Century Old Candy

Ethel Weiss opened “Irving's Candy Store” with her husband, Irving, in 1939.

Her first customers were mostly kids from the grade school next door. Today, the 101 year old steps out of her home in Brookline, Massachusetts, as she has done for over three quarters of a century, and pushes her walker a few feet down the sidewalk to open that the shop door. She’s now serving the great grandchildren of those original kiddos, (some who have, no doubt, gone on to their reward) and who continue to flock to Irving's after the closing bell.

Ethel says she can still remember some of their names. "I always write them down, but then I forget where I wrote it," she said.

The kids are sensitive to her advanced age. For example, Ethel used to use transactions as a way to help the kids with their math. But now they help her.

She takes her seat in that same old place, and the children bring their purchases to her. Sometimes she attempts to make change before the dollar has been rendered, but most of her little shoppers have long since tuned in to this minor discrepancy, and quickly remind her that their remittance is still in their hand.

When asked to what she owes her longevity, she responds, “because I love the children.”

Along with her ten plus decades has come infirmity and a loss of mobility, and it goes without saying that a few of the sub-adolescents who enter the store filch some of that sweet stuff, and leave without paying. But perhaps she has added a penny per piece to account for those little kleptomaniacs, or perhaps she has chosen to simply take the loss in stride; that same old declining stride which represents a life well-lived, and content to go out with a smile.

By William McDonald, PhD. Excerpt from "(Mc)Donald's Daily Diary" Vol. 6