The Early Days
No self-serve. Someone stood behind the counter then turned around and fetched items from stock.
"Dame doscientos grammos de arroz" (200 grams of rice)
"Blanquillos, seis" (six eggs)
"Aceite comistible" (cooking oil)
And be prepared to hear "No hay" (no eye -- they're aren't any)
For oranges, onions, carrots, cabbage, and a dozen other wished items)
In small villages in the south a piece of red cloth was hung outside to announce some unfortunate animal had seen it's end and was ready to be sold. This was done at a store called a carniceria. Back then, Patzcuaro was infamous for ova, sheep -- mutton which needed to be cooked special to minimize the grease. Quail, cordoniz, was common and inexpensive. Six or eight made a decent meal. Meat was usually chopped to smithereens automatically by the butcher assuming it had to fit into a folded tortilla.
Fresh milk was risky unless a trusted local gave it the thumbs up. Cream was sold in glass jugs. Butter was unknown as was margarine. The area around four corners had fresh butter sold by the Chipilo dairy.
Travelers toured with boxes of prized spices and condiments. Sometimes fresh herbs could be found. Fresh regional fruit in season was over abundant. A pineapple could be had for five cents and a coconut could be yours for a tip to someone to scramble up the palm.
There was fifteen cent regional beer and eight cent colas, both required a bottle deposit that usually cost more than the beverage. A scrawled note served as a refund chit -- but it was only good where you bought the beverage.
Few things were as sad as waking up to a spoonful of Nescafe (No Es Cafe) dissolved in a cup of boiled well water.
To visit a giant central market like in Mazatlan, or San Miguel was akin to an 8-year old's visit to Disneyland. Time to stock up on ocote (slender sticks of pitch pine used to start a campfire). Carlos V bars of chocolate, La Flor de Michoacan parlors to gobble sherbets and various flavors of ice cream. Real coffee was common in cities.
Baths cost about ten cents and a coconut husk fired "boiler" held about six gallons of boiling water. Navy shower time. Towels were furnished the size of a hand towel and a lump of alkali soap soon had skin glowing pink.
Two days in the city then plunge back into the rural country.
It was real adventure then but to be brutally honest I could not tolerate it at my present age. I dragged my first travel trailer an AJO south in 1972. It came apart at the seams.
