Mom and George Beers George Beers, his dog and me

Peter Driscoll was from the Fort Augustus area and taught school there. He did some gardening on the side and would often bring in vegetables and expected us to buy them whether we needed them or not. As a thank you, each Christmas he would bring us a pint of homemade moonshine. He may not have been much of a vegetable grower but he sure knew how to make high quality shine.

Another gentleman that I remember vividly because of his smile with half of his teeth missing, would come into the store two or three times a week and drink beer. I don’t remember his name and likely would not mention it if I did. In the 1940’s, stores were permitted to sell light beer. Two brands that I remember selling were Arctic Ale and Silver Tip. He would come into the store and over the period of an hour or

two, slowly drink three to six bottles of beer.

Many items sold for a nickel such as apples, oranges, bananas, a bottle of pop, ice cream cone, shoe lace, pocket comb and chocolate bar to name a few. Without realizing what I was doing, I often mentioned to my children that, “I remember when this, that or the other thing was five cents”. One day my son introduced me to a friend as, “This is my father. He is the person who remembers when everything was

five cents”.

When the chocolate bar companies raised the price of bars up to seven cents, there was such a consumer outcry that they reduced the price back to five cents. A clever

18