There was a classic New York style candy store on Richmond Street in downtown London directly across the street from St. Peter's School where I was obligated by my parents to attend extracurricular Lithuanian language classes between 4:00 and 5:30 Saturday afternoons. Davis Variety was its name. It had the obligatory lunch counter which the fellow worked himself. I was never drawn to get anything at the lunch counter though (not that I would have had the money anyway of course). Unlike the lunch counters at the downtown Metropolitan, Kresge and Woolworth stores, it was pretty spartan and dingy and just didn't appeal to me. Mr. Davis himself was almost a comic book caricature of the old guy working a hot grill and his lunch counter never seemed to have any customers on Saturday afternoons. He probably got the bulk of his business frying up breakfast and lunch for the teachers at St. Peter's. And of course everybody smoked and read newspapers in those days including the teachers and the respective bishops, priests and staff at the adjacent St. Peter's Basilica and St. Paul's Anglican Cathedral.
The Davis Variety had most everything else to tempt a young boy with a quarter or two in his pocket though. It was one of the very few stores I knew that stocked Black Cat Bubble Gum which was licorice flavoured and was somehow chewier than Bazooka or even Dubble Bubble. I remember happily chewing on Black Cat and blowing black bubbles for hours!
I also very clearly remember buying Topps
Civil War News cards at Davis Variety:
Plus of course Baseball cards such as these from 1963:
And these from 1965:
The wooden magazine rack was located on the other side of the store from the lunch counter and was thus well situated to sneak a peak at the titty mags:
(Sadly not mine.)
There would of course have been something wrong with any young boy who wouldn't peruse pictures of bare naked women given a chance. In fact, I'm sure that the priests from St. Peter's and St. Paul's, if not the bishops themselves, would have been taking the occasional peak as well.
It was at the Davis Variety's magazine rack though where I first encountered
Green Lantern #26, 28 and 29 and the excitement I felt seeing those issues for the first time is still seared in my mind to this very day. In fact, I'm sure those comics are the reason why I still remember Davis' so vividly.
While St. Peter's and St. Paul's cathedrals are still there, 1979 was the last year for St. Peter's School and the Davis Variety has also been gone for decades. I did get a chocolate milkshake that really wasn't very good at Davis' one time but sadly I never got to sample a cheeseburger. Like they say, you never know what you've got till it's gone.
