Postcard Memories is a weekly series of historic postcard views and photos submitted by Marcel Rousseau.
Some were previously published by the Orillia Museum of Art and History and in the book Postcard Memories Orillia.
Alvin J. Sykes was born in 1904 at Victoria Harbour and moved to Marchmont in 1915. His parents had purchased a farm where Marchmont School and part of the subdivision behind it now stands.
Al was schooled in the area and attended the Orillia District High School. In 1935, Alvin and his sister, Olive, took over the Superior Food Store at 82 Front St. S., located on the southeast corner of Front and Elgin Streets.
Alvin and his sister never married and both resided a short walk from the store at the corner of Elgin and Peter Streets. Al was a small man weighing about 100 pounds but could throw a 100-pound bag of potatoes over his shoulder and deliver it to your door.
They provided free delivery service all over Orillia and several times a day, Al would load his car with groceries to make his deliveries.
At one time there were four grocery stores on Front Street South, but with the opening of larger food stores many of the small corner stores closed and by the mid-1950’s Sykes Superior Food Store was the only one left.
The exceptional service provided by Al and Olive kept the store busy until they closed in 1967, after 32 years of operation.
Al passed away on Aug. 26, 1998 in his 95th year.
