Five Cents, Ten Cents, Fifty cents, a Dollar

 Five Cents, Ten Cents, Fifty Cents, a Dollar
There was a time when almost every town had a 5 and 10 cent store. G. C. Murphy, J. G. McCrory, and Woolworth were only a few. The stores I still remember vividly from my childhood were G. C. Murphy’s and J. G. McCrory’s located in Connellsville, Pennsylvania. The two stores sat across the street from each other. Their large display windows almost mirror images of each other’s displays. Both had upstairs and downstairs sections of their stores. Back then most were items made in the United States.
Just inside the entrance to Murphy’s 5 &10 cent store in Connellsville, Pennsylvania was a prominent candy counter with a hot nut display. The candy was displayed in bins and the nuts were on a carosel under bright heat lamps. The aroma of warm cashews and red Spanish peanuts wafted through the entire store. A lady would weigh out the candies or the nuts that were selected, then she would seal them in paper bags. Elsewhere in the store clothing, shoes, hats, and socks filled the surrounding counters. Downstairs were drapes, bedding, and toys. Murphy’s had a rest area with green leather couches and a restroom with pay toilets. Each stall boasted a thin slot to receive the dime that would unlock the stall door. I wonder how many men or women crawled beneath the privacy panel or sent a kid underneath to open the locked door from the inside. Some women would carry a dime in their shoe, “just in case.”
The J. G. McCrory store was situated directly across the street from the Murphy store. The J. G. McCrory building had just one floor. The basement of the McCrory store was for storage and stock. At the front of the building, a customer would enter at the street level and immediately found merchandise was on display. Because they only had one floor, their selection of items seemed smaller, but they did have a cafeteria. The long counter with padded swivel stools filled one side of the store. I can’t remember ever eating there, but the food always smelled wonderful. My Dad was more than frugal and it was rare that our family ate anywhere but at home.