LOOKING BACK: Woodside grocer's newsletter chronicled life in the 1950s LOOKING BACK: Woodside grocer's newsletter chronicled life in the 1950s (March 14, 2001)

By Kate Daly

A Woodside grocer's newsletter published about 50 years ago reveals a distinctly personal approach to doing business in the small Midpeninsula community. Litter, traffic and even gophers were among the many topics covered by Emott Caldwell, owner of Caldwell's General Store from 1950 to 1960, when it was sold to the Roberts family, the current proprietors.

Mr. Caldwell died in December at the age of 84, from complications of a stroke. He left behind six children, including Jim Caldwell, a Woodside architect and artist, who shared copies of the Crossroads Enterprise, a direct mail advertising piece published by Caldwell's General Store.

Emott Caldwell took over the store at Ca§ada and Woodside roads from the Neuman family in 1950 and ran it until 1960, when the present owners, the Roberts family, bought him out.

As Emott Caldwell wrote, the Enterprise included "jokes, fables, diatribes, announcements, sentimental trivia, philosophical maunderings and even discussions of such important matters as the merchandise we carry in stock." Son Jim estimates the newsletters, a dozen issues in all, were sent to about a thousand homes.

Nicknamed "The Blast" by one reader, the newsletter was known for voicing strong opinions. Take this excerpt from June, 1953:

"There is one special group of people we hate like mad, and if they never set foot in our store it'll be too soon! We don't know where they come from or who they are, but they're the ones who dump their garbage and trash along the roadside."

A year later Emott Caldwell switches to writing about "the need for a traffic light at the crossroads in front of our store. We've heard it said that a traffic light right here in the middle of Woodside would make it seem urban, less rural, or something. We maintain that it would make the intersection a lot safer."

Jim recalls cars zipping through that intersection so fast that they usually ended up crashing into the men's room at the Chevron station that used to be next door up until about 25 years ago.

Another memory Jim has is of all the school-age children hanging out at Caldwell's, sitting in the window and reading comic books. His father writes about this as a burning cause in the January, 1955 Enterprise, to rid newsstands of the crime and horror comic books currently flooding them. "This worthy campaign is now being carried on by a great number of women's clubs, church groups and similar organizations with the thought in mind that these low-grade comic books are a significant factor in creating juvenile delinquency," he wrote.

In November, 1953 Emott Caldwell wrote about "Service for a Smile" when one of our "regular juvenile customers presented himself, right at the check-out stand in the Grocery Department, and asked that we pull out a front tooth." Mr. Caldwell did as requested, and wrote that a few days later, when the other front tooth was loose, the child returned to have him pull it out, too.

Emott Caldwell loved being a merchant, and he was good at it, Jim says of his father. The family moved to Woodside from the Philadelphia area where Emott Caldwell had worked in the family's jewelry business. The Caldwells first settled in Atherton, and then Woodside in the late 1950s.

Caldwell's General Store sold almost everything, according to the Enterprise of November, 1953: "We'll repair your lamps, develop your pictures, insure your house or whatnot, teach you how to knit, register you as a voter ... As if this weren't enough, "...we're pleased to announce still another service, airplane charter."

Back in 1954 the Enterprise noted 10 bales of hay selling for $27, and a cord of wood for $35. The best bargain, however, was "Free Chick Day," a tradition Mr. Caldwell started on the first Saturday after Easter. He gave away more than 4,000 day-old chicks to promote the sale of Ralston-Purina feeds. For each 10 pounds of feed bought, 10 baby chicks came free.

Mr. Caldwell also gave away some free advice on how to get rid of gophers. "Take a number of empty quart beer bottles ... and bury them upright in the ground about three feet apart with the necks of the bottles protruding an inch or two above the surface ... It seems that even a gentle breeze blowing across the neck of a beer bottle makes some kind of a noise, and even though you may not be able to hear it, the gophers presumably can, and what's more, they don't like it."

Jim says his father never finished college, but loved to write and even tried to publish a book on fatherhood. Now that he's gone his children have collected his old newsletters, and are glad to share them once again with the community.

Kate Daly lives in Woodside and writes occasionally for the Almanac. Bourbon Balls

(Published twice in The Crossroads Enterprise, this recipe was given to us by a charming neighbor who modestly wishes to remain anonymous.) Combine:

1 cup vanilla wafers, ground

1 cup powdered sugar

2 cup walnut meats, ground

2 tbs. cocoa

1 tbs. honey

Add: enough Bourbon (about 1/4 cup) to make the other ingredients stick together so that the mixture can be rolled into balls. Bobble these around on some waxed paper with more powdered sugar so that they get coated all over, then put them in the refrigerator for a couple of hours.