Betty Goodman, 95; ran Penny Candy House in Hull
The penny Mary Janes, Root Beer Barrels, Dubble Bubble, Lemonheads, and Necco Wafers are long gone, but sweet memories of the joy they brought to those now of a certain age linger still.
For youngsters in Hull in the 1960s, 1970s, and 1980s, the center of the universe was the legendary Penny Candy House, owned by Jack and Betty Goodman at 559 Nantasket Ave.
"It was bright orange with a door and two windows," said John Galluzzo of South Weymouth, who grew up in Hull and has written six books about the town. "Jack had put two wooden eyebrows over the windows that gave it a face that seemed always to be smiling. A day spent at Penny Candy was a day spent in heaven."
Betty Ruth (Byer) Goodman died of coronary disease Sept. 20 at the Bradley Home, an assisted living and skilled nursing home in Meriden, Conn., where she lived in recent years. She was 95.
Jack, born Isaac Jack Goodman, died in 1973. The town erected a plaque in Memorial Square to honor his community service.
"Dad put in a short door for children and adults had to stoop to enter," said their daughter, Dorothy Elkin of Wallingford, Conn. "It had revolving lights that looked like eyes inside the building. My father really loved kids."
When their first grandchildren, Michael and Scott, were born, the couple affixed their names above the front door.
The Penny Candy House had all the elements of a good bedtime story.
There was intrigue: Sometimes, children - and a few grown-ups - tried to spirit goodies into their pockets without paying, only to be caught by Mrs. Goodman's eagle eye.
There was drama: Elkin recalled how her mother would take Polaroid photographs of youngsters who had acted up and pasted them on the "wall of shame" above the cash register until restitution or penitence was made. The children were usually given a second chance, she said.
Mrs. Goodman was born in London while her parents, Max Byer and Fanny (Geller) were en route to the United States from their native Poland. The family lived in Canada, North Dakota, and New York, among other places, before moving to Dorchester, Dorothy said.
The Goodmans, who met through Jack's sister, married in 1931 and moved to Hull in 1937. Around 1954, she said, they built one building to house two businesses, each with a separate door, at 559 Nantasket Ave. They rented one side to Joel's Candies and occupied the other as Jacques Beauty Salon, where Mr. Goodman was the hair stylist and Mrs. Goodman the bookkeeper.
When Joel's went out of business five years later, the Goodmans kept it going for a time. They then added onto the building and opened the Penny Candy House, using Joel's former space for storage of their overflow.
David Elkin, Dorothy's husband, recalled that the Goodmans had the shelves of three walls stacked with candy packed in its original boxes.
"They had these plastic pails which the kids walked around with to fill up," he said. "Then, it would be brought over to the cash-out table and rung up in an old-fashioned register."
The store was a big temptation.
"It was a special event to go there," said Galluzzo, a regular in the 1970s and 1980s. "If you were a baseball-card collector, it was even better. A kid could get a pack of cards for a quarter and find his hero inside."
Galluzzo recalled how a boyhood friend, who was 6 at the time, had trudged home from Penny Candy with $50 worth of goodies.
"Our mothers had been talking on the phone, and he asked his mother if he could have some money for candy. She told him to take it off the bureau. He did, and it was a $50 bill," he said
When the child returned home, his mother sent him back to the store, and the Goodmans gave him his money back, Galluzzo said.
Penny Candy's low prices didn't prevent some children from pinching sweets. Dorothy Elkin recalled that a child entered the store one day in the middle of summer wearing a winter coat. As he left, she noticed the pockets were bulging. His photo went up on the wall of shame.
In the 1980s, inflation hit the business hard and some of the merchandise, like licorice sticks that looked like shoelaces, button candy, necklaces made of candy, and all kinds of lollipops, went up to 2 cents, Dorothy said.
Mrs. Goodman ran Penny Candy and Jacques Salon for some time after her husband's death, her daughter said. She sold it around 1986 to spend more time in Florida.
Later, Dorothy said, a local contractor bought the property and built his office and some housing on the site. He named the apartments "Penny Suites."
As for Mrs. Goodman, she frequently ran into former customers wherever she went.
"One day in Florida, a young man came over to her and asked, 'Do you remember me?' The last time they had seen each other was one summer in the store and he was wearing a winter coat. He turned to his young son and said, 'This lady helped me be a good young man,' " she said.
In addition to her daughter, Mrs. Goodman leaves another daughter, Geraldine of Wells, Maine; four grandchildren; and six great-grandchildren.
Services have been held. 