Frank and Vera Easton, and their two children May and Doug, were local identities who owned the corner store in the photograph. Vera was one of three daughters of the Bennett family, early settlers in The Gap, whose original home was opposite the store. A second Bennett daughter, Ellie, married and became Mrs. Ellie Johnson, living in a house directly behind the store in Payne Road, and neighbour to my parents Edward (Ted) and Eileen Cahill who had bought land in 1948.
Payne Road life seemed to gravitate to Easton’s store for obvious reasons. It was not only the one stop shopping spot, had the only public telephone, and produced the best milk shakes – a rarity in those days – it catered for everything and anything a family could need from sugar to Dunlop sandshoes. Tristrams drink signs (also pictured) ruled long before Coca Cola billboards. Store windows had colourful posters of the next picture (not movie) to screen at St John’s Wood Picture Theatre, to which my parents and I went each Friday night.
Payne Road Memories – by Brenda Cahill
Source: Reflections 1, Memories of The Gap, by Richard Speechley.
More information: Bennett Family