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Miles' Grocery
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A small, family-run enterprise that served
south Oak Bay from 1920s — 1950s |
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Miles' Grocery
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Miles' Grocery was a small, family-run enterprise at 537 Victoria Avenue that served south Oak Bay from the early 1920s through the1950s. It was established to provide employment for a disabled Great War veteran, and continued for nearly four decades with the support of several generations of the Miles family. The made their own breads and buns, and had a large vegetable garden that supplied even the downtown Market. But with changing times, they began selling their land through the 1950s, and closed shop by the end of the decade as supermarkets began asserting their influence.
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PHOTOGRAPHS
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ARTIFACTS
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NEWSPAPERS ADS, ARTICLES, ETC
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RECOLLECTIONS
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Recollections may be abridged for length and/or clarity
| Mrs Miles owned and operated this little store on the east side of Victoria, between Guernsey and Lafayette. The store itself was a very small structure, about the size of a one-car garage...her 'storage' was in the basement of the large home that she and her invalid husband and spinster daughter resided in for many years...it was detached and sat about 30 feet behind the store. Linda Miles, grand-daughter, and I graduated together from OBHS in 62. |
| — Phil McVie, OBHS class of 1962 |
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| They were my grandparents. |
| The store was built in the early 1920s so my great uncle (Thomas Dan) could have work. He was severely injured in the 1st World War at the battle (I think it was for Hill 9) a week after Vimy Ridge, which he got through unscathed. He was a sapper, and they were undermining a German position when the Germans blew it up on them. He was buried for quite a while, but survived and was sent back to England where he spent about a year in the hospital. |
| My grandfather was mustard gassed at Ypres, and was also a bit of an invalid because of lung problems and dreadful excema on his face from the gas. He had a very large market garden that extended down to Lafayette Park. He sold his vegetables and fruit in the store and also at the Saturday market in what we now call Market Square. He rode his bicycle to town every Saturday with it loaded high with produce. I sort of remember there being a little bike trailer as well. They slowly sold the property off starting in the mid '50s. |
| I often worked in the store and remember in the late '40s putting the ration stamps in little books. I think they were only for tobacco by that time. One of the fun things was slicing the bacon. It was wrapped in gauze, and I would peel it back and slice off as many rashers as people asked for. Originally we used a great long knife that was almost a sword. My great uncle would sharpen it up with a steel every time we cut bacon or ham. |
| They had an electric contact on the door, and a buzzer would ring in the house. Uncle, as we called him, stopped going back and forth in the early '50s, so granny ran it. She even sold her own wonderful bread and buns in the store. The Food Safe people would have a fit, now. |
| We grandkids spent a lot of time working in the store. We all did it for nothing as our grandmother's house was a hangout for all of us. During my high school years, I went there nearly every Thursday to learn how to bake. As I write this I can still smell and taste the Parker House rolls. They were covered in butter when we ate them. There was always homemade jam, but I loved them with just butter. |
| They closed the store in '59 or '60. They kept it open I am sure for three or four of the little old ladies who lived in the area. There were a couple I remember — Mrs. Walker and Mrs. Ogden. My grandmother had them over for tea, and they reciprocated. They called each other Mrs Ogden, Mrs. Walker and Mrs. Miles until the day they died. |
| The spinster aunt that Phil mentioned was Elsie. She was a teacher and lived in the Charlottes, Headquarters which is now part of Courtenay and Shawnigan Lake. She was the principal there for 25 years. After a couple of years living in Shawnigan she moved to the family house on Victoria Avenue to help out my grandparents. |
| My grandfather died in the summer of 1961, and my grandmother in July '73. My great uncle then went into Glengarry Hospital and died in '74 or '75. They had 6 children, my father being the only boy. The eldest died in Nurses training from TB when she was 18 or 19. My father was the last to go in 1999. |
| — Tom Miles, grandson of owners and OBHS class of 1960 |
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| Tom has provided the missing link in my memory bank to his family members...I do remember his Aunt Elsie and Great Uncle Thomas, although he was seldom in the store when I was...from 1944-46 we lived at 548 Victoria (across the street from the store), then at 2130 Central '46-'49 (across the street from Scoates'), then '49 on in the family home at 2171 Bartlett, a block away from the store. |
| I remember pulling my little red wagon to the store two or three times a week with my mother's grocery list, where Mrs. Miles would gather the items together, list them in the charge booklet, neatly stack them in the wagon for the trip home. Periodically I was rewarded with a 'jaw breaker.' |
| I remember when I opened the door to the store, I would stand and wait for Mrs. Miles to come in through the back door from her house. She was always wearing an apron and my memory does recall her home baking! |
| — Phil McVie, OBHS class of 1962 |
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| My favourite shop was not on Oak Bay Avenue but on Victoria Avenue, on the seaward end. I used to buy glass Scottie dogs with seed candies in them. |
| — Sandy (McKeachie) Forbes, OBHS class of 1960 |
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SUBMISSIONS
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