Fifty years ago, it was almost impossible to stand at any point inside Vicksburg’s city limits and not be able to walk to a grocery store within two or three blocks. Warren County was not that much different. Family stores were at every crossroads.

Progress, in the form of supermarkets and convenience stores, has changed all that.

Nothing against supermarkets. They’re super. It’s great to be able to buy nectarines from Central America, jams from England, sauces from Tokyo, fresh salmon from Alaska and such. Couldn’t offer quite that selection at Hoben’s store or not far away at the grocery at Tingleville, at The Penny Store on Meadow, at Ameen’s on Openwood or Habeeb’s on Clay, which was right across Spring Street from Farris Food Store.

On the other hand, even most convenience stores have evolved into something they weren’t. When Shop-A-Minits were created and became the rage in Vicksburg in the 1960s, they really were miniature groceries, stocking staples — rice, beans, milk, bread, soaps — almost all the items larger stores had, including produce, just in smaller quantities.

These days the chain convenience stores stock candy, beer, chips, ice, soft drinks. Most do have milk and bread, but few other items such as canned goods or frozen foods. Their computers tell them what the top-selling items are, and that’s all they place on the shelves.

Also 50 years ago, there were abundant neighborhood cafes — places where people could get a beer or a Coke, a burger or an egg sandwich and sit at one of three to five tables covered with red-checked oilcloth. Some people called these places honky-tonks or joints. Parents warned their children not to go near them. After all, there were pool tables and juke boxes in some of them. You could waste your life in one, but few people did.

All this comes to mind with news that Anderson Cafe on First North — the last such business in town — has been denied permission to operate, not due to any fault of the owners but because it attracted what used to be called a bad element to the area. No doubt the property owner, Louis Spencer, is a Vicksburg icon, a legendary and lovely man. But no doubt the city made the right decision. In the old days, patrons would get a little tight, or a lot tight, dance a bit and then walk on home not bothering anybody. These days, there’s drug trafficking and car stereos with enough amps to shatter windows. Plus, everybody’s armed with more firepower and quicker on the trigger than was ever true, even in the wild, wild West.

You have to wonder, however, if the smaller groceries will ever make a comeback.

One of the things that fueled supermarkets was cheap energy and a vastly more mobile society. Fifty years ago, Vicksburg had about the same number of people, but probably only 20 percent as many cars.

Another thing that fueled supermarkets was people spreading out to suburbia. These days, as evidenced by residential development in downtown Vicksburg, people are moving into closer proximity.

I don’t have any numbers to back it up, but a windshield survey of the smaller, better-stocked groceries on the city’s perimeter seem to show a lot of shoppers. Perhaps their owners are ahead of the curve.

As for taverns, who knows? One day, maybe, people will feel safe enough outside their homes at night to keep a neighborhood watering hole in business and the city will relax its restrictions.

Supermarkets and convenience stores are here to stay, no doubt. They have what people want.

But there might be room for smaller stores, too, as well as family businesses where a person can bend an elbow on Friday and Saturday nights.

In the interim, mention to someone that in 1960, Vicksburg had about 100 grocery stores and cafes. Few will believe it, but it’s true.

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Charlie Mitchell is executive editor of The Vicksburg Post. Write to him at Box 821668, Vicksburg, MS 39182, or e-mail cmitchell@vicksburgpost.com.