The "More Memories from My Youth" Story

It was an ordinary day.  Saturday, back in the mid-1950s, and I was making a visit to Antes Pet Store on West King Street to buy supplies for my white mice which were my constant friends in my room on North Queen Street in Lancaster, PA.  My dad would take me with him on Saturday mornings when he went to work at Meiskey's Jewelry Store where he was manager of the wholesale jewelry store.  I walked the block to Antes to spend time looking at all the pets in the window, then enter to pet those that I was allowed to touch. After my stay at the pet store, I would head another block eastward towards the center of Lancaster to visit the peanut store.  

The Peanut Store at 50 West King Street.  The store is slightly
below center on the right side to the left of the second car parked
along the sidewalk.  It sits next to a driveway that ran to a parking
lot behind the store. It is directly behind the Pelican Grill.
Click on photo to enlarge it. 

Neat little store tucked in between two larger buildings.  Place was only about six feet wide and maybe triple that deep.  You knew when you were close to the store due to the smell of the roasting peanuts.  The owner, who I always knew as Mr. Steve, always had a smile while asking me, with some foreign accent, my name.  No matter how many times I would visit I would always get the same treatment every time.  Mr. Steve was a native of Greece.  He and his brother Sam operated various food shops in downtown for years until Sam moved to nearby Ephrata. Then, in 1932, Steve opened the Manhattan Peanut Stand at 50 West King Street.  Wasn't until 20 years later that my dad and I made the two block trip one Saturday morning, after he was done at work, to buy some peanuts to take home.  

This photo shows Sam holding a bag of peanuts.

Steve roasted the peanuts in a coffee roaster that provided a rather unique taste for the peanuts.  After that one Saturday I made many more trips to the Peanut stand by myself to buy roasted peanuts for my family.  After Steve died in 1971 his brother Sam moved back to Lancaster from Ephrata and took over the business that his brother had made so successful.  "Sam the Peanut Man" operated the business until 1980.  The peanut shop still remained, but it was never the same for me.  Sam died in 1999 at the age of 98.  The peanut brothers are famous characters in the downtown lore and the famous coffee roaster now resides with Steve's grandson Tim.  Thing has to be close to a hundred years old by now.  Oh, the things you can remember from your youth when you begin to reminisce.  It was another extraordinary day in the life of an ordinary guy.