Sweetness

Like I said in the previous post, dad had his less than shining moments in his childhood, but he also had his sweet moments. Now, when dad was a kid there were lots of "mom and pop" stores in the downtown area. Grocery stores to be precise. He listed off 6-7 just off the top of his head. "One on every corner," he said. There was also a stable that used to house horses that burnt down one night, killing 4-5 horses as well as the stable master. When that burned down, and A&P opened in its place. The A&P was a big grocery store and those little mom and pop shops couldn't compete with its prices, so slowly all those little shops closed down. Well, dad used to go up to the A&P and put ladies' shopping carts away for them. He would go up to a lady in the parking lot and say, "Can I put that cart away for you?" and they'd thank him and give him a nickel or a dime or something like that. Dad would do that quite often and when he got a collection of those coins, he'd go uptown to buy little figurines at Mrs. Sturdivent, at the top of 3rd Ave. She had a small little store on the back porch area of her house. These little figurines cost .49 a piece, so he would have to put a lot of carts away in order to get one of these and he'd usually buy a little rabbit. Then he'd take these little rabbits and give them to women in the church that he liked. Women like Mrs. Dunn, Mrs. Bowers, Aunt Blanche, and his mom too, of course. One time he even rode his bike up to the "Good News Club" where he had a nice teacher and gave her one as well. So, even though he was an ornery stinker a lot of the time, he also had a sweet spot and he used that sweetness to charm those ladies, so it would help soften them up for the next time he did something that got him in trouble. :-)