An Inside Tour of the T&V Grocery Store
Meet Verleen. Verleen and her brother run the grocery store where I grew up in North Dakota. The grocery store is small. It is cozy, and I love visiting it because it’s like a part of home for me. For example, I remember my Grandma Jan letting me hop in her gigantic orange Pontiac boat of a car for little trips to the store in town. It was a very, very big deal to be old enough to walk down Main Street from my Great Grandma Zana’s house all the way to the store at the other end of town (three blocks) with a little bit of money in my hand and my little brother and cousin tagging along to pick out candy from the candy counter. When I learned to drive my mom sent me into town on countless errands to pick up some item that she had forgotten when she had been there in the morning. Verleen always knew that I didn’t want a plastic sack to hold the groceries, that I would probably be picking up a few cartons of skim milk along with the other items, and she ordered in strawberry applesauce, which always made me very, very happy.
Verleen was also my first and second grade Sunday School teacher. She is funny. She is short. Kids love her and she always seems to get along with everybody. It was a big deal to grow taller than Verleen (it’s always a big deal to be taller than a genuine grown up) and Verleen always handled that with grace and a smile on her face. Verleen has wit and humor.
I have wanted to take pictures of the grocery store for several years, but it never worked out and I was very worried about being a disturbance. When I was visiting my parents at Thanksgiving, my mom looked at the clock on Saturday afternoon and said, “Oh! You should go take pictures of the store. I talked to Verleen about that and she said it was fine. Go now before it closes.” It didn’t take much convincing for me to get my coat on. I was really, really nervous about taking these pictures. Ya Ya came with me, and although I’ll take pictures of anybody and anything in Minnesota, when I go home I worry about being a disturbance and what people might be discussing out of earshot. And the truth is, it was a little weird. Verleen probably thought it was REALLY weird, but I am so glad I have these pictures of the little details in the grocery store. It’s such a fun place.
There are two aisles in the store. This is one.
This is the canned goods section. When I was little there was one grocery supply truck that had a ramp that extended out the door. It would park on the side of the store and the ramp would extend out the door of the truck box and down through the side door of the grocery store. The boxes would slide right down the ramp and Louie (Verleen’s Dad ) and Terry (Verleen’s brother) would move the boxes to the storage area in the store. I watched and waited for that truck to come to Pettibone because I LOVED watching the boxes slide down the ramp. It was so fascinating. It kind of felt like going to a drive through at a fast food restaurant, or something. What can I say? Little things are big things when you are a little girl
This is the baking section.
If you need a greeting card the store has them. 
The cereal shelf was one of my very favorites when I was little. It’s a very colorful shelf, and the cereal is easy to reach for a small person. (Notice how Verleen put all the kid appealing cereal on the bottom shelf? She totally gets kids!) I was always hoping for a box of fruit loops, but we didn’t get them very often. Before speech meets in high school I’d always get a box of fruit loops to take with on the trip to the speech meet. It was my good luck food. 
These signs have been hanging across the store for all of my memory. 
This is where you can pick up eggs and butter and iceberg lettuce. 
Verleen has EVERYTHING in her little store: cleaning supplies, paper towels, medicine, shampoo. If you need it, she probably has it. Although, one fourth of July when I was 14 she was woefully fresh out of sunscreen and I got really sunburned (to the point of my face blistering) while I was in town all day celebrating the holiday.
THIS is probably my favorite part of the store! It’s the artificial banana tree, smack in between the cereal department and the milk cooler. Sometimes there are bananas. Sometimes there are not. You always know where to find the bananas, though. I remember being so excited when the banana tree was full of yellow bananas when I was little. The best bananas, though, are the brown speckled ones. You can see that this banana tree has a lot of memories. Look at all the places where bananas have worn through the greenery. There have probably been a lot of bananas that have hung from this tree over the years. 
Here’s where you can find meat and potatoes. when I was really little we would buy summer sausage from this cooler, and Verleen’s dad would go behind the cooler and slice it and then wrap it up in white butcher paper. I loved summer sausage days. 
This is the sign on top of the milk cooler. It’s ironic because our family NEVER took enough milk home. I was always going back to the store to get more milk.
Tooth brushes? School supplies? Batteries? The T&V grocery has them. In the middle picture you can see all the community notices posted on the pop cooler. If you want to know about upcoming events in Pettibone, this is where you look. Everyone knows this. We advertised a lot of class fundraisers on the pop cooler in the store when I was in high school. 
I love this picture of the shopping carts. We never got to use a cart in the store because my mom didn’t want us running into anything. We always had to run and get things and then deliver them up to the front counter ourselves. BUT, my friends, the Flanders kids, did get to use the cart when they went grocery shopping, so I always liked to go with them.
