LOOKING BACK

Recalling Wesley’s Grocery & Market

OUR TOWN

Editor’s note: This is part 2 of a series that began with “Wesley and Louie” in the Feb. 15 edition of The Taylor Press.

One of my favorite childhood memories of growing up in Taylor is going to Wesley’s Grocery & Market on Davis Street, directly across from Memorial (football) Field and Twelfth Street School. I’m sure many of you will remember the owners, Wesley and Billie Miller, and their three daughters, Pam (Mikulencak), Moppy (Miller) and Heather (Klotz).

At the time, my family lived on Hackberry Street. So, Wesley’s was just a short bike ride away. I especially remember the candy counter on the left as you entered the store.

My favorite candy was a lollipop that came in red and purple. After making the purchase, I would rip off the wrapper and examine the sticker on the back of the candy. Sometimes the sticker informed me I was a winner and to select a second lollipop for free. More often, it informed me that I was not a winner, but to please try again.

An occasional win was enough to keep me coming back for more.

If you attended Twelfth Street School, and had a note from a parent, you could walk across Davis Street to purchase a Tony’s pizza or prepackaged cheeseburger that “Mr. Wesley” or “Mrs. Wesley” would prepare in a toaster oven. You could enjoy those tasty treats right there outside the store.

My sister, Sheila, remembers going to Wesley’s for lunch with her friend, Sandy, and they would often bring back Jolly Ranchers for the entire class. Super Dubble Bubble Bubble Gum and Slush puppies, much like an Icee or a snow cone, were also popular.

Taylor Middle School (now, Old Taylor High) on Seventh Street was an open campus at the time, with an hour for lunch, and just a short walk or bike ride away. Moppy, the Miller’s middle daughter, recalls how her father would joke around with the seventh and eighth grade boys who would often go there for lunch.

“I’ll bet you a quarter I can tell what the score for this week’s football game is going to be before the game even starts,” Mr. Wesley would tease.

After a friendly exchange where the boys declared his claim to be impossible, Mr. Wesley would laugh and say, “The score is always zero to zero before the game!”

From the very beginning, Wesley’s Grocery was a family business. Pam was in the 10th grade, Moppy was in eighth grade and Heather was a fifth grader. Heather remembers the day in 1967 when her father sat the family down at the table and told them he wanted to buy a grocery store.

“He told us it would be a family decision,” Heather recalled, “And of course we all said, ‘Yes.’” “Everything we did, we did as a family,” Moppy added. “We did yard work together, and sometimes on Sunday afternoons we would all go riding around together. If we were lucky, we got to stop at some convenience store and get a bag of peanuts and Dr Pepper. So when Daddy wanted to buy a store, that was something we did as a family.”

With the support of his wife and daughters, Mr. Miller bought an existing store that had mostly sold antique-type items with a few groceries and transformed it into the now famous Wesley’s Grocery & Market, a true neighborhood grocery store and meat market.

“When we walked into the store that first day, Daddy reached into his pocket and pulled out a quarter,” Pam recalled. “He said, ‘All I have is a quarter, I can’t even make change.’ So Mom and Dad went to the bank to get some money to make change.” Wesley allowed customers to charge their purchases, which many of them did and then paid their bill at the end of the month. Some customers paid by writing a check, so the Millers kept counter checks from each area bank at the cash register. Counter checks were not personalized and had no account numbers on them. Customers just picked up a blank check from their bank and used it to pay their bill.

“One time a lady picked up a counter check from the wrong bank and paid with it,” Moppy said. “That bank called and said they would forward the check to the lady’s bank and it would all be taken care of. That’s how simple the world was back then.”

Pam, Moppy and Heather went straight to work at the family’s store as soon as they got out of school each day. For three shy girls who lived almost out in the country, they had no choice but to learn customer-service skills very quickly.

Duties included taking orders over the phone, filling those orders, making deliveries, running the cash register, carrying groceries to customers’ cars, dusting shelves, pulling cans to the front and anything else that needed to be done, including delivering an occasional fresh hog’s head to their grandmother to make tamales.

The young employees were also expected to greet customers by name as they entered the store, calling them “mister” or “missus”; count change back to the customer; complete each sale with a friendly “thank you”; carry the bag out to the customer’s car, no matter how small the purchase; make deliveries to the customer’s specification, even if it meant taking the groceries inside and putting the cold items in the refrigerator if no one was home; and they were not allowed to accept tips.

Most of the groceries sold in the store came from local sources.

“Van Zimmerhanzel from Taylor Meat would come by every week to get his meat order and deliver a half a beef and hang it in the meat box,” Moppy recalled. “Then Daddy would break it down into the different cuts of meat.”

Summer sausage, cheeses and sandwich meat came from Waco Meat. That was when lunchmeat was sliced, not prepackaged. A large round cheese sat on top of the meat counter and Mr. Wesley would cut the amount to each customer’s specification.

Area farmers and gardeners brought in fresh produce to sell. Locals working for various companies supplied bread, chips and other deliveries. Boxes of chickens came from Holland Poultry, and the girls had to learn to cut up chickens for customers.

The family never took a vacation after opening the store. However, there was one occasion that called for closing early.

“I have a Wesley’s grocery ad from 1978 that said, “We will be closing at 2 p.m. on July 15th for Heather’s wedding,” Heather said with a laugh. “Our wedding was at 4 p.m.”

As busy as the store was, mother Billie still found time to sew all her daughters’ clothes and to prepare a homecooked meal every night.

The trio said they believe doing everything as a family, especially running the store, is the reason they are so close today. They are still friends with many of the customers. They agree that working at the store was a valuable experience that shaped them.

Heather said when going through her mother’s things, she found an example of the love their parents shared.

“I found a little piece of butcher paper that Dad had written on with his meat marker to our mom. It said, ‘I love you, call (phone number),’ and it had two pennies attached. He needed her to call after she got home. From the time when they were dating, they would always tell each other, ‘I love you two pennies worth.’” Even though the store is gone, and a residence now sits on that corner lot, the history remains, and stories are told by many who recall happy times there, including tales of going to Wesley’s for lunch, for snacks after school or after football and track practice, and during the Cotton Boll Relays.

Memories also include the wooden butcher block and of grateful teachers (and others) who were able to charge their groceries until their end-ofthe- month paychecks arrived. And, for me, the chance of winning a second lollipop for free.

Pam, Moppy and Heather honor their parents every year with scholarships presented to several graduating seniors at Taylor High School. They sponsor an annual golf tournament to help fund these memorials.

What memories do you have of Wesley’s, or one of the other momand- pop grocery stores that were such a big part of our lives years ago?

Join me here in two weeks as we explore another tale from Taylor. Until then, make it a great week, and be proud of where you’re from.

Crow is a longtime Taylor resident and retired from the Taylor Independent School District after 40 years of service. For a topic or suggestion, reach out to Crow via jason.chlapek@ granitemediapartners. com.

Courtesy photo