Hanging On To The Past

One of the greatest pleasures to me is when someone comes back to Somerset after being away for a few years and they stop by Cascio's for a visit.  The one thing people typically say is, "Cascio's is one of the places that is exactly as it was when I was a kid."  I love that.  It truly warms my heart.  See for me, Cascio's is exactly as it was when I was a kid too.  My mom and grandmothers were devoted Cascio's customers and I remember that my favorite thing about coming to Cascio's was peppermint sticks.  I loved them and my mother would bribe my brother and I into good behavior with the promise of a peppermint stick.  (I am pretty sure I got mine, but my brother....well that is another story.)  

When I was about 16 I noticed something new (new to me anyway) and that was a tall young stock boy who I thought was pretty handsome.  Suddenly I was reminding my mother that we "must" stop at Cascio's each trip we made to Somerset.  

Fast forward a few years and that handsome stock boy became my husband and after about two years of marriage Cascio's became apart of our lives in a way I could never have imagined all those years ago.  But interestingly while somethings in life have changed many have stayed the same.  Most of the fixtures in Cascio's are the original ones I remember as a girl and over the years I have rescued other artifacts from the basement and second floor.  The cash register pictured here was an original one dating clear back to Mateo Cascio's days.  Mateo established the market in 1918.  I think this register may actually still work, but to us it is just another addition to our growing collection of Cascio's memorabilia.  

Our tag line is "Preserving yesterday and keeping it fresh for tomorrow."  I like that.  I like when Cascio's interior brings back a memory of time spent as a kid or from someone's time as a cashier or stock boy.  Oh and I personally like thinking about those peppermints sticks and that cute stock boy I was swooning over all those years ago....