Anita's little shop...

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Anita's shop...
This amazing picture brought back some wonderful memories of my childhood...

I'm standing here next to my older brother, who is 10 years older than I am and my Mum... a young well dressed mother of 6 (I'm the youngest of my family).

Dad must've taken this pic with his Pentax camera, he was so proud of it...
That car was his new, though second hand, Valiant 1965, in dark burgundy with nice white-face-lined tyres. He was always very proud of his cars, maybe I got my love for cars from my dad since I was little...

I remember when he arrived home with this Valiant... I was blown away at first sight...
I must've been about 8 or 10 years old... He had traded in the beautiful but ageing Ford station wagon...
This newer car was beautiful, with burgundy carpet and burgundy steering wheel and matching vinyl seats, in my eyes...a real beauty!

Anyway, I digress, this post is about the wee little shop right across the street from my house...
It was called "La Gaudalupana"... it was part of a house, as many shops are in Mexico, they had created a room with a separate iron rolling curtain facing the street, to open the shop to the public...
It was a tiny little shop with some basics for sale, like soft drinks, lollies, snacks, and some other bits and pieces...
The lady running the shop lived in this house, her name was Anita, or known to us as "Mrs. Anita"...
She used to have a temper, and would sometimes get annoyed at us if we were mocking around in front of her shop.

This was the shop where I had my first commercial interaction, it was the shop where I took my first few cents or pesos saved from my weekly allowance, what we called in Mexico "Domingos", and bought something. My allowance was $5 pesos each Sunday. 

My first time I might've bought proudly my favorite soft drink at that time, a so called "Chaparrita" and my favourite junk food corn chips, which I still love..."Fritos"...

I must've said..."How much is it?" probably proudly and a bit scared for the very first time, and handed over my coins to Mrs. Anita... she may have looked at me with that look like saying, you're a big boy now...

I was just beginning to learn the monetary value of things and what I could do with money...
I did it all by myself, probably with Mum watching from across the street...
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Mrs. Anita's shop was more than a shop, it was a meeting place for many...
I remember that there used to be a big rock, just outside the rolling iron curtain, which served as a mini bench for anyone wanting to sit there and enjoy their drink or snack... many of us sat there many a times, contemplating the day, and of course right across the street, looking at the house where I grew up....

Anita's shop was like 'the base' of our small tribe, a small group of friends I grew up with...
Primarily my next-door neighbours, Chucho, from across the street, and my friends Hector and Rodolfo, they lived to the left and right of our small and humble house on Petalo street... 

After school, we used to spend most of our childhood days playing on that peaceful street all kinds of games we had learned from older kids on the same street or some other games that we made up...

It was our world and nothing could stop us...except for our mums cry when it started getting dark...they'd shout out from wherever they were in their respective houses..."Get back in boys, it is getting dark!"...
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We'd normally let them do that 2 or 3 times before we finally got back into our homes and said our goodbyes..."see you tomorrow"...

The following day we'd do it all over again...and nothing else mattered...
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It was a magical childhood...