David Marcou
This Interview with David Marcou was about Marcou’s Market, which was the Marcou family grocery store operated by his grandparents from 1942 to 1971. David grew up above the market and describes it from memory. He recalls a time he and his brother decided to sneak downstairs for a sweet treat.
Transcript
Location: Marcou’s Market building, 732 Rose Street
Marcou: We lived above Marcou’s Market for about four years. It had a big plate-glass window, maybe two in front. A window that you’d paint and put the specials for the day. Then you’d wipe it whenever the specials went down. The front, though, went around the corner, and on the side, there was, I can remember, two big murals that were painted by Frank Kauffman. One of them for a long time was the Little Miss Sunbeam, a mural, after that, the Chirstrol Oil Truck sign too. Right inside was the cash register, or the till as we called it. And behind that was a rack of candy, and so whoever was working the till could reach behind and get the candy for anybody who wanted it while they were checking them out with their groceries and things. And if you went down a little bit further south on that uh sidewalk, you’d see the door for the stairs to go upstairs. One day, Dennis and I had the idea to go downstairs and get some candy. So we were up in the front apartment, and nobody was really paying much attention to us. There was a little table with the chair indentation in it for real small kids. And so, we pushed that in front of the door, and I got up on top of it with a flyswatter and unhooked the hook, so Dennis and I crawled or walked downstairs, however. I think when we got downstairs, we actually got some candy! [laughs]”