Page 101 - Cityview Magazine - July/August 2017

ADVENTURES
in Grocery Shopping
BYROBERT E. PRYOR, SR.
A few years ago, my wife, Norma, underwent total knee replacement surgery, and that’s when my intimate relationship with grocery stores really started. Today, I still do much of the grocery shopping and have actually enjoyed planning meals and cooking for the rst time in my life. When I’m not practicing law, you might nd me with my iPad, wandering the aisles of Kroger, Ingles, The Fresh Market, or Publix in pursuit of the ingredients for some new recipe—usually involving beans, chicken, or pasta (sometimes all three together).
For me, it all started with Byerly’s Grocery at 726 Chickamauga Avenue. Mr. Byerly sold groceries on credit, and he delivered. That was a simpler time when the grocery delivery boy would just open the back door and put everything away. My family, of course, had its own delivery boy: me. I would ride my bike to Mr. Byerly’s, and a small bell on the door would ring when I went in. He had a long wooden pole with a pincher on top to grab
cans and cartons off the high shelves. Sometimes, he would let me use the “pincher pole.” Shelves of groceries covered the walls all the way up to
the ceiling, and in the middle of the narrow room was an enclosed counter where he checked your purchase. He had a large, elaborate ledger with metal pages that he flipped to find
my father’s account. Oh yes, he had jars of candy and Double Bubble Gum. The licorice was long, black, and twisted. Once I overdosed on it.
When I stayed with my grandparents in South Knoxville, I spent a lot of time at Smoky Mountain Market on Chapman Highway and
ate tons of hot dogs. Cold bottled drinks buried in ice were stored
in coolers lined up out front–the
only place to buy Grapette. Few groceries, but great eats. Although it has been closed many years, I can still taste those fabulous hot dogs.
Knoxville was sprinkled with small grocery stores in those days. Clyde Rainwater Grocery on Holston Drive at Ault Street and Bus Reagan’s Market on Central at Springdale are examples. One of my first trials was one where I represented a man who operated a rolling store in Blount County. The man had an old school bus customized into a grocery store and drove from house to house out in the country. A speeder sideswiped
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