Reader remembers candy store, Connell’s conesThis letter appeared in the Rock County Herald but am uninformed as to the date it appeared.To the Editor:I, for one, remember Ben Woodrow and his shop very well, and I am sure that there are many others in Luverne who do. He had a candy, ice cream, and tobacco complex next to Gimm and Burn’s saloon on the Main street side of that corner. It was long and narrow with the candy and tobacco at the front, and poorly illuminated, especially at the soda fountain counter at the rear. That counter was of wood with a few stools fastened to the floor. Sitting there we looked across to an unpainted wooden sink and the heavy and plain (but BIG) glassware and the jars of flavorings. A quick swab and rinse prepared the soiled glassware very nicely for the next customer but that was before the day of sterilizers, licenses and inspections and was perfectly all right with us kids.He was a very friendly fellow and very patient with us when we had to dally over the spending of a penny.In my youngest years his shop was on the "wrong" side of Main street and we were not allowed there. However, as time went on we kids got bigger and were allowed more freedom. The reputation of the south side of Main street improved — at least in the opinion of us kids although parental substantiation was studiously avoided — and we learned that a penny would buy more at Woodrow’s than anywhere else.I recall vividly that in his shop was an old mantle type clock on the counter over the candy. It had no hands but it had a slot in it for pennies. A penny put in the slot would make the clock strike at least once, and it meant one piece of candy, but if it struck twice (or more) we got another piece of candy for each strike. It was distressing how seldom it struck more than once. One day my grandfather, E.H. Canfield, took me in there, gave me a penny and told me to put it in the clock. That clock struck twelve times! I thought it never would stop and I’m sure my eyes stuck out a foot! I am also sure that grandpa had made a deal with Ben.Ben’s ice cream sodas were the biggest and the coldest and had the most ice cream in them. It was there that I used to buy (for 5 cents) what I have never found anyplace else, a maple-nut ice cream soda. The nuts were not chopped fine and they would be at the bottom of the glass to be fished out at the glorious end, just as we saved the peanuts out of the Cracker-jacks for the last.Speaking of soda fountains, it was at John Connell’s drug store that we could buy 1 cent ice cream cones, small versions of the nickel ones. And it was here that my grandpa took me one time, sat me down at one of the ornate and cold wrought iron tables with the marble tops and in an equally cold and uncomfortable iron chair, and ordered for us "apple pie all in mud." I knew he was up to another of his tricks but I was still suspicious about mud in my pie, but when it came, a la mode, with plenty of ice cream I was quite happy.Sometimes I think of other things — like Parr’s Vienna Bakery where a large loaf of bread was 6 cents, small ones 3 cents. And how the sidewalks on Main street were wooden and a penny dropped into a crack was a tragedy! And how Main street was usually a sea of mud or a dust storm and some places it was a big drop from the sidewalk to the street. Oh, well, this is supposed to be about Woodrow’s!Sincerely yours, Norvell A. CanfieldOne Arlene CourtPetaluma, Calif. 94952Donations to the Rock County Historical Endowment Fund can be sent to the Rock County Historical Society, P.O. Box 741, Luverne, MN 56156.Mann welcomes correspondence sent to mannmade@iw.net.
