When I was growing up, my
favorite stores were F. W. Woolworth and Mr. Eddie’s store. My mother used to
sew so she would send me to those stores to buy thread, buttons, hook-and-eyes,
fasteners, zips etc. One day, she gave me a piece of fabric to get 8 covered
buttons and one yellow button with pretty flowers. The button was to see if Mr.
Eddie had two buttons like it. They were to replace the missing ones on her
blouse.
When I walked into Mr.
Eddie’s store, he was not there and I had to call out to him for a few minutes.
He eventually came and I told him what I wanted. He took the fabric, emptied some
buttons from a box on the counter, told me to look for the buttons, then he
went to make the covered buttons. There was
a heap of more than 100 buttons on the counter and I started looking through them,
but I did not see any buttons like the yellow button. Mr. Eddie finished covering
the buttons then he returned.
“You find buttons?” He asked.
“No,” I said.
He put the buttons back in
the box, put it on the shelf, took down another box of buttons, emptied some on
the counter, passed his hand through them and he took up two identical yellow
buttons like the one I had. I was excited that he found them, but I did not
realize that Mr. Eddie knew where the buttons were. He made me look because he
wanted me to be occupied, while he covered the other buttons. After I paid him
one dollar and change, he gave me a sweetie (Candy) then I left the store. And
those were the good old days. It was the best…
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