Five-and-Dime Treasures


Maybe I remember ‘cause…

Every day was a holiday
at Woolworth’s Five-and-Dime store.
Colored things were floor-to-ceiling,
holding fast the lingering scents of popcorn,
American grilled cheese sandwiches,
Salt Water Taffy and fudge squares
clashing with parakeet and hamster cages
in the back where the little kids’ zoo was.

Maybe ‘cause…

Life-size cardboard Hopalong Cassidy
and Gene Autry cutouts hung from fishing lines
wrapped ‘round roof nails.
Five and Dime treasures dangling over
kid literature (my dad called them)
five cent comic books right next to
licorice and malt-ball canisters.

And just up the aisle,
Grandma’s favorite counter
where she’d always buy her special envelopes--
light blue par avion with printed airplanes.
I’d lift my chin up to the edge,
stare at those airplanes and dream.
Wow, how I dreamed.

Maybe I was collectin’ make believe
for when…

Oh, how Mom and Dad, Grandpa and Grandma
loved to drive the ’41 Ford sedan into town,
saunter up to the Five and Dime counter,
order a turkey dinner,
or liver and onions,
and then stare so long…
so long they’d stare into
their empty cocoa cups
while I slurped my root beer.
I could make a root beer last forever
you know?

Mama bought a lampshade once,
the crimped accordion-kind,
along with those lacy see-through curtains.
“Par-cale” I think she called them.
Never did understand their purpose.
What good’s a curtain you can see through?

And home when they were hung,
they’d lift and float straight out
when the windows were open.
Our cows and chickens would chorus up,
join me to laugh at the dancing curtains,
see-through-lift-up curtains.
Made no sense.

Maybe…
Maybe that’s how they all
wanted to be remembered
Mama, Dad, Grandma and Grandpa.
I don’t know.

Now I sit on a park bench,
gaze across the street where the twenty-story
glass and steel office building
has replaced the old Five and Dime.
So many good times.

Maybe I came here ‘cause…

I needed to finger some 21st century popcorn,
feed the pigeons as I gaze and remember
the sweet smells and jelly bean colors…
back when gettin’ happy and stayin’ happy
was so much easier.

Back then.