5 and dimestore

I found out two weeks ago that the 5 and dime in French Lick, Indiana is closing.

It is/was an honest to goodness five and dime. My uncle got the last chocolate drops they had for my grandmother. She has told me several times that the only candy you could get when she was a kid was stick candy or chocolate drops. Her father would bring them back from his weekly visit to town.

According to my grandmother, Nanny, he often "sold his homemade sorghum out of a 55 gallon barrel from his wagon. People would bring all sorts of containers to buy some from him because everyone knew he was very particular about the quality. The kids, (Nanny included) , would have to go over the stripped sorghum stalks to get the last of the imperfections because you had to do that to get really good sorghum, you have to get every little leaf and imperfection.....

Nowadays, they just put anything in."


Anyway, seems the owners of this little store in French Lick were given an offer by speculators that sounded pretty good. And, since the husband is 71 and the wife is willing to work somewhere else, this seemed to be a good time to sell.

My uncle says that used to be you couldn't give these sorts of buildings away. But now there's some speculating going on, they have bought other properties in the older business section of French Lick. They are counting on the casino, due in a year, to bring property values up.



my grandmother often says, about many situations:


"we have to accept these things"




those chocolate drops were real good though.