Editor’s note: This is another column in Bill Boyd’s new series, “The Way It Was,” about growing up in Marysville. Bill continues to work with the Union County Historical Society to obtain information for his stories.
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Some time ago, I wrote about Earl Chiesa’s soda fountain and confectionery downtown on West Fifth Street. He and his brother made wonderful candies: chocolate creams and nut clusters, plus the best taffy I ever tasted. Earl also sold cigars. In fact, I think he may have had the best cigar selection in town.
There was, however, something I always found a bit odd about that place. It was the silence you noticed as soon as you walked in. I might see Elwood Sawyer enjoying a cherry phosphate at the stand-up soda fountain, or Carl Pippet buying a cigar. But that is about as noisy as that place ever got.
When school let out for the day, you often saw several young kids lined up in front of the candy counter. But the silence was still there. There was no loud talking or laughter, and no horseplay. The kids sometimes even talked in muffled tones.
I think the reason for that behavior was Earl’s wife, Lillian. She sat in a booth in the back of the store, where she had a perfect view of everything that happened in that place. She stared at all of us boys when we were in line to buy some of Earls homemade candies. It was a hawkish stare, that could make a kid uncomfortable.
The word among all of us boys, was that if we talked too loud or misbehaved in any way, she would make us leave the store without any candy. That never happened to me, and I never saw it happen to any other kid. But some of the older boys told me it was true.
She kept a supply of stationary in her booth, and when she wasn’t staring at us boys, she was often busy writing. The word was that she was writing to our parents to tell them about our misbehavior.
Now move the calendar forward several years, to when I was in high school. My sister, Betty, had been ill for some time, and she was recuperating at home. We had a nurse to help my parents care for her. When I came home from school, I would sit with her as we talked. It was sometimes difficult for her to keep her spirits up, as she had been in the hospital for months.
Then one day after basketball practice, when I stopped to chat with her, I was amazed at her improved attitude. She even smiled a bit as we talked. I hadn’t seen her smile like that for quite sometime. So I asked the nurse why she was in better spirits.
The nurse handed me a letter Betty had received that day. It was from Mrs. Chiesa. I read the letter, and I was amazed. It was inspirational, full of hope and positive thoughts, and even included a bit of humor. I could see how it lifted my sister’s spirits. I told the nurse it was a great surprise to me.
Then she told me that Mrs. Chiesa writes letters like that to a lot of people in Marysville … maybe when there was an illness or a death in the family, or when someone might have been hurt in a car accident, or something like that.
Oh boy, was I surprised. Had all of us boys misjudged Mrs. Chiesa? When I thought she was writing to my parents, was she actually writing to cheer up someone who was sick or injured? I guess I’ll never know the answer to that, and it makes me a little uncomfortable today.
Those wishing to contact Bill Boyd can e-mail him at williamboyd514@gmail.com