'People Like The Special Edging Scissors, But He Didn't Seem That Interested'

"Oh, I noticed that fellow right away. We don't get a lot of men coming into Scrapper's Heaven! I guess all the cowboys in El Paso are too busy riding and roping to have any interest in putting together lovely scrapbooks of their daughters' dance recitals and embellishing them with stickers of ballet shoes. Their loss.

"But anyway, this nice-looking gentleman comes into the store. He's balding, sure, but he has very kindly eyes and he's curious about all of the merchandise. Lucky for him, he came in during a lull, and I was able to give him all my attention. I ask him his name; he says it's Kenneth, shakes my hand just as polite as can be -- no accent, but just as well-mannered as any Southern gentleman I ever knew.

"My new friend Kenneth tells me he's working on a big project and he needs some supplies. I ask him what kind of book he's putting together -- a year of photos of a child is pretty common, or sometimes with a younger fellow they want to make a fancy souvenir of a trip they took with their, you know, [whispering] their partner? You know?

"But Kenneth says it's not for any kind of a book at all: he says he's got a bunch of different kinds of materials and he's putting them together in a kind of a collage, as a mural. More than one wall, maybe. I say that sounds like a lot of fun and that his wife or girlfriend or partner, you know, will really like to look at all the memories they shared together and it'll be a real unique art piece. Kenneth says to me, he says, Beverly, there will definitely be nothing like what I'm planning in the whole rest of El Paso or Juarez either. I say, Kenneth, I just find it so refreshing that you're embracing your artistic side this way! He just chuckles and squeezes my hand. He was a real sweetheart.

"So we get down to work. He tells me that he's mostly working with paper -- newspaper clippings, photos, some maps, a lot of stuff he's printed out from the internet. I tell him that's just easy as pie. He's going to need some photo corners, and we have really fun patterned ones with sunflowers and little pigs and stuff, but he goes for more of a classic look, just classic black, very elegant. I say he's going to want some smooth Scotch tape, not that cheap-looking cellotape, and now that I know his taste I steer him toward just standard transparent and a couple of rolls of white and black in case he wants to make something really pop. I thought he might go for a fun black and white pinstripe that we have, and he took one roll, I think maybe just to make me happy, but I don't care if that's why because it did make me happy! I didn't really know what kind of a theme he was thinking about so I couldn't make any good suggestions as to which stickers or accent paper would be appropriate. Probably none -- like I said, his style was very classic and understated.

"Then he grabs some glue sticks and some push pins -- I figure he's putting his project together on a cork board and then putting that on the wall, you know, in case he moves he can take it with him. He's got a big old order piled up, and then he says, I guess maybe I can get some scissors here too, never know when you're going to need a pair of good sharp scissors. Here's where I get real excited, because our scissors are a lot of fun. We have all kinds of different designs so you can cut your photos and give them a border that's wavy or zigzag or kind of like a polka dot -- just lots of fun designs. People like the special edging scissors -- sometimes a lady'll come in and that's all she wants, because she doesn't want to buy them online if she can't see how they cut, you know -- but he didn't seem that interested. I was showing him the demo models but once he saw them cut I think he realized they're not really that sharp, and said I guess I have lots of box cutters and utility knives if I ever need to cut anything tougher than paper. I said Kenneth, you have just got to make your masterpiece your way and he said, Beverly, I sure as heck plan to. And then he bought about $180 worth of supplies and he was off.

"Of course I found out same time as everyone else that his big mural project was where he was plotting out his big elaborate multiple murder scheme and then I was pretty happy that there weren't any cameras capturing us when I was helping him pick out bristol board for twenty-five minutes. But I will say this: what I saw of that collage on the news did look pretty sharp. Thank you, photo corners."