In decades gone by, people relied on their corner store for the basics, and "run down the shop" was a request given to many a kid growing up.

From the 1940s to the early 1970s, the corner shop sold groceries, milk shakes, Streets Icecream, violet crumbles and even Bex and Vincents powders for those days when it all got a bit too much.

There was one of these family run shops within easy walking distance of just about everyone, going back to times when it was quite rare to own a car.

Nowra's Brian Forrester grew up as a corner shop kid, helping out behind the counter of his family's businesses throughout the 1940s and 1950s.

He remembers those early corner shops as stocking basic grocery items such as breakfast cereal, laundry powder, baked beans, jam and spaghetti.

Ken Forrester's Fruit and Veg, located on the corner of Berry and Worrigee Street where the Nowra Palace Chinese restaurant now stands, also stocked fruit and vegetables and catered for interval time at the Roxy Theatre.

Brian said the shop had been owned previously by "Ma and Pa Jones", and the Forresters were followed by a succession of owners; Mrs Smith, Duncan Sayers, Mr and Mrs Hoy and Letty Muller.

"This was the corner shop where I learned to make penny ice blocks and sell four-a-penny lollies during the Roxy picture intervals," Brian said.

"One very important item was bottled cordials supplied by the Nowra cordial company along with milk from Nowra Dairy Company delivered by half a dozen milkmen who also delivered to every house in Nowra."

During the war, many items were in short supply, including, Brain notes, Hoadley's Violet Crumble bars which became an "under the counter job" for regular customers only.

The family later operated another mixed business further down on Berry Street next to the old Spotlight building.

Butter remained scarce after the war ended and in 1949 Brian remembers going on a trip to the Kiewa Valley in Victoria in the family's first car, an Austin A40 Utility, to purchase half a ton of butter.

He also remembers the grave digger, Bill Goward, would ride his bike each day from Terara to Nowra Cemetery, but would stop by the shop on his way home for tobacco and Weet Bix.

Brian says corner shops were the first "drug dealers", selling vast quantities of aspirin powders; Bex and Vincents.

The second Berry Street shop had previously been operated by a Miss Hammick who had sold fruit and vegetables.

"As in the earlier corner shop, the range of goods we stocked included groceries, along with a marvelous new invention - frozen peas!

"Amongst our very regular customers were the girls from the telephone exchange (which was located in the old post office, where the Postmans Tavern now stands) for their cigarettes and milkshakes."

By then, retail must have been in Brian's blood. He left school in 1951 and worked in the family shop before marrying in 962 and purchasing the tenancy rights to a fruit and veg shop in what is now Morisons Arcade.

*Brian's book, A Decade In Time, details the history of retail in Nowra.

We're building a map to show where the old corner shops of Nowra were located.

If your family was involved in running any of these shops, or even if you were a loyal customer, we would love to hear from you.

We would also love to see any old photos you might have of the exterior or interior of these shops, most of which are no longer standing.

Contact us via facebook, messenger, or email robert.crawford@austcommunitymedia.com.au