TBW Daily Diary

Street still closed, but Judy Robinson from Honey Grove and her Mom managed to get here to wish me a happy birthday. Yvonne Brown from Mechanicsburg managed as well. Traffic disruption is not what I was looking for during our anniversary sale . . . The popular glass earrings by Fred Imhoff of Portland, Ore., have had a slight price increase . . . Halloween excitement seems to be building . . . Politics, too, is heating up . . .

Our History -- An Aside

One December afternoon some years ago a mugging took place just outside the store. I pursued the villain, forgetting that I was wearing the Santa hat I always wear at the holiday season. The police dispatcher must have thought the city had gone crazy. People kept calling in to report the location of “the guy in the Santa hat.” A squad car picked me up in Fox Ridge and we eventually caught up with the perp at Calder Street. The policeman jumped out to pursue on foot and I was going to help until I discovered that, once in the back of a police car, you are locked in until the office lets you out . . . one Sunday afternoon last Christmas two drunks came into the store to do their “shopping;” I spotted the empty shelf right away and demanded whatever the fellow had under his coat. It was a clock which, unfortunately, fell and smashed into pieces. Bob screamed at me not to pursue the crooks, but then he discovered they had made off with his leather jacket and the car keys. After that it was “go get ‘em.” I passed two workmen during the chase and one joined in. We lost our quarry, but were sent back to the store by a policeman for an interview with other cops on the scene. My jaw dropped when the workman said he knew who our thief was, that the fellow had dropped by the work site just a week before looking for work and had given his name. Minutes later the radio crackled; our man had been caught. The coat and the keys were returned pronto and the fellow got a place to warm his toes downtown. In all, seven different officers had taken part . . . and people continually complain that you never can get the police to respond . . .