Five
and ten cent stores were a lot of fun. There you could get rings for very little
money. Droozy enjoyed looking at the ones that looked like green ice; some were
a clear red, then there were the sky blue ones. They came in many sizes and
Droozy would often try on a number of them. She never really did buy more than
one because the metal turned her finger red and black and hurt after she wore it
a while.
There
were other interesting items in those stores. Droozy applied for a job in the
Weirton dime store. That is what it was called because you could buy trinkets
for as little as a dime. Droozy filled out an application form which
asked all about her, her name, her address, had she ever worked before, etc. She
filled it out carefully - she was fourteen years old then - and was given a
part-time job for after school hours. Droozy was very happy because it would
give her the opportunity to earn some money that she could use to buy some
clothing, buy pop and potato chips for her little brother and herself and save
some for later for her college education. The
boss started her out in the stocking department. Droozy would show the ladies
silk stockings. She would gently place her hand inside the stockings to
demonstrate how sheer they were. She next went to the men’s tie department
where she folded one part of the tie over the top creating a knot like
appearance; that way the men could see what the tie would look like on the
shirt. From the tie department she was shifted to yet another job. It was the
most fun task. It was three weeks before the Easter holiday when she was
transferred to an upstairs storage room to make Easter baskets. What joy that
was! There she was with another girl, surrounded by colorful wicker baskets of
all sizes. First you would put colored thin straw-like strips of paper in the
bottom of the baskets, then there were sugar candies with designs in them. Many
were red, yellow, green and mixtures of shades. Next came little chocolate eggs;
some were filled with marshmallows, others with Droozy would frequently pop
one of the smaller chocolates into her mouth, especially those that had nuts in
them because they were her favorites. She would laugh and think, “One
for the basket and one for the mouth.” When enough baskets had been filled they were taken downstairs and placed on the candy counter from where they were sold. Droozy took great pride when she looked at her handiwork, especially when customers admired them. Easter basket making and selling was her favorite job in the dime store. |
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