Mrs. Nickel Pickel
Illustration by Carly Hoover
Third Place Winner, Aspen Times Weekly Short Story Contest, Jun 7, 2012. This fictional short story draws on the author's experience growing up in a small town in Ohio. Children who visited a local small grocery and soda fountain after school affectionately referred to the owner as Mrs. Nickel Pickle, as she gave children a kosher dill pickle for a nickel. Mrs. Nickel Pickle reveals the story of her life bit by bit to a little girl who goes to the soda fountain most days after school to have a Coke with her friends. This charming story depicts life in rural Ohio in the 1950s and the changing role of women in American society.