Talking with Barbara Wood and it seems my mother purchased the store in Pitcairn from her grandparents back around 1960 or so. I mentioned to her that there might be a story coming and here it is. The Storekeeper - During the 60s I was stationed at Westover AFB in Massachusetts and often came home to Northern New York even for a weekend. At the time my mother owned and operated the store and gas station in Pitcairn as some will remember. It happened that she needed to be away for a few days and asked me to run the store in her absence. What could I say but yes, even though I hadnt a clue. Operation of the gas pumps was no problem, and even the sale of shelf goods was straight forward if the customer knew the price. I came to know where the Old Ranger beer was stored and believe me there were customers for it. Sold by the quart I think the price was one dollar, at least thats what I got for it. Over the course of my stewardship I noticed that from time to time customers would give me the fish eye when I gave them their change from a purchase. No reason for it that I knew of, and no word came from the customers either. When my mother came home and debriefed me, she knew immediately what the trouble was. I had been treating Canadian money as though it were US and the exchange discount was quite dramatic at the time. I believe it may have been as high as thirty-five cents on the dollar while it had been at par only a few years earlier. Ill confess ignorance as my excuse, but after the stiffing I gave them, her regulars welcomed my mother home with open arms. So ended my retailing career in Pitcairn. My apologizes to those that took a beating on my account.
Posted on: Wed, 19 Nov 2014 23:36:05 +0000
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