Grandpa and the Five and Dime

Little Kip snuggled up in Grandpa Allen’s lap. “Tell me a story,” he said.
“What kind of story?” asked Grandpa.
“I want to hear a story about the five and dime store,” Kip said. “I want you to tell me about how you met Grandma.”
“All right,” said Grandpa. “It was a long time ago—1923. I was 15. One day my dad left. My mom did not make lots of money. We had three boys to feed.”
“So what did you do, Grandpa?”
“I did what I had to do. I got a job. ”
“Were you old enough, Grandpa?”
“No. I had to tell them I was older. They gave me the job and I worked very hard. The store was called Woolworths. Everything was five or 10 cents.”
“That’s not a lot of money,” said Kip.
“Not now, it isn’t. But, at that time it was a lot of money. It was hard. There was a war. Not many people had money for extra things.”
“So, what about Grandma?”
“Well, one day we got a new clerk. She was very pretty. She was nice. I liked her right away. I could not ask her on a date. We could not date people at our jobs.” “So what did you do?”
“I asked her to marry me. She said, “Yes.” She had to get a new job and we got married on a weekend.”
“Were you glad, Grandpa?”
“Oh, yes. Very glad.”