remember when

I get all my stories second hand. I prefer it this way. None of the uncomfortable emotional baggage that comes from talking to the actual person it happened to. Anyhow, this story I'm about to relay to you is from my personal observations and fourth and fifth person accounts.

Remember When was a store on Niles Blvd for over twenty years. Before I came into the picture, it sold antiques. After I came into the picture, it sold beanie babies, hot dogs, ice cream, drinks and snacks. The proprietors were Sue and John.

I've been inside the place about thirty to forty times in the past six years. Sometimes by my own choosing. Sometimes by Sue's urging. I wouldn't say we were friends. I'd call us acquaintances.

A few observations about Sue:

1. She gave away too many freebies.

2. She has rubber band timing. Her store hours were perimeters. Actual hours vary.

3. She likes to talk.

A few observations about John:

1. Grumpy-once he told me he'd "rather be dead" when i asked him how he was doing.

2. Grumpy and mean-especially to his wife from several of my third and fourth sources.

3. He works for NASA in some capacity. It's not an observation, but the fact that he has a full time job is important to note here.

For as long as I've been in Niles, the consensus was that John was a jerk. He was unhappy to be at the shop. Unhappy to help her out.

About a month after the store was closed I found out that John had taken a second mortgage out on their house to pay for the shop. In all twenty years, the shop never made a dime. For twenty years John helped Sue out at the shop after work. For twenty years he was there almost every weekend.

"I could have retired five years ago if I didn't have to keep paying for the shop," John told a friend of mine.

The shop was Sue's life. You didn't need a first, second, fourth or tenth person account to see that. And underneath the grumpiness and meanness, Sue is John's life. I guess I just needed to chop down all the people standing in the way to find the truth behind this story.