The other messy item stored in the basement was the annual supply of coal that we bought in the fall to fuel the furnace to keep us warm during the winter. Week's Coal Yard was located where Tim Horton‘s currently stands on Grafton Street East. A common sight was the two wheel horse—drawn wagon full of coal going slowly down the street making deliveries to the various homes.

One of the most interesting personalities delivering coal in the East End was called Neddy. I don’t remember hearing his last name. He looked as if he had a glass eye and was always mad looking. He spoke very little but could give the loudest roar you ever heard. When we would see him coming up the street with his load of coal we would yell out, “Roar Neddy roar”, and he would always respond.

Because there were so many hard-to-get items, the wholesalers would automatically send them to us without even asking us if we wanted them. They knew we were more than glad to receive the order. The same applied to our customers. There were so many items on the scarce list, that we used a room behind the store to hide the goods or we would hide them under the counters. In this way, we were able to control who would get what and how much. The back room was almost as big as the store itself. My sister, Yvonne, had a difficult time telling people that we did not have certain items when she knew there were some in the back room. She understood that as lying and wanted to go to confession each time it occurred. Dad had to convince her that it was all right because the implication was that the item just wasn‘t available for that

particular customer on that particular day.

We did business with all of the wholesalers in the city. They included Rattenbury, Atlantic, R.E.Mutch, Toombs, Sid Green, J. T. Montgomery, Michael Brothers, Kays Brothers, Clark Fruit, Carvells and DeBlois Brothers. Although it resulted in more book work, dad felt that it was important to have several suppliers. All are gone today except Kays Brothers, Atlantic Wholesalers and DeBlois Brothers, and the last two

are owned by Loblaws and Sobeys.

A number of the stores got their start from the generous credit terms that Mr. DeBlois of DeBlois Brothers gave. The early store operators developed such strong work ethics and credibility, that those who came later were given unlimited credit to start up their businesses, much to their surprise. It was a great opportunity for the new store operator and it made good business sense because most stayed loyal to the

wholesaler. 15