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Grocery Business Not Idle Work
“You don’t get lonesome in my business.”
So says Arl Hunt, personable young owner of Hunt’s Food Market at 526 Main Street.
He explains that he enjoys meeting and talking to people, and that this is the chief reason he entered the retail grocery business after getting his separation papers from Uncle Sam’s Navy in 1946.
A native of Palacios, as his parents were before him, Mr. Hunt was born 31 years ago. His parents are Mr. and Mrs. John Hunt.
He received his education at Blessing High School where he lettered in baseball and participated in football and basketball. In the Navy from 1943 to 1946, Mr. Hunt reached the rank of Boatswain’s Mate second-class. He served in the Pacific theater and participated in the Philippine liberation and the Okinawa invasion.
His vessel, the Flagship U. S. S. Teton, was one of the first ships to enter Yokohama Harbor after Japan’s surrender in 1945. Sailor Hunt and some of his mates happened to be on shore liberty in Yokohama when General Douglas MacArthur, Japanese Emperor Hirohito, and all the big brass from both sides boarded a battleship to go out to the U. S. S. Missouri to sign the Nipon unconditional surrender.
Mr. Hunt recalls that the emperor “didn’t seem to be in too happy a mood.”—And that is probably the understatement of the year.
The local man was impressed by MacArthur’s military bearing and ramrod stiffness that was his trademark throughout the war years.
Returning from the wars in 1946, Mr. Hunt went to work as a clerk at Hamlin’s Grocery here.
In 1947 he put in a grocery several blocks up the street from his present location.
In 1951 he moved to his present location only to have to start looking for new quarters again less than a year later when his business was razed by fire of undetermined origin.
Although not completely destroyed, the building was sufficiently damaged to prevent his setting up store after the fire. Mr. Hunt was forced to find still another location, and it was only five months ago that he moved back into the restored building.
Married eight years ago to the former Miss Eva Woodson of Midfield, the Hunts have four children.
They are Arl Garron, seven; Yvonne Ann, five; Cynthia Lee, three; and John Ruie, three months.
Mr. Hunt is just too busy with his business activities to have hobbies, but he is one of the Palacios Sharks staunchest boosters and attends most of the football games.
Like most Palacians, he is well satisfied to make his home in the Gulf Coast community.
“As a matter of fact, I had rather live here than anyplace in the United States,” he says.
Palacios Beacon, December 20, 1956 |
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Copyright
2016 - Present by Hunt Family |
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Created Sep. 1, 2016 |
Updated Sep. 1, 2016 |