Mary Meyers' Junk Shop

As a young boy, my world extended out as far as Wildey Street. That put Mr. Logan's dairy shop and the Grand Union Supermarket in my reach. I remember reveling at my math skills one day when Mom entrusted me with a whole dollar to fetch a loaf of bread at the supermarket. My ability to divide told me that I could come home with nine loaves and a penny in change. So I proudly brought Mom nine loaves of bread. I guess I never understood why I had to bring 9 of them back.  My reach also extended to one of the more fascinating stores in the town.

At the bottom of Wildey Street was Mary Meyers' Junk Shop. Mary had an absolutely limitless array of antiques and other junk which included a huge stack of used comic books. My friends and I used to love to go in and peruse them. I couldn't tell you which ones I enjoyed the most, but I loved reading those old comic books.

Now, Mom would often cast things into the trash that I could take to Mary, and barter for comic books. Whenever I found something that I thought might interest Mary, I would enter her store and see if I could strike up a bargain. To Mary, I was a frequent shopper.

Cottage Street Buddies, Barbella and Kepler

One fine afternoon, my virtual brother, Richard Kepler and I were exploring the basement at 27 Cottage Place. I've already mentioned that each family in the house had a little storage area in the basement and I noticed an old rocking chair in our storage area. It had been there for a really long time. What the heck! If it's down here that long, Mom couldn't possibly want it, could she?

So Richard and I dragged the chair up the stairs, and somehow got out of the house undetected. We carried the chair down to Mary Meyer's Junk Shop. Mary couldn't believe her eyes. She made me swear on a stack of bibles,which I did, that Mom no longer wanted this chair. We haggled over the price, as well as kids could haggle, and Richard and I walked out of the shop with a huge stack of comic books. This must have been a really good rocking chair.

A few days later, Mom, as mothers often do, found out. She happened to be walking down Wildey Street, and on passing Mary Meyer's Junk shop noticed the rocking chair in the window. She decided that she would love to have a second one to complement the one she was keeping in storage. She was in a re-furnishing mood so she inquired in the shop. I guess Mom was not really surprised when Mary told her how she had come upon the “matching” chair.

This, of course, ended badly for Richard and I (mostly I).  The rest of the story is in the book, 27 Cottage place, available from Amazon.com.