Six Cents a Dozen

During a chance meeting with longtime friend Robert Craig at Burkmann Mills, he shared a forgotten story from over forty years ago depicting the author’s father’s political views and the community atmosphere at Browning Repair, a local business owned by William Henry Browning.

This establishment functioned as a social gathering point where machinery repair merged with informal community discourse. The proprietor’s frequent customers included 20-30 daily visitors exchanging local news and stories.

During autumn 1980, presidential election discussions dominated conversations. The author’s father, a devoted Democrat since Franklin D. Roosevelt’s era, expressed strong opposition to Ronald Reagan’s candidacy. At 67, facing mandatory retirement from his school bus driver position while witnessing an older Reagan seek the presidency troubled him deeply. He famously declared: “It is a hell of an out that Reagan can be elected President of the United States, even though he is older than me and I am considered too old to drive a school bus!”

Days before the election, the father predicted economic depression under Reagan, warning that eggs would sell for “six cents a dozen like it was during the Depression.” Following Reagan’s victory, he allegedly entered the repair shop with a dozen eggs, and the owner silently exchanged them for six cents — a gesture acknowledging their political disagreement while maintaining mutual respect.