Wales College. Dad would get up early every morning and drive Joe and the boys to St. Dunstan' s. They would then walk back to the Holy Name Hall (which is now the Basilica Recreation Centre) and play pool all day. You can probably guess what happened the next year, Joe was told to go to Prince of Wales College where he did grades 11 and 12 in one year, followed by his Freshman and Sophomore years. Yvonne and Abe worked in the store after finishing grade 10 and when we built the new store across the street in 1948, Joe joined the family business.

About the mid forties, the Central Farmers Co-operative opened and it had a very shaky beginning until a man by the name of Cam MacLean was brought in from Ontario to operate the store. It was a good move on the Co—op’s part, because Cam was one of the most progressive business men I have ever met. I remember him buying peaches and Pot of Gold chocolate by the truck load and selling them for 99 cents, one cent below our cost. There was a friendly rivalry between us but we were no match for him. On one occasion the Co—op bought a new delivery Volkswagen. The dealer at the time was a customer of ours and drove the van up in front of our store and parked below our ZAKEM sign. I could not resist taking a picture showing the van with Co-op written on it sitting below our sign. I used it in our ad the next week with a heading, “Even the Co-op shops at Zakem’s”. Cam MacLean, being the shrewd businessman that he was, was not going to be out maneuvered and in the following week’s radio program announced the van was at Zakems because the Co-op

sells and delivers to small stores.

The location of the new store had a beautiful, cozy little house on it. The entrance faced Weymouth Street and was surrounded by lots of lush green grass. It was owned by a George Rackham. His granddaughter is Pat Johnston who lives in Kinlock. She told me that her grandfather always had a beautiful garden. He operated a grocery store on the comer of Kent and Prince Street, which later became the very popular PJ’s Grocery. After he retired and his wife died, he became so despondent that this doctor suggested that he should open a small store behind the house to keep him busy. I remember the store. It was about 15 ft. by 20 ft. We would go across the street to

buy fudge.

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