DANA MERRYDAY/PHOTO
Workers in the early stages of a building the outdoor seating area in front of Jack Sprats in Cottage Grove.
When I grew up, everything was downtown. We did our clothes shopping at small stores or at JCPenney. The Little Folks Store was a dreamland for a kid, Bennett’s Drugstore had a great lunch counter and soda fountain. The library was there, all within a few blocks. Then the malls and shopping centers came…
