Photo prompt © Jean L. Hays
“Used to be a zoo,” Ol’ Joe stuffed his cheek full of chewing tobacco. No frowning from Mama could make him give it up.
I gazed at the empty parking lot. We kept the market open by sheer willpower and another mortgage.
Mama often argued it was money down the drain, but Pops would shake his head. “History is a merry-go-round, Penny. It’ll come back. We just have to hang in there a little longer.”
Then the two of them would look at Ol’ Joe, and I knew: closing the business would kill him. Grandpop’s life was tied into Route 66.
For Rochelle’s Friday Fictioneers
Na'ama Yehuda 
Na’ama Y’karah,
So nice to see your face in the inLinkz. Such a shayna punim. 😉
As for your story. So much heart in it. Well done.
Shalom,
Rochelle
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Thank you. The InLinkz thing isn’t cooperating, alas. It would not recognize my website or any of the previous links I’ve uploaded in the past. Even though it does recognize my email address and log in info. So go figure. Maybe the ghosts of Route 66 jinxed this upgrade. I’m a little bummed about it, but we’ll see whether the inLinkz people can figure it out. I’d hate to have to drop out of adding links. 😦 Na’ama
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You’ll be up to snuff in no time! Sending good vibes…
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Up to snuff … ha ha (thinking of Ol’ Joe’s chewing tobacco and …) 😉
As for the inLinkz — the Froggy put up a mighty fight this AM but I think we’d subdued him for now … Time will tell if we’d be going for ’round 2′ the next time I try to submit a link, or if this round let Froggy know I mean business … 😉
Na’ama
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Ha ha ha! so witty and I don’t even know it!
Round 2 will be easy-breezy…
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I’m all for easy-breeze (and the lemon squeezy)
Somehow I have me now a yearning for some lemonade … 😉
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It’s so bloody cold here, I’ll take a hot water with lemon instead, k?
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Sure. Lemon tea (and cookies — ‘cuz you gotta’ have cookies with your tea) coming up!
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Now you is talkin’!
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As some of the kids might say, I “talk a lot.” … 😉
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I didn’t get to see her shayna punim…
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My “shayna punim” is on my “About” page for all to see … 😉
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Yeah yeah… I know. 😛
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My shayna punim is smiling … 😉
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It’s such a cue one 😉
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A fair number of years had passed since the taking of that specific ‘shayna punim’ photo. So now this punim is a little older, but it is still me under that face, and I love the photo. It is also a way for me to remember Kathryn , a dear friend who’d taken the photo and is no longer on this earth in physical form. You’d have liked her, me believe, a good balance of kind and whimsy — she and I used to have ‘whine and cheese’ phone conversations to lift each other through hard times.
XOXO
Na’ama
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Awww… that is special indeed. Sad how many peeps I no longer have in physical form too 😦
Roxanne was my Kathryn…
xoxo
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Maybe they are friends in the After! 🙂
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There is a whole gang of fun ones in the After… all of them 50 and under… 🙂
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Kathryn was a smidge over 50 but she was very young in spirit, so I bet she’s with them gang of fun ones. … 🙂
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Roxie was 43, Patricia was 46, Brenda was 50, Mick was a 51 for 3 days, Guy was 49…
And I can name more. How friggen wrong is that?
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Very … XOXO
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💗💖
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I can so understand a situation like this… even if it will put them in the poorhouse!
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Yes, I can, too.
Sometimes kindness is a lot richer than any money … AND they are teaching their son that values aren’t always measured in coin and that it matters to take care of one’s own (sometimes my rhyming sneaks up on me … ;))
Great comment!
XOXO
Na’ama
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Love that… proper lessons, to be sure.
xoxo
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🙂
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Enjoyed the sentimental feel to this. We tie ourselves up in piles of brick an awful lot!
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Though sometimes we might do so for the right reason … (i.e. to give an old man some measure of comfort in a life so changed he might not have another anchor) …
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A tricky situation to be in – Grandpop’s health, possible bankruptcy. Though you never know, it might turn around and then everyone’s a winner!
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Amen to that … 🙂
And yes, things could turn around (they may put up a whole wind-farm in the area, or find some other renewal resource that would get people interested again … Ya’ never know!
And in the meanwhile, it seems they come from love, which is a win already, even if not necessarily financially. …
Thanks for the comment, drailman!
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It is difficult to sell a business. There is so much emotion and there is hope against hope. Timely cutting of ties is important but difficult.
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And sometimes there are other reasons one does not — like in this case, where it might make economic sense to close but the consideration of allowing some comfort to an older man who may have little else to keep him busy/grounded, takes precedence. I don’t know if it was the right decision for them, but it seems at least they’d made it out of compassion and care, which counts for something …
Thank you for the comment, Abhijit!
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A sad reflection, but true.
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Thank you, Sandra!
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Route 66 colored my early teen years, with its two handsome heroes and all their adventures. Long, long time ago 🙂
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Not THAT long time ago …
Or as I tell kids who ask me (mostly when they find out there was no internet when I was growing up) if I lived in “Roman times” … “No, and before you ask, dinosaurs lived WAY LONGER ago …” 😉
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I understand. I still do some work with teens, and they’re always amazed when they find out I’m at least as old as their grandmas, maybe older. Makes me smile 🙂
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Some things are more important than money. Great story
My FriFic tale!
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Thanks, Keith! Indeed, many things are more important than money, and people, in my view, always are.
🙂
Na’ama
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You’ve constructed your story expertly to convey a message of thoughtful love. It would be lovely if the business prospered again.
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Thank you, Penny! Indeed it would be lovely, and perhaps it can happen. Sometimes change comes that one cannot see is on its way …
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Nice job. Very moving.
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Thank you, Shirley! 🙂
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Would be lovely if it was like this. Great take.
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Thank you! Yes, wouldn’t it be lovely if things turned around for the better for this loving, dedicated family?
I hear route 66 is making a comeback … (of sorts…) so who knows! 🙂
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The last line was full of nostalgia. Closing a business is really hard. Been there.
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Hi Fatima,
Thank you for reading and commenting. There are many reasons people need to close a business, and none of them are easy. I hope life had/will become easier for those in the story and for all those who’d endured similar circumstances. Thanks again for the comment, Na’ama
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