Looking back in time: 7-11

Everyone talks about the ‘good old days’ when times were simpler. Take a look at this picture from yesteryear and see if you can spot places, people and scenes you recognise.

Mr. Arthur’s 7-11 store
When I was a child growing up in Cayman, I wouldn’t have known the significance of Mr. Arthur’s store on North Church St.

I wouldn’t have been aware of the fact that it was built in 1897 by Waid Stead Bodden, and had seen many a storm come and go, but still stood firm.

What I did know, is that for a young British family emigrating to a speck in the Caribbean Sea in the 1970s, the 7-11 store — as we knew it — was a treasure trove of items and always seemed to have what we needed on the shelves. It was quintessentially Caymanian, with smiling staff that greeted you, and no air-conditioning required. The sea breezes blew through there all year long.

The shop was the hub for buying kerosene on the island, which fuelled lamps and cleaned engines, among other uses. It also cleaned paint off skin. How do I know that? One of my brothers and his friend were messing around with an old paint can and managed to spray themselves all over. My mother headed down to the 7-11 to buy the oil so they didn’t end up looking like Smurfs for weeks after.

When we had a school drive to collect pull tabs from soda cans for charity (the old ones, which used to completely come off the can), and a prize for who could collect the most, we asked the 7-11 to help us get the ones customers discarded from the sodas they bought there. Needless to say, we won the prize.

Stead’s son, Arthur, took the business over after him, and it later became Mr. Arthur’s. When he died, the shop went to his daughter, Arthurlyn Scott, who greeted her customers with that same Caymankind warmth, until she died in September 2021.

Mr. Arthur’s still stands today.

If you have some old photos that you’d like to submit, we’d love to see them to consider them for publication. Be sure to include the credit for the image and any information you have about it. Email to [email protected].