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Albert Michael’s store

Black and white streetscape of two three storey row houses. From left to right the signs above the main entrances and shop windows are Michael's; and Sold Walsh Hairdresser. The left house has three windows on the second floor, and two dormer windows in the mansard roof on the third floor. The right house is only partially visible and has at least one window on the second floor, and one dormer window in the mansard roof on the third floor. The number 74 is handwritten on the photo in front of Michael’s. To the left of the building is a parking lot with cars and the side of a building with a sign for Uptown.

Photo: Albert Michael’s storefront on 74 New Gower Street, St. John’s, circa 1960s. Source: City of St. John’s Archives #11-03-270.

Recorded audio interview with Lorraine Michael completed by Dale Jarvis of Heritage NL.

TRANSCRIPT:
In my family they were all grocers. And so Pop’s store was the centre for the community here in St. Johns anyway, in terms of the ingredients. You know like they all got their goods from wholesalers in Montreal, Lebanese wholesalers in Montreal. And the goods all came over from Lebanon and then you know you order from them. And so my grandfather had all of the things that were needed for Lebanese cooking, you know.

So, you know the funny story I tell people, you know, we didn’t have bottles of olives in our house, we had, you know, a cask of olives down in the basement. We didn’t have a bag of burghul, that’s bulgur, we had a sack of burghul down the basement. Because, you know, Daddy would just, he would order for the family, “Tell me what you need in the next order.” You know, and we’d have that.

So they had their ingredients, that’s why when I hear people – you know, every now and again I’ll hear somebody talk about how black olives came here like in the 1970s. No, I’m afraid I was eating black olives; I was weaned on black olives, right you know. So, if you lived downtown in St. Johns, you knew they had those ingredients there. You know, because they were out in the open.