This is the 3rd story in the Objects as Waypoints series.
Coal River Road, St. Albans, WV
38° 22’ 55.02”N, 81° 51’ 37.404”W
When the box arrived on our doorstep, Grandmother called her best friend, Ora, who showed up soon after. In the kitchen, they opened the box to see what they had painstakingly chosen and ordered from a novelty catalog weeks earlier.
One thousand daisy shaped plastic key chains in a variety of neon colors glowed from the box with possibility.
Imprinted on each was her signature tagline and name, “Cakes For All Occasions DOROTHY A. BRYAN” in metallic gold on a black background in the center of each daisy. Grandmother was a 1970s marketing genius.
. . .
Before Dorothy was a Bryan, she was a Davis and in the 1940s she honed her cake decorating skills at several bakeries before striking out on her own with D. Bryan’s Sweet Shop in the 1950s.
When she outgrew the home based bakery, she and Ora opened the Kountry Kitchen on Walnut Street in town. Because of her cake artistry, the governor’s office chose her to bake a 250 lb. cake for the celebration of WV’s Centennial in 1963.
