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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During the late 1930s when I was seven or eight years old, one of my favorite Marysville stores was Carney’s Dime Store. It was located on Main Street, a few doors north of the Avalon Theater. When I had a little money, that’s where I could buy caps for my cap gun or toy soldiers and penny candies. The store also carried things that my sisters bought, emery boards, nail polish remover and things like that.
It wasn’t a very large store, and most of their products were displayed down the center of the narrow room with an aisle on each side. Seldom did I ever see that store with no customers inside, and around Christmas time, it was often packed. I think it was a nice business for George Carney.
When George retired, his son, Jim, took over the store. He was new to the dime store business, however that little store continued to do well. But Jim had bigger plans for the business. He wanted it to be more than a dime store. He visualized a store with a much broader product line, but he needed a larger location where he could make his dream a reality.
Jim found a great spot on the northeast corner of Sixth and Main streets. The building not only had a much larger footprint, but it also had a second floor. It was an ideal place to build the kind of business that he visualized, and with a lot of hard work, he made his dream a reality as the new business prospered.
Now fast-forward to a pleasant day in mid-April of 1974. I was driving down Sixth Street on my way to the library, when I noticed that the street was blocked at Main Street and I could see a firetruck with a long extension ladder. There was a fireman at the top of that ladder, shooting a steady stream of water onto the roof of Jim’s store. I parked the car and walked to Main Street.
I saw no flames, but there were puffs of black smoke leaking out of the roof. I stood there watching among a crowd of onlookers. The smoke got thicker as it streamed from the roof. The water canon poured water onto the roof, but the firemen were fighting a losing battle.
As I stood there with the crowd of people watching the firemen, someone tapped me on the shoulder and said, “That’s one heck of a fire, isn’t it.” It was Jim Carney, and like the rest of us, he was watching his business go up in smoke.
I knew Jim pretty well, as he had been an MHS classmate of my sister, Maryann. He was the kind of guy who could find humor in almost anything, even in his own misery. As we stood there talking, he did his best to make light of the fire. He even joked, “Maybe I can get a job at the milk plant” (Nestles). But as hard as he tried to hide his true feelings, I could see the deep concern in his face.
The building was later torn down, and Jim vowed to reopen in six months. He did just that. He built the building that stands there today, and he operated his business there until 1980.
As bad as that fire was in 1974, it was but an omen of more Marysville businesses that would be destroyed by fire in the next few months. I’ll tell you more about that next week.
Those wishing to contact Bill Boyd can e-mail him at williamboyd514@gmail.com