Tom Johnson
Tom Johnson of Caledonia Street talks about his early life when his father knew the owner of the Sweet Shop: Cecil, Cece, Allen. Many years later in the early 1960s, while Tom was stationed in Paris, France, Cecil Allen was on a World Tour and had dinner with Tom in Paris.
Transcript
Location: 1113 Caledonia St. Sweet Shop
Tom Johnson:
The Sweet Shop; dad knew the owner, Cece Allen. Dad also knew just about everybody on the Northside. The Sweet Shop; it was there my whole life. It was only three blocks and it was halfway to gramma’s house. Oh, that’s all hand-dipped, hand-made candy. It’s special stuff.
It was 1960, 1961 I was stationed in Paris in the army. Cece Allen was on a World Tour and dad put it together. I mean he knew where I was and then he probably learned from Cece that they were going on a World Tour and going to Paris and he said ah, “when you’re in Paris you oughta go see my son or give him a call.” Those tours just keep movin’, they hardly get a chance to stop and look around. I met him downtown Paris and he bought me dinner. It was the hotel dining room, I’m sure it was on the Champs-Élysées, I think. It was unusual, when you’re nineteen, twenty, twenty-one years old being stationed in Paris with a class A pass, it was an experience. There we were on the other side of the world. My name is Tom Johnson, I am relating my childhood on Caledonia Street, centered around the Sweet Shop and my family’s life up and down that street.