Mr. Jim Lee's Store

People seem to enjoy my “Watha stories.” Some of my personal favorites are things my parents said and did, and things that happened to some of the characters with whom I grew up.

After Daddy died, Mama wrote a little book of memories. She wrote it out in longhand, and made six copies – one for each of her children. Mine is among my most treasured possessions.

To my thinking, it had two purposes: (1) to write down her memories before they faded (more than they already had), and (2) to help her process the death of her husband of 52 years.

I would like to share parts of it with you, my friends. I am giving you her exact words, except when there are references that wouldn’t mean anything to someone outside the family.

I hope these little stories will help to atone for my last post. It was a bit mean.

First story: Mr. Jim Lee’s Store.

When we children were growing up, Papa bought most of our groceries from Mr. Jim Lee’s general store. Now, he was a completely honest man, I am sure, but he was not a very generous man when it came to money matters.

Still, when Papa settled up for his groceries on payday, Mr. Lee would take a small paper bag and go to his candy showcases. There he would select pieces of candy and drop them into the bag, and give it to Papa to take home to his children. This usually happened on Saturday night. On Sunday morning, Mama divided the candy into equal portions, one for each child, and put them on a chair in the dining room. We would gather around the chair, on our knees, and eat the candy. That was probably the most candy we ever got at one time. Children just didn't have cookies, candies, and fruit every day of the week, back then.

Mrs. Maggie Lee (Mr. Jim's wife) was a very busy woman, helping people with their work. Many people preferred dealing with her instead of her husband. Sometimes he would become irritated at this attitude. One day a man came into the store and insisted on seeing Mrs. Lee, even after Mr. Lee assured him that he didn't know where she was. Finally, he pulled one pocket out and pretended to examine it closely, saying "Nope, she's not in there!". He did the same with his other pockets. Finally the man gave up and left the store.

One day another man came into the store looking for Mrs. Lee. Again, Mr. Lee assured him that she was not in. So the man told Mr. Lee that Mrs. Maggie had promised to do something for him at a certain time. According to the story, Mr. Lee replied: "Well, if she told you she would do something, she'll do it or bust wide open - and she hasn't busted wide open yet!"

We appreciated the kindness of Mr. Lee, who remembered us – even in a time when people often accused others of being "as stingy as Jim Lee".