Wednesday, January 18, 2012

Article, Post World World II: Five and Dime Store by Neale Sourna

Five and Dime Store by Neale Sourna

My parents did meet, like the old song, in a "5 and 10 Cent Store." Okay, technically, it was a drug store, People's Drugstore, but that's close enough. It was after the Second World War in Richmond, Virginia.

Daddy had been a Marine, after being drafted at about age twenty-two, to serve in the "Pacific theater." He'd boxed for them and....

"Dug foxholes and hid in them," which was always his answer when we were growing up of, "What did you do doing the war, Daddy?"

He told us nothing about that time, never once glamorizing it or his part in it. Finally, a few years ago, he told one of his grandsons and I listened, silently, afraid he'd clam up like he used to do.

He told of loading and offloading death-reeking bodies of soldiers.

"A smell you never forget." He hadn't known Mama, then.

Our mother, for her part, at that time, sent letters to...http://www.romantic4ever.com/d_how_we_met/100408-five-and-dime-store.html

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