The local corner candy store — as much a part of Americana as baseball, jazz, banjos and Sousaphones — is almost extinct.
It is quickly being replaced, though, with its European cousin, the caf�.
The term “luncheonette” came into existence, it seems to me, around the time I first noticed girls. Well, maybe not, because I was just in first grade when I noticed Marie with her dark curls and snappy Buster Browns, and at that time we referred to those corner hangouts as “the candy store.”