Corner Bar razed; fond memories sought

(A landmark was removed in Alexandria this week. Its passing was wistfully noted by Bonita Gilbertson. Does anyone have a good photo or a good memory of this fabled institution? Please send it along. --Trailboss)

Bonita laments: Main street of Alex looks different. The old Corner Bar that stood on the corner of 5th and Broadway for as long as I can remember was demolished this week. It hasn't been a bar for several years but we "old timers" still remember it as such and the street looks "funny" with it gone.

Maybe Patty Wicken or Tom Obert know what's going to be built in its place. If they or any other readers of the blog know, please write in.

In other Chamber of Commerce news, the new Wal-Mart Super store opened yesterday which could further change the make up of the town. It's hard to compete with a monster like that (I would think). Rumor also has it that Pete's County Market has been sold to Coburns. Pete's has been around for over 50 years in three different locations so I'm sure a few classmates shopped there or went with their parents when they did.

Just trivia but sometimes trivia is fun (?)

Bonita

Lorlee Bartos writes:

Pete's was where I encountered my first live black person in the form of a woman dressed as "Aunt Jemima" who was there for the Pancake Day promotion.

I have a vague recollection of asking her if it "washed off". Hard to believe one was so sheltered. (Now before you go all PC -- I was probably about 5)

I remember Pete himself -- who lived above the store in the addition with at least 3 large picture windows -- and remember hearing people say they wouldn't want to live there because you could see in through those windows -- never mind that it would have been difficult since they were at least 20 feet above the ground.

Lorlee

Rumor squelched

Bev Roers Korkowski writes:

I was just checking the blog and saw the news re: downtown changes (ah, no more smells of stale beer wafting thru the open door on a hot summer afternoon!)

But I digress….the rumor re: Pete’s is unfounded. My nephew works there, and as of two weeks ago, after the rumors had been heard all over town, the employees got a note along with their paychecks saying that the rumor was not true, that Pete’s was not sold or being sold to Coburn’s. That is always subject to change, I suppose, but that was the official word then.

Bev

Paul Strandberg remembers:

When Super Pete's first store burned, it left my aunt, Norma Strandberg, a Washington second grade schoolteacher, homeless.