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Follow Your Star is an ongoing collection of my observations and musings. I hope you'll get something positive from them - whether they provoke your own thoughts or you just enjoy reading them. I'd love to hear from you at spirit@giving-angels.com
Shopkeepers
One of my most cherished photographs is this one of my great-grandparents. They owned the tavern they're standing in front of, Pinkey's Tavern in Danville, Illinois. I don't know what the special occasion was that caused them to pose for the picture, and in fact, it's difficult for me to even date the photo. I never saw my great-grandmother so festively dressed as in this sequined jacket. My great-grandfather looked just the way I always remember him. And yes, he was truly as sweet and gentle as he seems in the photo.
The bowties decorating the window were his signature mark. He owned hundreds of bowties and was never without one at the neck of his neatly pressed shirt. Once he led me into a spare bedroom and proudly opened the closet to reveal row upon row of small plastic boxes, each cradling a single bowtie. Taped to the door was an article that the local newspaper had written about him, including a smiling photo of him surrounded by his bounty of bowties. He beamed at the pleasure of it all, and I was awestruck with pride that my Grandpa Pinkey had been featured in the paper.
He was nicknamed Pinkey because in his younger days he colored his hair a light red color. Though I never knew him without a soft swirl of white hair, the nickname never faded away. Nor have my memories of him. I think of him often, but especially when I smell peppermint. He always had peppermint candies in his pocket and passed them out with the largesse of a Rockefeller. He was a rich man; he knew it and rejoiced in it. He had weathered the Depression, often counting his financial profit at the end of the day in pennies. He knew that having enough money was a blessing, but that life's greatest riches weren't found in the columns of a ledger book.
I wonder what he would make of this modern day shopkeeping, where the store is always open and the entire world can step through your door. I'm sure he would have reveled in it, feeling like a globetrotter with his fingers traveling the keyboard, welcoming each visitor as a newfound friend. And he surely would have found a way to reach into his pocket and pass peppermints through cyberspace.
© 2007 Giving Angels, www.giving-angels.com
If anyone has any information or memorabilia from Pinkey's Tavern, I'd love to hear from you! My great-grandfather, Edward Foehrer, also owned a grocery store in Danville, Illinois - however, apparently the tavern business was better and that's what he kept until retirement. I'm guessing that the grocery was started in the 1920s and that the tavern closed in the 1950s.
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