Five-and-Dime Memories

by Alice Jane-Marie Massa

                Hearing on the news today about one of the dollar stores brought my mind back to the five-and-dime stores of my youth.  Seven miles from my hometown of Blanford, Indiana, is the next town of notable size and shopping opportunities, as well as the high school which my sister and I attended.  The shopping area was only a block east of Clinton High School (Clinton, Indiana).  On Main Street for decades were two five-and-dime stores:  G.C. Murphy Co. was mid-block, and directly to the north at the corner of Main and Mulberry was Horney’s Variety Store.  For the first two decades of my life, I enjoyed shopping at these stores.  Despite my most often referring to these stores by their proper names or “the dime store,” I heard others call them “the ten-cents store” or “the five-and-dime.”  While Horney’s was locally owned, G. C. Murphy’s was part of a chain which was in business from 1906 until 2002.  Until I did a little research for this blog post, I never knew that “G.C.” stood for “George Clinton”–a coincidence since the Hoosier town was called Clinton.  Three front doors led to the large Murphy’s Store.  I recall that two entrances were of the trapezoid-shaped type; the third, farthest to the north was a regular doorway which led to the part of the store with school and office supplies.  Walking on the old wooden floors to the back portion of the store, one would find the pet department–one big difference between Murphy’s and Horney’s.  What was to me at the time a large aquarium was a fascination for me as a child.  Through my early years, I purchased two goldfish at a time, a fish bowl, pebbles for the bottom of the bowl, and later a ceramic cave for the enjoyment of the fish.  Periodically, I purchased the neat boxes of fish food.  Although I would look at the little turtles which were for sale, I never had any interest in purchasing one of the little green turtles.  Most likely, my dad and I purchased at this store some of the collars and leashes for our dogs of long-ago decades.

                Near the pet aisles was another favorite part of the store:  during the holiday season, Murphy’s sold a wonderful variety of Christmas decorations.  Since I have always loved decorating for the holiday season, I especially liked perusing the Christmas counters several times before deciding what I wanted to purchase to add to our collection of holiday décor. 

                Unlike Horney’s, Murphy’s did stock clothing in the back of the other two sections of the store although I never recall purchasing clothing at Murphy’s. 

                As was traditional for five-and-dime stores, the candy counter was prominently displayed at a front entrance to the store.  I knew this candy counter quite well.  Even though I most often carefully looked all around the glass counters, I almost always used my dime to buy a small white sack of caramellos–a caramel ring of candy with a cream center–my favorite!  On occasion, I chose the colorful bonbons with the coconut filling.  By the time I was in high school (which had an open lunch period when we were allowed to go off the school block to the downtown area), I, during the fall semester, sometimes skipped the thirty-cent school lunch and purchased a nickel candy bar (usually a Snickers) to eat for lunch.  In this manner, I was able to save a quarter, each of which added up before the holidays so that I could purchase Christmas gifts with my own saved money.

                Leaving Murphy’s, one could walk a little more than half a block to Horney’s which had two entrances on Main Street, as well as one side door on Mulberry Street.  As I grew older, I really preferred shopping at this five-and-dime store–or variety store.  When I was preparing to move into my first apartment, I selected four clear glass tulip-type sundae glasses for ice cream and five clear glass apothecary jars for holding flour, sugar, tea bags, etc., on my first kitchen counter.  Approximately 49 years later, I still have those four very inexpensive sundae glasses.  Also, although I gave to the Goodwill or Salvation Army, two or three of the apothecary jars, I still use the largest one for holding boxed bars of soap and guest or decorative towels in the bathroom; the smallest of the apothecary jars is where I store my almost-antique marbles. 

                Until the big box store outside town, on Highway 63 became dominant, the five-and-dime stores on Main were often filled with shoppers and friendly and familiar clerks who worked at the stores for entire careers.

On February 13, 1935, the board of F.W. Woolworth–the first five-and-dime–voted that their stores no longer need sell each item for twenty cents.  How the world was changing then and now!

In the comments section, please add your two-cents worth by adding your recollections of shopping at a five-and-dime store.  Thank you!

WORDWALK NOTE:  After a move across the courtyard, I am very happy to land back on WORDWALK.  During the past less than seventeen months, I have moved three times–something which I absolutely do not recommend!  Happily, Willow and I are back to where I had lived for 23 years.  How delighted I will be to be settled and back to regular writing and weekly postings on WORDWALK!  Now, I hope to return to my posting each Wednesday for my WORDWALK readers.  As always, I appreciate your reading my blog posts and greatly thank those of you who take the time to comment.

Best wishes for a happy and healthy autumn!

Alice and Leader Dog Willow

September 29, 2021, Wednesday

(Posting delayed due to internet issues on Wednesday night!)

Advertisement