First celebrity interview: memoir 4

Age 10, as a Brownie

When I was ten, our teacher assigned an essay: "Write about someone important." I knew right where to go!
     After school I walked downtown along the beach to interview my first celebrity: Mr. John V. Meistrall, known to us kids as Mr. Johnnie, the owner of the Manhattan 5 & 10 Variety Store. His shelves and aisles, and wooden floors that creaked, displayed treasures of surf mats and beach pails, toys, comics, and snacks, many costing just a nickel or dime.
     In turquoise ink from a new fountain pen, I wrote a story that barely filled half a page of notebook paper. If someone had told me I'd one day be writing novels, I would not have believed it. Well anyway, here's what I turned in to the teacher:

     When I asked Mr. Johnnie what truth meant in his business he said that it was important to keep the shipments on the candy going so that when a customer purchased some it won't be stale.

     So there it was, my first scoop for the neighborhood kids: We could trust Mr. Johnnie for fresh licorice whips and Chum Gum!
   
From BLUE SKIES: ONE AUTHOR'S JOURNEY, to be published this Fall.