A Community Site for Anyone and Everyone Interested in Ephemera

The Old McCaskey Register

It was the middle of another hot summer day. I had been sitting at the counter for hours without as much as one customer when I felt myself starting to nod off. I don’t know how long I had been asleep when the ring of the bell above the door startled me back to a state of semi consciousness. As my eyes began to focus I found myself no longer in our quaint little antique/gift shop but rather in what appeared to be an old General Mercantile Store. Where before there were souvenirs from our home town were now bolts of fabrics and behind the counter were shelves filled with all types of dry goods. The old antique butter churn still stood in the corner as did all the old tools, but they appeared as new as if they were made just yesterday. In a bit of a shock I ran to the large plate glass window at the front of the store to look outside and try to regain my senses just as a couple of horse drawn wagons passed by stirring up dust.

With my eyes closed tight I shook my head and took a deep breath, trying to regain my composure before turning back. It was then I saw him, hunched over a cane that was to short, long gray beard flowing from a face dried and cracked from to many years in the sun. He slowly made his way to the sales counter and placed upon it a twist of tobacco, a tin of gunpowder and two pieces of horehound candy. When I rounded the corner to help the elderly man I noticed my computer was missing and in its place stood an old Upright McCaskey Register. On it were no keys, only an accordion type file filled with cards each with a different name at the top. I looked up in a state of confusion, not knowing what to do other than tell the old man the cost of his purchases. He just stood there and stared at me, I stared back at him and he stared right back at me with a look a puzzlement in his eyes. “Samuel’s the name son, don’t rightly know the last.”, he said to me. “ Now son I know your new here, but I dare say my credits been good in this store since before you was even thought of, so I suggests you pulls out my slip there and write down whatever numbers it is you needs.” With that he picked up his merchandise and walked out the door.

As I heard the bell ring once again I looked up and found all had reverted back to normal. As I looked around the store the old McCaskey Register I had recently purchased caught my eye. I walked over to dust it off, and shuffled through the empty files. Toward the middle of the old accordion I noticed a small tattered card stuck at the bottom of one of the slips. I looked at with amazement, because written at the top was the name Samuel and directly under it was;
1 twist tobacco 2 cents
1 can gunpowder 11 cents
2 horehound candies n/c.

Pays at years end.