Note: If you didn't grow up in Raleigh or frequent the Five Points Piggly Wiggly, this story won't be interesting.--scroll to my next post.
Google "Piggly Wiggly, Five Points, Raleigh NC" and see what comes up. If you're like me and you have childhood memories of such a place, then I'm sorry to say there's not much that will help you. However we have the power to write from what we recall, and so I hope this account may serve my contemporaries well. Growing up in Five Points as a child in the mid 80s to 90s was always met with quick trips to the Piggly Wiggly. In the summer, as the oaks trees hung over streets and station wagons with wood paneling lined every street, I can still hear the sound of rubber tires cracking acorns. Cracked acorns just about covered every inch of the streets and man did they hurt to walk on bare foot. Anyways on to Piggly Wiggly. Do you remember that special black mat at the entrance? The one that once stepped on, caused the door to fly open? Recall that blast of cold air that met you from the AC blower?. To the left of the door, was a rubber motorized belt which fed produce up from the basement. I always wanted to slide down that belt. On the wall--also to the left--hung a framed magazine article (perhaps Remington?) with a spread of the front facade of this building at dawn, the red letters Piggly Wiggly Glowed Red. If you frequent Nofo often, you may recall that it looked much like the picture that now hangs in the back near the bathrooms. But this was in a magazine...I wish I could actually recall the name of that magazine. Sigh. Sitting on a stool off to the right, guarding the safe, was the manager. A tall, skinny older man with a struggling comb-over and a red nose, that his tinted glasses rested on. Richard, also mustached and with tinted glasses would be bagging groceries. As you looped through the isle of produce and made your way to the back of the store, past the dog food to your right , you were met by the meat counter. The butcher sported a brown mustache. Hell, everyone in the store aside from the black woman at the deli sported a mustache. Perhaps she sported a small whiskery type of mustache or maybe it was a whiskery beard, I can't recall, and for the sake of this passage we'll leave that out. But she did serve great boxed lunches. Banana pudding, green beans, potato wedges and fried chicken. As a pudgy little kid I was a fan off all those food groups. I'd order a pint of banana pudding and a pint of green beans (to compensate for my 1st unhealthy choice), walk over behind the post office, sit up on that loading dock and fill my face unabashedly. It was great. I only did that once , every other time I ate like a civilized non-barbaric kid. Attached are images I've found that I associated with this story.
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Matt Busch, Author
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