Spags's a changing world "A penny for your thoughts."

Do you remember Show and Tell in school? You would bring something in and tell your classmates all about it. Usually someone ended up bragging about the new doll they got or the new hot wheels. The only one I can remember doing was in Kindergarten and it was about Spags. Now I am sure an extremely small number of my readers will know what Spags’ was but I’m sure everyone has had a place like spags, be it Ames or a small mom and pop shop.

In the 1930s Spags was a store that carried a little of everything. Spags’ wasn’t out to make it rich but out to make sure people could get what they needed whether it was a 4x4 piece of wood

or clothing. My family had been going there since it opened and we still have things we purchased from there. Books, car parts, wood, sporting goods, clothing, uniforms, cooking, food, and more then I can remember. It stretched through at least 3 buildings, and if someone tells me they are from the area where it use to stand I always ask do you know about Spags’. If they do they are as surprised to know someone else knows about Spags’. If they don’t then they aren’t from there, they are new there because that store was an icon to that area.

Things change though. Spags’ died and the store died with him. We went once after his death, I remember it seemed to had lost a bit of what made it “Spags’”. It has been years since I have stepped in that store, (I think it closed when I was in middle school) but I still remember the place and have a hard time finding a store that could even copy the charm and the “everything” under one roof of the place. The world is changing and more stores are going under, it is getting hard no matter what stores say to find a real bargain. Things break and $5.00 doesn’t get you what it used to. Bargins today seem to be as cheap as what you paid for them. I don’t know what my Grandmother paid for the Spags’ measuring cup but the numbers haven’t worn off and it hasn’t died on me yet. (Though if it breaks at this point, it is on my clumsiness not it’s quality.) You get what you paid for and looking forward I may not always find what I am looking for but I will keep in mind that fact as I resew buttons onto every shirt I go and buy rather than make.