Eileen and Ronnie, the owners of Bobb Howard’s General Store, are a couple

of baby boomers who grew up on Long Island, New York playing hopscotch and hide-and-seek, stickball and stoopball, flipping baseball cards and jacks, and playing hit the penny and spin the bottle… They met, fell in love, and have been “playing house” for 50 years… The General Store is attached to the family auto repair shop that Eileen’s parents opened 78 years ago, October 12th, 1946. People often comment on the combination of the two businesses - for Eileen and Ronnie, it is a natural extension of the things they love - they both love old cars and they have a fun collection of old gumball and coin-op machines and old toys and games in their home, not to mention Eileen’s childhood favorites: dubble bubble, jujubes, and red licorice laces in almost every room!…

The repair shop is a landmark in the neighborhood, and they are now servicing 2nd, 3rd, and some 4th generation family cars. The right of passage for some of the neighborhood kids is to be able to go to Bobb Howard’s on their bicycles by themselves!!!… The General Store actually started out as a convenience store in 1982, then 32 years ago, Eileen, noticing the frenetic pace of today’s computerized world, decided it was time for a change - time to go back to a simpler time, to have people remember what it felt like to be “a kid in a candy store” again, and go back to a time when games didn’t require batteries She started slowly converting the fast-paced convenience store into an old-time candy and toy store where kids of all ages could come and browse and giggle with nostalgic memories… and as the saying goes, “the rest is history"! Word started spreading quickly about the store and soon customers and the media - newspapers and tv and radio stations were putting BHGS “on the map”…

Bobb Howard’s General Store now ships “packages of memories” all over the world and kids and “kids-at-heart” come through the door for a piece of

“their past”... for themselves, for friends, for generations past, and to share with future generations… Eileen and Ronnie feel very blessed: they love what they do, they love coming to work everyday, and they love being able to put a smile on someone’s face, even if it’s with a nickel piece of bubblegum…..