{"id":7974,"date":"2026-10-20T21:47:53","date_gmt":"2026-10-20T21:47:53","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/digitalnews25.com\/?p=7974"},"modified":"2026-10-20T21:47:53","modified_gmt":"2026-10-20T21:47:53","slug":"i-went-into-a-pawnshop-to-buy-a-cheap-toaster-on-my-way-home-tuesday","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/digitalnews25.com\/?p=7974","title":{"rendered":"I Went Into A Pawnshop To Buy A Cheap Toaster On My Way Home Tuesday"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Dewey sighed. \u201cWendell Cole,\u201d he finally said. \u201cHe left an address on the ticket. Out on Route 79, past the grain elevator.\u201d I wrote it on the back of an envelope. Cole. Jimmy\u2019s last name. I drove there before I could think, the locket on the seat beside me, and pulled up in front of a small white house with a wheelchair ramp and a porch swing that needed paint.<\/p>\n<p>The man who opened the door had Jimmy\u2019s eyes in an older, harder face. He looked at the locket in my hand and then at me, and the color left his cheeks. \u201cRuth Ellen Mayer,\u201d he said slowly. \u201cYou\u2019ve got some nerve.\u201d I held up the wristband. \u201cMy mother told me he left with a girl from Quincy.\u201d Wendell\u2019s jaw tightened. \u201cYour mother,\u201d he said, \u201ctold my brother you were dead.\u201d<\/p>\n<div style=\"text-align: center;margin: 20px 0\">\n  <a href=\"https:\/\/digitalnews25.com\/?p=7971\" class=\"pulse-btn\"><br \/>\n    CONTINUE READING \u2192<br \/>\n  <\/a>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Dewey sighed. \u201cWendell Cole,\u201d he finally said. \u201cHe left an address on the ticket. Out on Route 79, past the grain elevator.\u201d I wrote it on the&#8230; <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":7373,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-7974","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-stories"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.9 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>I Went Into A Pawnshop To Buy A Cheap Toaster On My Way Home Tuesday - FUN STORIES<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/digitalnews25.com\/?p=7974\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"I Went Into A Pawnshop To Buy A Cheap Toaster On My Way Home Tuesday - FUN STORIES\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Dewey sighed. \u201cWendell Cole,\u201d he finally said. \u201cHe left an address on the ticket. 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