Remember the second store in the Fort Assiniboine? Guess if your not from that are you have no clue what the hell I am talking about. Sorry for that, this blog entry is geared towards people who lived and grew up in the Fort Assiniboine-Barrhead area. Anyway That was Ainsfort store which was where the Fort Post Office is currently located. I believe it closed in 1989 or 1990 I'm not quite sure. My Mom worked at Ainsfort store for a time. I remember they had the best ice cream, best candies, they had arcade games and they sold He-Man colouring books and other stuff that kids loved to buy. It was a great store and it sucked when it closed but it was a sign of the times. The Fort was just too small of a community to support 2 general stores, plus Barrhead was only 20 minutes away and had 3 larger stores there.
Another store I used to love shopping at was the old "Tom-Boy" here in Barrhead. It was located where the Barrhead FCSS is currently located. They turned in Extra Foods in the late 90's and closed in the late 90's..98 or 99 I cannot remember for certain I only remember that I was out of school at that point. They just couldn't compete with CO-OP and the new IGA.
Remember the "MET" store in Barrhead. The best way to describe it is to say it was like a small version of Wal-Mart. They had everything that you needed and then some. They were located where the Mall and Servus Credit Union are now. I loved shopping there and that is where I used to buy most of my He-Man toys and later my Ninja Turtle toys. They had the biggest store in town. I remember one time when shopping with my Granny Lockhart, Aunt Elaine and cousin Irene in Westlock. My Granny had bought me a toy there and later we went to Barrhead and the Met store. I unwisely took my new toy bought in Westlock into the Met. Anyway I was in the toy department when a punk looking guy, who was listening to metal music on a Walkman, grabbed me by the arm and accused me of stealing. He told me he was an undercover store security guard, now looking back he might have just been a paedophile...who knows? My cousin Irene seen him grab me by the arm and told him that my toy was in fact bought in Westlock so he let me go...thanks Irene for saving me from that dude. If he was a weirdo paedophile she may have saved me from something very bad!! But the Met, especially in the 80's was a huge store for a small town so it is possible that they had security. They too closed in the mid 90's.
Another store I used to love shopping at was the old "Tom-Boy" here in Barrhead. It was located where the Barrhead FCSS is currently located. They turned in Extra Foods in the late 90's and closed in the late 90's..98 or 99 I cannot remember for certain I only remember that I was out of school at that point. They just couldn't compete with CO-OP and the new IGA.
Remember the "MET" store in Barrhead. The best way to describe it is to say it was like a small version of Wal-Mart. They had everything that you needed and then some. They were located where the Mall and Servus Credit Union are now. I loved shopping there and that is where I used to buy most of my He-Man toys and later my Ninja Turtle toys. They had the biggest store in town. I remember one time when shopping with my Granny Lockhart, Aunt Elaine and cousin Irene in Westlock. My Granny had bought me a toy there and later we went to Barrhead and the Met store. I unwisely took my new toy bought in Westlock into the Met. Anyway I was in the toy department when a punk looking guy, who was listening to metal music on a Walkman, grabbed me by the arm and accused me of stealing. He told me he was an undercover store security guard, now looking back he might have just been a paedophile...who knows? My cousin Irene seen him grab me by the arm and told him that my toy was in fact bought in Westlock so he let me go...thanks Irene for saving me from that dude. If he was a weirdo paedophile she may have saved me from something very bad!! But the Met, especially in the 80's was a huge store for a small town so it is possible that they had security. They too closed in the mid 90's.
Those were the days...man I sound old. But the 80's and 90's were such simple times for me, I really miss sometimes how things used to be. Granted things are pretty good now, but back then things were just simpler, guess cause my biggest concern was getting up at 7am on a Saturday to watch He-Man on channel 12.
Need to build myself a time machine...
