!  This place was crowded in the week before Easter and Xmas. My Aunt Anna always got us Fanny Farmer Easter eggs for our baskets.

Continuing up Main Street I often ducked into Woolworth's Five and Dime. What attracted me there was that they had a section of the store where they kept bright parakeets and canaries and finches. I always loved birds and I went in just to watch the birds and pick out the ones I would buy if I could. They also lured me with their soda counter and excellent French fries which I would have with a vanilla coke. A little slice of heaven.  Next  door was GRANTS with its great selection of  cloth remnants that my mother liked to poke around in. But I often wandered around by myself.  I would have errands to do  for my mother, but as my  birthday gift when I turned seven I was allowed to take the bus downtown alone. My sister Janie only came with me if we were going to a movie.
Next door and with a big bus stop in front was Shartenbergs. That was my mother's favorite store but held no charms for me.
The charm of Shartenbergs was their windows. Since all of us waiting for buses were a sort of captive audience, they changed the windows often and  put some thought into them. I recall one that was  done to celebrate the  Coronation of Queen Elizabeth.
I must have already had my Irish up--thanks, no doubt, to my mother's telling of Irish history.  I resented the window to the English monarchy --or maybe I was displaying the Jenckes legacy in my bloodline because they were fierce  anti-monarchists. Joseph Jenks founder of Pawtucket, supposedly joked with his foundry workmen that he would like to play ball with the head of the  decapitated  KING CHARLES I.
I'll leave it there --after all I  am  glad to  write about childhood and the  working experience  came when I was 16 . Maybe we will talk about that later I worked in two stores--THE SORORITY SHOP and  THE APEX.