Retail merchandising has seen colossal changes over the past hundred years. This is the story of the Kyte family business, founded in 1889 in Cornwall, Ontario, by C.W.Kyte, a newspaper pressman by trade but an entrepreneur in his heart. As Jack Earle approached middle-age, he yearned for independence. Upon learning that the store where he had purchased his high school textbooks was for sale, he saw the ninety-nine-year-old Kyte's Stationers as his opportunity to save a piece of local history and simultaneously gain his freedom. The author managed this store for her husband Jack, and describes the adventures of surviving in small business, with the unexpected joy and friendships that came from the experience.