EP135: Magic Side Show Becomes Full-Time Job and How Piggly Wiggly Created the Modern Supermarket
Our American Stories
iHeartPodcasts
4.6 • 817 Ratings
🗓️ 7 December 2021
⏱️ 38 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
On this episode of Our American Stories, Steve Thomas, Oxford, Mississippi's local magician and balloon artist, shares his story with us and Clarence Saunders revolutionized the way people shopped by introducing checkouts, clearly priced goods, and itemized receipts.
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Time Codes:
00:00 - Magic Side Show Becomes Full-Time Job
23:00 - How Piggly Wiggly Created the Modern Supermarket
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | This is Lee Habib, and this is Our American Stories, and we tell stories about everything here on this show, from the arts to sports and from business to history and everything in between, including your |
| 0:21.4 | stories, send them to our American Stories.com. They're some of our favorites. And today we have a |
| 0:27.7 | story from where we live, right here in Oxford, Mississippi, and it's a small town, a small |
| 0:32.6 | college town, home of Ole Miss, about an hour south of Memphis. Steve Thomas has lived in our town for over 30 years. |
| 0:40.7 | Today, he's here to share with us his story. |
| 0:43.9 | Take it away, Faith. |
| 0:46.0 | Steve Thomas is a magician and balloon-making expert. |
| 0:50.1 | He goes to the local farmer's market and events here in town to make balloons for people. |
| 0:55.0 | He's our own personal small town celebrity. |
| 0:59.0 | Steve has always loved magic, but his path to full-time magician and balloon artist didn't start until his 40s. |
| 1:06.0 | Steve has had several jobs throughout his career. |
| 1:10.0 | He started off in radio where he worked for over 20 years. |
| 1:13.6 | After his time in radio came to an end, he went to work for FedEx and became a dangerous good specialist. |
| 1:20.6 | He worked at FedEx for 14 years. |
| 1:22.6 | Until one day, something happened. |
| 1:32.1 | Just over a decade ago, he was diagnosed with Parkinson's disease. |
| 1:38.7 | I was at work one night, and I picked up a one-pound box and turned around and set it down, and my shoulder popped. |
| 1:41.6 | And that was all she wrote for the shoulder. |
| 1:46.8 | So I ended up having really extensive four different procedures on my right shoulder. |
| 1:49.7 | And when I got done with that, I had a little tremor. |
| 1:55.2 | And the doctor eventually figured out what it was. |
| 1:58.9 | And, of course, FedEx said, if you can't come back to work at 100%, don't come back at all. |
... |
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