With two quarters and a father who trusted him, a boy in 1968 could walk into a Ben Franklin and feel like the king of the world. That kind of freedom doesn't come in a big-box store.
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News for the America we remember |
I can still smell the mix of popcorn and floor wax. It hit me the moment those heavy glass doors swung open. My father always gave me two quarters before he parked the car. He had to pick up some hardware at the Sears catalog store down the block. He told me to stay in the store and stay out of trouble. In 1968, fifty cents made me feel like the king of the world. |
Each week, I walked into Ben Franklin with a plan. I spent ten minutes just looking at the candy counter. It had long rows of glass bins. You could buy Swedish Fish or orange slices by the pound. The lady behind the counter used a little silver scoop. She put the candy in a brown paper bag and weighed it on a scale that sat right on the counter. |
The floors were made of dark wood. They creaked under your feet if you walked too fast. The aisles were narrow and stacked to the ceiling with things people actually needed. My mother bought her sewing patterns and bobbins there. My father bought his fishing lures and his boxed nails at the back toward the hardware section. Everything had a price tag stuck on with a little bit of purple ink. You did not have to scan a code to see what something cost. |
The toy aisle was where I spent most of my time. It was a single aisle filled with wonders. They had balsa wood gliders that cost a nickel. I would spend a long time picking out the right Matchbox car. If I had enough money left, I might buy a pack of Topps baseball cards. I always hoped for a Mickey Mantle. The pink stick of gum inside was stiff as a board and tasted like dust, but we chewed it anyway. |
The five-and-dime was our first taste of freedom. It was the first place our parents let us go alone. Mrs. Higgins worked the register for twenty years. She knew my name and she knew my sister. If we were short a penny, she would just wave us through. We learned how to count change at that counter. We learned that once the money was spent, it was gone. |
I took my grandson to a big retail store last week. We drove twenty minutes to get there. The parking lot was the size of a small farm. We walked through doors that opened by themselves. The air did not smell like anything at all. It was just cold and flat. Everything he wanted was behind a sheet of plexiglass. You had to press a button and wait for a man with a ring of keys to come help you. There were no wooden bins. There were no paper bags. Everything was wrapped in thick plastic that you need a pair of kitchen shears to open. |
I stood there in that wide, bright aisle and I thought about Mrs. Higgins and her silver scoop, and two quarters that once |
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