My favorite store was “The Joke Shop” on main street in North Bay , Ontario.
Why? You could buy itching powder and little fire crackers to put in cigarettes. The itching powder was sprinkled down my sisters back . The little fire crackers were pushed into the end of a cigarette . When somebody bummed a smoke you would give him the one with a fire cracker in it. When you lit the smoke for him it would blow up. The smoke ended up looking like a peeled banana.
The store had many neat things in it.
(Originally written by Wayne for Storyworth in 2023. His memory is from around 1960. The Joke Shop was on the corner of Main Street and Wyld Street, just a few doors down from Loblaws.)