A Little of Everything: General Stores of Nova Scotia—Remembering the Old Days, Old Ways by Mike Parker was a sturdy brick of a book at 299 very thick pages. I am glad that the page numbers were on each page because I always felt as if I was turning over more than one. Parker covered the years long since past when the only place to shop in Nova Scotia was at your neighbourhood general store. These places stocked everything, from baby clothes to (surprisingly, quite a few of them) coffins.
Parker filled the book with photos on every single page. I took great pleasure in exploring them with a magnifying glass, as often his captions pointed out things that the naked eye couldn’t see. Less than a handful of the stores are operating today, most of them done in not by big box stores but by improvements to mobility in the middle of the last century. Highways enabled people to drive elsewhere for better selection and prices. In cases where the store buildings survive in a different function, or if the structure has been left derelict, Parker included “then and now” photos for comparison.
The author certainly did his research, finding old receipts, letters, orders and plenty of store calendars and promo material. Some of the stores were kept in immaculate order while some were like hoarder houses. The picture on the front cover shows Eloi Doucette’s store at Cape St. Mary’s in Digby County from 1950. Many photos were of stores from tiny Brier Island, which also lies in Digby County.
I was touched by stories and reminscences of the poverty some people endured. In the days before social assistance and welfare, the only means of survival was “the poorhouse”. Some shopkeepers offered credit, never expecting to be paid back, and some, like Bert Fulmore “is remembered by many as putting food on peoples’ tables when they had no money, ‘knowing full well it was more important for them to have something to eat than for him to be paid.'”
The Groundhog Day Storm on February 2, 1976 destroyed or damaged all six of the general stores on Brier Island. Ray Robicheau, who owned one store, recalled the aftermath of the disaster:
“‘That building had been there a hundred years–it was all made out of great big heavy wood, but a big sea came in and lifted it right up off the posts and crashed it all down and it floated out the harbour on the flood.’
…
“He and his wife went on the beach and found crates of canned goods with the labels washed off. ‘We lived off canned goods with no labels for days. I thought I was able to guess what they were, but lots of times I thought I was opening beans and it was dog food.'”