The Real Thing

Here is an excerpt from my novel, Big House Dreams, and below that is an old photo of the real place, the lunch counter at a J. J. Newberry store in Elizabethtown, Kentucky. A former classmate of mine has been posting “ancient” photographs of random places in the town where I was born. The one beneath the passage I wrote caught my eye for obvious reasons.

Sara Jenkins was a hard worker. She had a good job at the J. J. Newberry store managing all the girls who ran the cash registers or served up lunch plates piled full at the sit-down counter. And she ran the boys too, making sure they combed their hair, tucked in their shirts, wore their belts, and stocked the shelves with care. She couldn’t stand to see a messy shelf when she perused her tiny domain. She had worked her way up from a luncheonette waitress to assistant manager because she was sharp as a tack and good with people. She could tell a shoplifter off with her eyes and was quick to establish a reputation for perfection. The J. J. Newberry store was stocked to the brim with all the items a person could want, from wooden spools of colorful, cotton and silk thread and countless swatches of bright, gaudy material, to nail polish and make-up. Along the back wall were shovels, rakes, hammers, and other tools that would make a man’s heart sing. And the modern woman of the day could find mops, brooms, and cleaning supplies galore. There was an ample assortment of fishing equipment and sporting goods, as well as stacks and racks of cheap clothing that sold quickly to families who were watching their pennies.