DELLA

While attempting to de-clutter,my summer goal,I ran across an article on one of our town’s older elementary schools. I have no idea why I saved the article, as I never attended it. However, I did go to the junior high across the street from this elementary school, allowing me to visit Della’s Place, located in the back alley of Wood Gormley Elementary. Life was innocent and carefree back then. During the lunch break, all of us could leave our campus and walk over to her little store, no adult supervision needed.

Della’s Place was more of a good-sized tool shed than store, dark green in color. There was a plywood front door, painted in the same shade of green, only kept secured with a small padlock when Della wasn’t there. It had a few pane windows, and inside she had painted the three or four picnic tables a bright sky-blue, as well as the walls and floor.

I don’t know how all of us fit in her place every lunch, but we did. We could not wait to buy the penny-candies she had behind her glass counter, or one of her 15-cent hot dogs, served on a Popsicle stick, right out of the constantly boiling pot of water. Rumor was that she would get the Popsicle sticks out of the trash and use them again the next day. This brought forth many a broken stick after the hotdog was consumed, just in case it was true. Of course, there was no such thing as a state health department coming over to check on sanitary conditions.

Della was a feisty woman. She had bright red hair and wore huge rhinestone earrings. She would tell us they were diamonds, though no one believed it. I do not recall her voice ever being a calm one, as she was always calling out to someone to be quiet or to wait his or her turn. We all loved her just the way she was, looking out at us behind her giant glass frames.
The saddest thing about graduating from junior-high was the end of our visits to Della’s. There would be new kids coming to visit the next year, breaking the Popsicle sticks, calling out to Della to give them a hot dog, and Della calling out in turn. She served generations of families.

Della got too old to run the store one day. She closed up shop and that was it. The back of her store faced the yard of a family home, the owner of the property. The store went back to being a tool shed. I know I was not the only adult who would take a walk through the alley in later years, reminiscing about times with Della.

New owners bought the home and planned to tear down their shed, having little idea of its history. As it was a permanent structure, a building permit was required before they could go through with their plans. They were in for a shock, as the locals in town were outraged at such a thought. Della and her building were pieces of history! How could anyone even think of destroying all those memories! The Historical Review Board spent many months arguing that though the building was about to fall down, it must remain.

In the end, the owners won their case. They received permission to tear down its walls. If those walls could talk, what stories it would tell! Rather, we must be the ones to share the stories. We will keep Della alive, as she brought joy to thousands of youngsters, all through her ‘no bigger than a minute’ store of penny-candy and hotdogs.