“John B. Evans Role Model”

I had so many role models growing up and none more so that John B. Evans.  Our mom was a clerk in his grocery store for several years and I spent no little amount of time there. 

He gave me a job as stock clerk when I could only reach half way up the shelves.  Pete Halteman or Bobby Turner would stock the upper shelves.  Those two are role model stories on their own.  Both such giving, caring men I was so fortunate to have as a part of my growing up.

I did have a few jobs that as an eight or nine year old I could do.  I cleaned and oiled the floors and washed windows, big windows.  I would draw a gallon or two of kerosene for customers who cooked with kerosene as well.

Probably the one job I did well was candling eggs.  I imagine it is called candling from originally using candle light.  He had a dark spot in the storage room and a tin box that had a small hole in it to place the egg on.  I would quickly and carefully roll the egg with the fat end in the hole and the light bulb inside would show a fair view of the inside.  I could see if the open area would move freely, if not it was bad. I could see if the egg was cracked or the white was bloody.  Sometimes there would be a baby chick but not often.  He bought eggs from individual families who had free range chickens and they were almost always fresh and very few were bad.  Some were bought off the wholesale trucks, but the quality was not as good.

Eggs are not like people.  With them it is easy to tell a good egg from a bad egg.  Yeah, I know bad pun intended.

When I turned twelve he had me apply for a Social Security card and officially put me on payroll.  By then I was clerking in the afternoon and Saturday.  When school was out I put in several hours a week.

As I got older I realized that in the beginning I was put to work because we could not afford a sitter.  He was that kind of person….

He was too big hearted for his own good.  I saw people who out of work would ask and receive credit for months.  Some returned and settled up and remained customers but a considerable number would not.  Instead they would stiff John B and start trading at one of the several grocery stores in town.  I saw a few of those who having hit hard times again, would come back to him begging.  I doubt he would have let them have credit again but he was so sympathetic to the wives and children that, yes, he extended credit again.

It is my guess that when this kind man passed, he left Evelyn with a large army trunk full of bad credit slips.