Grandma Drove a Woody

My dear old Granny drove a car sort of like the one shown here. It was the first "station wagon" I ever saw. In it we would go exciting places...like that far away village called Elm Grove. To a Woodsdale Kid distance was strange. Elm Grove was a different town, Pittsburgh was a galaxy far, far away, and going to the "seashore" took two days of driving with an overnite stop. Wait a minute...we kids weren't driving, so it must have been the adults who had a strange conception of time and distance! Yes, that's it...anything outside our neighborhood was a "trip" as in a trip to town. One of the places that Grandad took us was Sunset Pool. On hot summer days we would get in the woody and take off for Sunset. I don't know why he preferred that pool to Oglebay...both were just as wet, but all of us would pile in and off we would go.

Woodsdale Kids probably first saw a supermarket when they traveled to Elm Grove to the old A & P store which was located about where McDonalds is now. I can remember my mother grinding her own coffee beans and to this day I don't drink coffee because I hated the smell. But oh the plentitude! the number of items one could buy was gynormous compared to our usual store Johnson's on Heiskell Avenue. I think I prefered Johnson's though the aisles were tight and the goods were limited it was "home". There were benefits to going to Elm Grove though....my mother believed that Islay's klondike bars and Canada Dry gingerale could cure any ailment a child could come up with...and she kept a stock on hand. It seemed strange to me that a store that sold ice cream would also sell ham salad, but hey the universe is crazy, eh? Eventually the Kroger store moved from next to "the drug store" (Pike Pharmacy) to a MUCH bigger store where CVS pharmacy is now on the National Road so Krogers became "our" supermarket. I loved the way they stacked the watermelons outside and left them there all night. As a teen I and some girlfriends "borrowed" some. Hiding them beneath a trenchcoat and looking very pregnant, we dashed barefoot across National Road, thru Woodsdale Park and home for a feast. Oh, the thrill and excitement of a late night adventure ...sure made that melon taste good.

Woodsdale Kids grew up with their parents calling the refrigerator the "ice box". Kids today probably don't understand why we say "hang up" when referring to a phone call instead of "push end". I can still remember our first phone number Woodsdale 1431 and then later it became Cedar 232-3663. Of course the phones were rotary dial not push button. Who else has Woodsdale memories of funny terms that longer make sense today? Please share them.