This is the famous candy counter! I was a spoiled little girl. My grandma would often give me money to pick out candy from the candy counter. I went through a Reeces Pieces phase. I went through a Skittles phase. I went through a peanut butter cup phase. And there was the summer between first and second grade when I was desperately trying to learn to blow bubbles and always picked fat packages of smelly bubble gum from the counter. I can remember being SO little I couldn’t reach the top flat shelf half way up the counter.
There you have it, a little slice of home.
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17 Comments
Mike
Been past there many many times but stopped in only once. Indeed it is unlike any small town grocery store I’ve ever been in this side of 1964. I’m glad you wrote about it.
Janet Schauer
What a wonderful tribute to this glorious place! You captured everything perfectly. We are so blessed to have Verleen and Terry and this store!
Robin
Wow, you could not have captured it better, we are so blessed to have Verleen and Terry in our town and have no idea what we would do without the store. You make me proud when you write with such feeling, love you!
Cyndel Page
I love this grocery store i have a lot of good memory’s there as well as in the little town of Pettibone always find something to do there every summer..
Julie
Great photos and the story behind them. I love that store. We lived in the area for 16 years and there was never nothing that I needed that I couldn’t get there! I still make at least one trip down there a summer just so I can go in there.
Corlene (Schmidt) Bintzler
I too have fond memories of this store. Uncle Louie and Aunt Violet were always there working so hard. Now Verleen and Terry have taken over and work so hard as well. The one thing I remember the most was the bulk sunflower seed box! One could get a sack of sunflower seeds and you just paid for the amount per pound! I don’t think I ever had to pay for them though. These are some fond memories that I have as a little girl of the famous store in Pettibone N.D. Thank you for this article. Corlene Bintzler
Bridgette Flanders
It’s beautiful – even more perfect than I remember it. You could rush in on your way to basketball practice and hollar to Verleen that you grabbed a Dr Pepper and an Oh Henry! candy bar. You could even list like 5 to 8 things and Verleen would call back “Got it!” as you rushed out the door. Simply incredible.
Jessica Kuhn
I loved going to the T&V every summer when I went to see my great grandparents as a child. I have so meany fond memories of those summers.
Rhonda Binder
Awesome job Rachel – your mom was telling me about your trip to the store in Pettibone. I am so glad I got to see this. Your mom will show me pictures of your kids – you always do such an awesome job. This was really fun to look at and read – what great memories!
Sandy (Roten) Hickman
Thank you so much for the memories!!! In the early 70s, they used to let me carry in things from the delivery truck or sweep the floor of the store for an ice cream sandwich or a fudgesicle. How I loved to get to help on those hot summer days!
Char (Franzen) Adamsons
Rachel, you don’t know me but am one of those “Pettibone” kids. I grew up in Pettibone during the 50’s and 60’s. What a walk down memory lane for me to see these pictures. My Mom (Betty Franzen) and Aunt (Ruth Fisher) once owned T & V Grocery (way back in the 1940’s and very early 50’s)– the familiarity of it all brings tears to my eyes. There is nothing more special than growing up in a town “where everybody knows your name.” Thanks — your pictures are beautiful!
Char
Jennifer Rewald
Fantastic job! When I was a kid I always loved going and picking out gummy worms out of the container and the best part was getting the little brown bag to put them in. Who am I kidding, I still love going to get gummy worms and getting to put them in those cute little brown paper sacks. Its the best!
Nancy Morlock
Great job Ray, your pictures really capture the store. I really love the commentary.
Brenda Morlock Trandem
I so enjoyed this article Rachel, that I have to repost it. It came up on my FB page as memories from 2013. Thank you Terry and Verleen for keeping the store open for so many years. After Char’s mom and Aunt Ruth had the store, my parents purchased it. I don’t remember it, but am sure my sister LuJane does. They sold the grocery store and opened the Gambles store, right next door. I do remember that store very well. So fun to go back in time and sometimes wish we were back in that time and place. Merry Christmas all.
Craig Thompson
Brings back some great memories. Thank you!!
Julie Hein
I miss my days in Pettibone, teaching all of you and visiting the grocery store before I headed back to Wing for the night. I love reading all the updates on Facebook of my former students and their families. And now I have your blog to keep track of you, dear zany Rachel!!
Roxanne Keller (Kamoni)
Thank you for posting. My mother recently passed away.I spent the night at my cousin Jeanie and she had to quick run in so I went inside. Such a wonderful surprise to see how time had stood still.