The Pawn Shop Life and Memories Through the Decades. -

The Pawn Shop Life by Lisa Moore Waddell

This past week in Huntsville, Alabama, Lisa and her husband closed the doors on their Pawn Shop and retired. Her memories of all that happened in that shop have fascinated me and I think they will you too. I asked Lisa if I could share and she said “sure”. I’ll share a few stories every day.

Lisa is in the pink shirt with white sweater and her husband, Corey, is in the O-Fish_Ally retired shirt.

Memories of the American Pawn Shop

There have been so many customers coming in to say goodbye and even asking for small mementos of the shop.

I was blessed to be able to be there for two of them today.

First, a sweet customer called and said he was bringing lunch, “in appreciation for all you’ve done for me.” He brought in a large Boston butt that he had smoked with lots of buns for us. It was most unexpected and greatly appreciated.

Next, another sweet couple was in talking about how we are “family” and how much we have done for them through the years. The gentleman told me how he was given more for his item than it was worth, just because we were trying to help him pay his rent.

He then proceeded to tell me about the time that they had no food to eat and came in the shop. Now, this must have been during the week before Christmas when I would cook and take lunch down, because he said we fixed plates of food and sent it home with them. He said we told them to come back, and when he did, we had two big bags of groceries for them. He said we were responsible for them having Xmas dinner that year.

I honestly cannot remember the exact incident he is referring to, but what counts is that it filled a need for his family. It also warmed my heart (and made my eyes leak) to hear him retell the story and see the emotion that came from both of them.

The lady had asked for the bell that we had. It was used by the cashier to signal when we had a pickup that needed to be done. Carey remembered that she had asked for it, so he gave it to her today. She had to ring it one last time….

After hugs and tears they wished us the best for retirement and told how much they would miss us.

We will miss them, and others just like them, too.

Saturday

While cleaning and packing up in my office I see a piece of paper on the floor…. Towards the back of my desk.

I fished it out and all is says is “Saturday.” For employees of AP&J they know exactly what this little paper means.

Every year, at Christmas, we would be open on Saturday’s. To make sure everyone had a day off during the week, I would write down the days of the week and then everyone would “draw” for their day.

It’s something that Christmas 2022, we won’t be doing that any longer.

I also won’t be cooking meals to bring down the week of Christmas.

There will be no more of Miss Shirley saying, “I will bring lunch on Tuesday” and everyone getting excited to see her name on the calendar.

There will be no more of Mike looking at all of the sweets she would bring and saying, “Is she trying to kill us all!”

There will be no more of Loretta and Amanda wearing their Santa hats and reindeer headbands…. And trying to make us do the same.

There will be no more gathering early on Christmas Eve and sharing breakfast together before the last day of crazy began.

It may not seem like much to those who read this, but next Tuesday, all of these things (and many more) will be nothing but a memory tucked away deep in my heart.

I’m not ready….