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The Lovett house was located on the east side of
Oakland Street, two doors south of the intersection of Oakland Street and
Orange Street.
Between the Lovett House and the corner, looking north
on Oakland, was the Maiolo house. On the corner, after the Maiolo
house, was a one-story building that housed the Deerfield Market and Groll’s
Bakery. Some area residents played an interesting variation of poker
in front of Groll’s Bakery, mainly because of the view it
afforded. Much to the chagrin of Mike Groll, players would stand
with their left sides facing his bakery shop window, cards held close to
their chests, looking west on Orange Street. As an eastbound
automobile would approach the intersection, the player whose turn it was
would somehow combine the digits on the automobile’s license plate with
the face value of the cards in his hand. One regular player of this
automobile poker game went off to war, attended college upon returning,
and then became a prominent Springfield-area physician!
Across from Deerfield’s and Groll’s, on the
west side of Oakland Street, was another one-story building that housed “Tony
the Shoemaker,” and Dotty’s (later Shrude’s) Variety. An ice
cream, a soda or a candy bar could be purchased for a nickel at Dotty’s,
and two packs of cigarettes could be purchased for a quarter.
Across from Deerfield’s and Groll’s, on the
north side of Orange Street, was a two-pump, one-bay gas station owned by
Archie Damour. Archie was the cousin of Gerald and Paul Damour, who
co-founded the Big “Y” Supermarket chain in 1936.
Norman Oyler, a station attendant at Archie’s, used to buy his
cigars from Bernard Lovett Sr. at H. E. Shaw’s on Columbus Avenue.
After Bernard Sr. left Shaw’s and took a distributor position with
Consolidated, Norman often bought his cigars right from the Lovett
house. Norman recalled that his routine usually involved calling Mrs. Lovett on the
telephone to ask her for his usual–a box of
Belvedere’s. By the time he crossed Orange Street in front of
Archie’s and walked the short distance to the Lovett house, a box of
Belvedere’s was waiting for him on the porch. He would deposit
$5.83 into an empty dish and return to work.
Across from Archie's, on the north side of Orange Street,
was a multi-story brick tenement building. The
ground floor of this building was a First National grocery store that was
managed by Bill Walsh.
Oakland and Orange was not the only bustling
intersection in the area. A few blocks away, at the corner of Orange
Street and White Street, stood Frentzo’s Spa.
Frentzo’s was an ice cream and soda shop that was a very popular
hangout for kids who lived in the White-Orange-Allen section of Forest
Park in the late 1930s and 1940s. In 1942, area resident Franklyn
Bacon posted an 8” x 10” photograph of Francis Drake on the wall
inside the store, to honor the first U.S. Marine from Springfield to be
killed at Guadalcanal. Other photos of area men and women who were
serving in the military followed, until Frentzo’s looked like a photo
gallery. Many neighborhood kids who saw the first pictures, grew up
and joined the military or were drafted themselves. Those who
returned from the war found their own pictures posted inside Frentzo’s.
In 1946, after World War II had ended, all of the photographs were
returned to the families.
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