Mom and Pop Hardware: A Kansas Girl's Quirky Childhood at My Folks' Competing Stores

In the summers and after school, 10-year-old Bethy, a/k/a "Miss Nuisance," sold nuts and bolts at her dad's bustling hardware store on Main Street in rural Kansas. That is, unless she was selling nuts and bolts at the hardware store right next door. It was owned by her dad's biggest competitor Bethy's mother.

Located in McPherson, Kansas, the side-by-side hardware stores set the stage for an unconventional childhood. Bethy's dad, Gene, could talk the hide off a cow and fix just about anythin...