Our History – Part Two
Beyond the crafts (on consignment at first) we purchased party paper goods for $500, never realizing how many closets would be needed to store such an amount. And no one bought them, so they and our funds languished . . . then the miracle (divine intervention): Grace Methodist Church planned a spaghetti supper and forgot to order paper napkins. Could we save the day? We sure could! A deal was struck and we had working capital again . . . Crafts sales went well. It was “the Age of Aquarius” and the Hippies and everyone else were going “back to the earth.” Pottery (especially hanging planters), copper jewelry and woodwork were in demand. (So were tie-dyed t-shirts, but we “quality” snobs didn’t offer those.) . . . We made a major investment in needlework goods and were a major supplier of and instructor in needlepoint, rug hooking and cross stitch for the next 15 years. Customers could spend hours undisturbed among the yarns and several did. We intervened only when asked . . . Early one afternoon a neighbor, Betsy Gohl, burst through our door, agitated. “What’s wrong?” she demanded. Then she looked into the back room and said “Never mind” and left. We confronted her later. “There were State Police on your doorstep. I thought you had been robbed,” Betsy said. “But then I saw why they were here.” We were still puzzled. “Don’t you know who was in the needlepoint room?” Yes, it was a nice older lady who came in often and stayed a long time. “THAT,” we were told, “was Muriel Shapp, the Governor’s wife!” And we hadn’t recognized her . . . and thank heavens we didn’t; her secretary later told us how much Muriel liked the store because she was left alone unlike the store owners back home who fussed over her every minute! . . . But we did get robbed eventually; what a hoot that was . . .
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