CASTLE'S: Reader on memory lane

Ever notice how random thoughts just pop into your head at times? I suddenly wondered if there was anyone left in CDA who remembers Castle’s store.

Castle’s store was owned and run by Mr. and Mrs. Castle. (I was a kid so did not know their first names; they were just Mr. and Mrs. Castle) and their adult son Edward Castle. It was a mom and pop store with motor-in cabins tucked between the old Regina Bar (now Corner Lounge) and the Victory Inn Tavern (which is gone and now part of a parking lot at 1710 N. 4th St.) and it stretched the length of 4th Street to 5th Street. There were signs up for bait and waterdogs and they had a glass counter inside full of penny candy.

When we were kids and wanted candy we would walk along the highways and streets and pick up discarded pop bottles and beer bottles and redeem them for cash. A penny would get two pieces of candy from that glass counter.

Mr. and Mrs. Castle were always old as long as I could remember. Mr. Castle used to deliver boxes of groceries to his neighborhood customers. Wow, how the world has changed. They let people down on their luck charge groceries and so Mr. and Mrs. Castle were also money poor. Am I the only one left that remembers how wonderful they were? I wonder.

BARBARA McDONALD

Coeur d’Alene