I grew up in a very, very small town in NOrth Dakota. Population when I was a kid was around 300 people in Thompson. My paternal grandparents, who I spent many summers with, lived near an even smaller town of 150, called Reynolds. Since both towns were close to Grand Forks, you could get the bare necessities that you needed but one did most of their shopping in Grand Forks. The small town I lived in, had a bank, elevator, fire station, gas station/implement dealer, and a bar with a checkered past. The bar also was a strip club at one time. There was a grocery store at one time until the proprietor retired when i was bout 11 years old. There was also a hardware store but I vaguely remember them along with a ceramics shop and a hair salon. The town I lived in did have a school and I prefer not to dwell on my experiences there due to being bullied and tormented due to my hearing loss. The only businesses that remain from my childhood are the grain elevator, fire station, bank, bar and gas station.
Grand Forks....
My earliest memories of Grand Forks was going to K-Mart, S & H and Norby's as a kid for school clothes and grocery. I do recall going to a Kegs and King Leo as a kid for hamburgers and Root beer. We also had an A&W drive-in for a time also.
I recall Crazy DAys in the summer when i was a kid. WE used to get up super early in the morning and we went shopping to get deals on back to school clothes and other things. I do remember going to Vanity, Angel Wings (A Canadian Store that specialized in Jeans), Griffiths and Norby's in Downtown Grand Forks. JCPenneys and Woolworths were here also.
South Forks Plaza in south Grand Forks was the first mall to open in Grand Forks and I vaguely recall them as a kid in the early 1970s. The stores that were in the mall included a sporting goods store, KMart, Sears, Skip's Drug, movie theatre, Stonegate Pet, Turk's corner, hallmark, RAdio Shack, Nelson's hobby hut, and several clothes stores. The mall has mostly closed and been re-purprosed with the exception of the bar that moved into the mall in the early 1990s, Stonegate Pets, Radio Shack and Skip['s drug are still there with KMart as the anchor.
I loved going to Turk's corner and that is where I had my first taste of Turkish coffee. I twas a mysterious little shop with wonderful copper work and middle eastern creations. The gentleman who owned the shop was an emigrant from Turkey and one of the nicest people I ever met.
There was a Bonanza REstaurant nearby on Washington Street. Further down on Washington was a Shakey's Pizza, Mr. Steak and Happy Joe's Pizza. There was later another restaurant called Toppers that made the best hamburgers. That restaurant burned in 1995.
Later memories include the opening of Columbia Mall and being a mall rat at times. I did get to meet two soap opera actors when they came to Grand Forks on a tour, Kristian Alfonso and Peter Reckell. The mall has been renovated several times and stores have come and gone. My favorite in the mall when it opened was Waldenbooks, B Daltons and Record shop. Loved to read as a kid and I also enjoyed music.
