J.J. Newberry Co.

By Will Nixon

Jacks, penny candies, ching chong ropes, all the lost treasures of the five and dime
Just like yesterday yet as far away as playing cards flapping in bicycle wheels.

Newberry’s, where you bought your grandmother a blue bottle of perfume called
Evening in Paris, your father a wax candle of Santa Claus still in his dresser
When he died. The creaky wooden floors always knew your name. The cool
Basement had all that you needed to sew your own prom dress or wedding gown.
Everyone shopped at Newberry’s for everything, including a pet turtle or two.
Remember the boys who treated the back door as a short cut to Jane Street.
Remember what the girls could do with a bottle of nail polish and an afternoon.
Your Saturday allowance of $1 got you 75¢ in candies plus an Orpheum matinee.

Childhood grows sweeter as we collect our bad teeth and wrinkles.
Once the gumball machine held the wealth of the world. It still does.