10/26/2025
CONSUMER CHOICE & THE PENCIL
Column by Steve Horton
From December 7, 2014
Consumer choice abounded in Downtown Fowlerville back when I was a young lad. My mother, while attending to the duties expected of a farm wife, did not hesitate to pack us into the family Chevy and head to town. An ice cream treat or glass of flavored Coke (cherry being the preference) highlighted those visits. Back then (late 1950’s and early 1960’s), the choices for purchasing either of those delights included Fenton’s Drug Store, Woods Drug Store, Spagnuolo’s, and Tomion’s Dairy.
My older cousin Ann Finlan (now Spillane) and then her brother Jon worked after school and on Saturdays as soda jerks at Fenton’s, so we tended to frequent that establishment. Tomion’s closed its doors when I was still quite young, and I harbor only a few vague memories of this popular hang-out. Malts were a specialty, large enough that my mother ordered only one and split it amongst us. I believe the main counter horseshoed out in the center of the store with booths or tables located against the walls. My most vivid recollection was the wads of used chewing gum that had been placed underneath the countertop’s surface. Apparently, to leave gum there after they sat down, adding to the collection, was a custom of the older Fowlerville youth.
Woods Drug Store only had a few stools at its small counter, and these were usually occupied by regulars or else customers waiting for Tom to fill their prescription. Spag’s boasted a much longer counter that ran the length of the store’s east side. George and Ellen produced their own candies, and these treats, plus an assortment of nuts, filled the display cases on the west wall. Spag’s also had some miniature jute boxes, spaced at intervals on the countertop. You could put in a dime and play a favorite tune while sipping on a glass of pop or devouring a chocolate sundae.
When I was in fourth grade, I spent a Friday night in town at my classmate Mel Lewis’s place. That Saturday we walked to Spag’s. I had been captivated by a new hit single “Good-by Cruel World” by James Darren. Mel and I must have been flush with dimes; we played the song repeatedly. At first George muttered about this musical barrage and then, in exasperation, he shut off the jute box. He had heard all the “Cruel World” he cared to for one day.
Years later, when he and Ellen were in their 80’s and had been retired for several years, they decided to open a small candy store a few doors to the east (now Sweet Sensations). Just before the various holidays, Ellen would phone and ask me to stop by to pick up their ad copy.
Invariably, after listing all of the different candies available for purchase and telling me to make up the ad “however you think best,” she’d give me a sample. The world may indeed be cruel at times, but it never was when you were enjoying one of George and Ellen’s confections.
Among the Christmas gifts my grandmother, Ilah Mae Horton, gave us (her grandchildren) when we were youngsters was a pair of pencils with her name engraved on them. Each year she gave these pencils to her fourth-grade students as a gift, so we were beneficiaries of this tradition. Unfortunately, I never saved one as a keepsake, nostalgia not yet being part of my vocabulary or mental contemplation.
While I’m not sure if the invention of the pencil, with an eraser, compares with domesticated fire, the wheel, and the printing press as innovations and adaptations that revolutionized mankind’s existence or otherwise propelled us forward on the road to civilization, it ought to rank high on such a list. However, despite feeling this ingenious combination of wood and graphite is worthy of tribute, I confess that I rarely use one nowadays. The ink pen has become my tool of choice for writing and doing mathematical calculations. If I make a mistake or wish to re-do a sentence or tabulation, I simply draw a line through the offending words or numbers and start over.
I do so because any finished product, intended for a viewing by others, is subsequently typed on the computer and then printed. Oftentimes, like many folks, I bypass the pen and black page and go straight to the word-document icon. With its amenities of delete and insert, cut and paste, replacing an older version with the revised one, and preserving the finished product in the memory file, the document can be edited, polished, and updated to near perfection.
While the pencil still sees much use among young students and is employed by artists for drawing, I wonder how popular it is with higher schoolers, those in college, and the general adult population. Perhaps I’m an exception, and the pencil still reigns supreme in most households, shirt pockets, purses, and student knapsacks.
Recently, I went to a second-grade classroom at Smith Elementary to take a photo. As I waited for the teacher to write down the names of those in the picture (using an ink pen by the way), I noticed a boy reading an Arthur book.
“I used to read Arthur to my son,” I told him, adding that my son is now 26. The young fellow smiled indulgently at my reminiscence, no doubt unable to visualize how great a distance (and also how short of one) 26 years is. “He’s finishing law school,” I could have said, but didn’t. That period of time has flown by, too.
The story books I learned to read from, as did others in my generation, included Dick, Jane and their pets Spot and Puff. These were good, solid characters, still I suspect that their adventures—designed to instill in us a desire to master the written word—pale in comparison to Arthur and other of today’s storybook stars.
The photos are to Tom Woods, proprietor of Woods Drug Store and the front of Tomion's Dairy
