I have a love-hate relationship with technology.
It has changed my job in ways I could not have imagined just a few years ago.
And to be honest, some days it is just overwhelming.
Every day I wade through several hundred emails. Lots of them are immediately jettisoned to the online trash basket.
But every once in awhile, I marvel at what this technology is able to do, the memories it can evoke, and the way it can touch us in ways we never thought possible.
A couple of years ago, I wrote a column, like so many I have written over the two decades I have sat in this chair, detailing my youth in the small town of Oxford, Pa. My dad, after spending several years working at the Silco Department Store, decided to venture out on his own.
He opened a soda shop and luncheonette in North East, Md. It was called Heron's Cut-Rate because he also sold over-the-counter patent medicine. It's still the only store I've encountered where women could leave the store with their "feminine" products discreetly wrapped in white apothecary paper.
The prime feature of the store was a gleaming soda fountain, where each of the Heron boys would dutifully learn the secrets of all sorts of fizzy concoctions, from the Cherry Coke, to my father's own personal invention, the "Pink Mountain." It was a mix of cherry syrup, milk and just a dash of soda water for fizz. Dad posited that it would be popular with kids since the popular belief then was that soda contributed to that bane of teen angst - zits.
Eventually, dad opened a second store in our home town of Oxford.
There was another key to the success of these stores. The store in North East was smack in the center of town. The store in Oxford was just a couple blocks away from the high school. They quickly became very popular hangouts for young people.
A few weeks ago, while wading through that day's mountain of email, I came upon one that stopped me dead in my tracks.
The title line said: Heron's Drugstore at North East.
It was from Johannes (Hanne) Sten, Class of '52, North East High School.
The writer related how he had seen my earlier column and wanted to relay a story about dad and that little store in North East, Md.
Hanne said that in the fall of 1949 North East High School won two county county championships, the boys in soccer, and the girls in field ball. I'm assuming that was what today we call field hockey.
Apparently dad decided to offer his own special type of congratulations to the kids from North East High, many of whom no doubt were loyal customers of the store.
He gave out coupons to any member of the soccer and field ball teams good for a complimentary sundae.
But the best part of it all is the photo that Hanne attached. It shows a bunch of kids packed into the counter at Heron's Cut Rate. And there behind the counter, third in from the left, is my smiling father.
I also noticed one of the other 'signatures' of the store. It's partially obscured in the photo but you can still make out where it says Heron's Cut-Rate in the linoleum floor.
Hanne clearly appreciate the gesture.
"To this day I appreciate Jim giving us a venue so we could all celebrate together," Hanne said. "I think I had a butter scotch sundae."
I hope he topped it off with a Pink Mountain.
Thank you, Hanne.
The truth is we have very few reminders of that store in North East.
It showed my father in his element, behind the counter of his pride and joy, that little store in North East, Md.
Happy Days, indeed.
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