Eventually the day came when KMart opened, and that huge parking lot across Mountain Road from the end of our street filled up with cars.I don't recall exactly when that was, only that it opened around the same time as the school.It was kind of a big deal because there was very little else in northwest Moncton at the time, as far as shopping facilities were concerned.Usually we would still go downtown to shop, but gradually we started going to KMart more too.
KMart was a lot like the Walmart of it's day.As stores go, it was considered to be a place where you could get good value, so it's being placed in our end of the city was ideal, because we lived in an area that was new,and growing,and was home to a lot of young,middle class families.Right next to the Kmart was a Dominion Store.It really wasn't that big of a store, but it was shiny and new, and very convenient, being only about a ten minute walk away.Beyond that there was a barber shop, a beauty salon,ans a Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce.At some point my parents began going to that bank, and later,my mother would work there.Where the bank was,the mall made a turn, and there were a couple more stores, including the American Auto Association.I don't really recall if there was a tavern there back then, but there came to be later.If there was then, I'm certain my parents would not have pointed it out.Kmart,back then was right at the edge of town.Mountain Road went past going north, and there was some development along there, but going east,down Mapleton Road,you were out of the city as soon as you passed Kmart.Beyond there it was still field and bush,and Mapleton Road went down a big hill to the Trans Canada Highway, a mile or so away.
Inside,KMart was unlike anything I'd ever seen.First, it seemed so much bigger than any store I'd ever been in before.In fact, it likely wasn't much bigger than Eatons downtown, because Eatons occupied several floors of an old building.But Kmart was sprawled across the landscape, giving the impression of great size.It really wasn't that big when compared with the stores of today, and it was only one story, but it seemed that you had to walk a long way to get from one part of the store to another.
For us kids, or at least for my sister and I, the Kmart experience began just inside the front door.There was a guard,or loss prevention officer standing at a little booth just inside the door.He wasn't exactly like the Walmart greeters today, but most of them would say hello as you passed by.If you were carrying any other bags with you,he would staple a piece of paper, a different color every day onto those bags.The thought was that if you wanted to slip anything else into your bags, you would need to damage the paper, and would be obvious when leaving.Just past the guard there was what I would call a snack stand,or deli of sorts.They sold things like coils of sausage,popcorn,caramel corn and other snacks.But the very best thing about KMart,or at least it was to my thinking back then,was the doughnut machine. KMart made doughnuts right on site,not in some back corner, so you could actually watch them being made.I don't know if someone mixed the batter, or if it came in a container premixed-I never actually saw anyone mixing it.But there was a sort of a hopper there,and the mix went into the top of the hopper.Once the machine was turned on,the hopper would release batter into some hot oil below.The batter would then be pushed around in a circle,until it had gone all the way around once,the a mechanical arm would flip it over,and it would go around again,cooking the other side.Another arm would then flip the fully cooked and still very hot doughnuts out into a tray,to be collected by the person working behind the counter.In those days I was fascinated with small, animated things,be they ants,or doughnut machines.My sister and I could stand there watching the doughnut machine all the time my parents were shopping.They would never really worry that we would not be there when we returned.Kmart was really big,and there were a lot of places for kids to get lost, and they did all the time-nearly every time we were in there.But I never got lost in there.I'd always be right by the doughnut machine.
Of course, there was a lot more to KMart than just a doughnut machine.Generally,once you entered the store,all the clothing was to your right,while all the things that were not clothes were to your left.At the back there was a sit down cafeteria,where we almost never went, because the food was expensive, and not very good.In the corner of the building there was a pet shop,which we would visit on almost every trip to KMart. There really wasn't a lot to see there.No dogs or cats that I can remember.Mostly it was fish and birds.Goldfish and tetras and guppies.Angelfish too sometimes.Budgies,canaries and finches.Every once in a while they would have gray or pink parrots,who some people said could be taught to talk.But I was never able to get any of the birds I saw in KMart to say as much as a single hello. At times KMart also had little turtles and lizards too.In all, it was a very small pet shop, but we liked to visit there every time we went.
Sometimes the doughnut machine was not working,so we'd have to go along with our parents to look at whatever it was they had gone shopping for.Mostly this bored me to death,so I got the idea to hide among the rows of clothing.I never really got very far away,and usually my parents could still see me.There were also these mirrors on the clothing section that were really a few mirrors lined up around a little semicircle so that when you stepped up to the mirror,you could see all around yourself.Or,more accurately,around yourselves,as the effect of the mirror was to produce reflections of reflections,so that there would appear to a whole bunch of you standing there.We had mirrors at home,but none of them did this, so I thought this to be very exotic.
In those years,as always,my parents would shop for food using the advertisements placed in the newspaper,the idea being to get the best price on everything by comparing.So,even though we used the new Dominion Store, and the old Mountain Way,just across the street, we still went traipsing all over town on grocery days.And from very early on,my parents were using the bank as well, as there wasn't another bank within miles.I'm not certain what it was that convinced my father to use The Bank of Commerce,rather than the Bank Of Nova Scotia,but once that bank was opened,we would go in from time to time.When I was really young,though, my father used to think that it was the patriotic duty of every Nova Scotian to bank at their homegrown bank.I didn't really understand his thinking at the time, but I came to see it as I grew up, only I sort of understood it in reverse.
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