My love for the neighborhood corner market runs deep. My love for corner markets like the Dolphin Market runs much deeper.
I'm sure everyone can recall the small mom & pop corner market where they grew up, how it held untold treasures behind cabinets, under shelves and in the coolers. Cold soda pop, NiHis, jaw-breakers, ice cream bars, it was all here. Remember asking your parents for a quarter and running off with your friends to that market?
Ken, the proprietor, says he owns over fifty surfboards. And I believe him cuz I think a third of them are here. They hang from the ceiling, lean against walls or lie on the floor waiting for some attention. Mop-headed, blond-haired kids come in wearing nothing more than bathing suits covered in sand and dried saltwater to stare in wide wonder at the waves these boards must have seen in their day. 8x10" faded photographs of ancient surf stars sliding down monstrous waves cover holes in the walls. Bobble-heads, mostly baseball characters, stare down impassively and watch the show from on high between rows of collectible Coke cans and the flotsam and jetsam of a lifelong collector. This is Ken's world. Wife "Barbie" runs their day care center.
Maintaining two businesses means the "Open" sign isn't hung regularly but, as summer approaches, you'll spot it more and more as you walk up from the beach looking for that cold brew and hot story of how that ceiling-slung "Trestles Special" once carved delicious tracks across a sparkling blue wave.
Deep love indeed. read more