Prior to being torn down in the 1960s, there was a general store on the northwest corner of Lewis Avenue/Ida-Maybee Road and South Custer Road. During the late 1930s, Leo and Lucille (Smith) Heiden lived in an apartment at the back of the store. This is where their son, Roger, Sr., was born in 1939.

I don't remember much before school but was told we lived several places because of the Great Depression Dad worked for different farmers and didn't have steady work. When I was six we lived on the west side of Grandma and Grandpa's house on Dixon Road and lived there until William got married and needed the house because he worked the farm so we moved to S. Custer Road behind the grocery store.

The rooms were connected to the store with a door which was kept locked of course. I walked to Bridge School from there with Elizabeth Reber and Clyde Opfermann.

From there we moved to the Reber homestead on Dixon Road. We lived there until 1946 when my parents bought the house on 7758 S. Custer. Mother lived there until she died. I lived there until I married in 1949. After the Great Depression Dad got a job at Consolidated Paper Company in Monroe and retired from there. It was a good place to work.

The picture is of Roger Heiden, Sr who was born at this location.

I have a vague memory of the store that stood on this location. As you entered the front door, there was what we would now call a convenience store with food and household needs in limited types. A door led to the west side of the building where they sold all kinds of household items like lamps and things to put on the wall. I don't remember going there as a teenager so it was probably torn down in the late 1950s or early 1960s.