I grew up in the suburbs of Chicago (actually, I grew up in the place that Mean Girls<\/i> is based on, but that\u2019s besides the point). In the suburbs, there is this middle ground that exists in your youth. Your parents don\u2019t feel the need to have an adult there to chaperone any hangout with buddies, but you still don\u2019t have a car to really get you anywhere. It\u2019s a limited freedom. It\u2019s liberating at the time, but you don\u2019t really know any better.<\/p>\n
So, where do you go in Deerfield, IL when you\u2019re allowed to be places without having to be seen with your parents? For many, it was walking, riding a bike or even skateboarding to downtown Deerfield, where there was a mom and pop pharmacy called Lindeman\u2019s. There we could purchase candy, no matter what our parents thought, or a soda. They even had a soda fountain. It was a relic of a time passed, but for us, it was so much more.<\/p>\n
Some time during my late junior high or early high school years, Lindeman\u2019s closed. They simply couldn\u2019t compete with the Walgreen\u2019s that had gone up across the street. Remarkably enough, that didn\u2019t change our destination. Walgreen\u2019s just wasn\u2019t the same experience. The mom and pop place was more exotic, more exciting to us.<\/p>\n
March 29 is National Mom and Pop Business Owners Day. My memories of early adventures isn\u2019t the only reason I want to tell you about such a day. My father also owns his own business and put my brother and I through college with it. Many, many Benchmark Email users are also mom and pop business owners. Benchmark Email even boasts our own mom and pop with Curt & Denise Keller.<\/p>\n