Isaly’s… If you are from the tri-state area, chances are that name strikes a cord of nostalgia for you. But did you know that it was named for the family that started the company? I had the pleasure of sitting down over some coffee with a member of the family, the lovely Penny Isaly Logan, to discuss some of her memories of growing up as an Isaly.
Penny’s family owned and operated the Isaly’s on Main Street in Evans City from 1936 to 1976. Her grandad, Clifford E. Isaly, opened the Isaly’s in 1936. Clifford’s son, Eugene, bought the store from him in 1951 after years of working at Bethlehem Steel. Eugene and his wife, Olga, had two girls – Penny and Leslie. Penny and her husband, Cliff Logan ( a popular middle school history teacher in Butler), would end up purchasing the business from Olga in the early 70’s. They tried to sell the store in 1976 because Cliff and Penny had 4 young children. They had an interested party, but sadly, a fire caused the store to burn down before they were able to complete the sale.
The fire that ended that chapter of their lives was actually the second fire at the Evans City Isaly’s. The first was in 1968 and while it did cause damage, Penny lightheartedly recalls kids getting so excited about going through the candy that couldn’t be sold because it was smoke damaged but still edible.
After we talked about timelines and history, we discussed some of her favorite memories of spending her formative years in an Isaly’s. She said that what she remembers most about growing up in an Isaly’s is the people who would frequent their restaurant. To this day, she’s able to recite with ease some of her regulars’ orders. Among them.. A gentleman who stayed at the hotel across the street who had rolled oats, eggs, and bacon for breakfast and supper (with onion for supper). Kids who lived in the country would stop for lunch during school to grab pickles. They’d eat them like ice cream cones on their way back to school. Every Easter, a lady would order ten 50 pound blocks of chocolate to make easter eggs.
Even though their store was in Evans City, they pulled product from the Youngstown Isaly Company plant. She said there was not a wide margin of profit for their store. For example: bread.. as soon as it was put in the bag, they were only breaking even. On weekends, they’d run Isaly Company specials to get people in the door: among them $0.99 chipped ham and $0.59 butter. Sundays were hands down their busiest days. People would come from Pittsburgh to visit camps along the Connoquenessing Creek. They would stop in the morning and buy a half gallon of ice cream. Penny’s family would wrap the ice cream in wet newspaper and freeze it and the customer would come back in the afternoon to pick it up. When they were ready to take the ice cream back to Pittsburgh, they’d wrap dry newspaper around it and it would stay frozen until they made it home.
Before she was old enough to work, she recalls sitting at the store on Sundays, their busiest days, and causing all kinds of trouble with her sister. There was a couple, the Carneys, who would come in from Pittsburgh on Spring Sundays. One Sunday, they offered to take the girls for a ride around the area to keep them occupied while their mom was swamped with other customers. Penny remembers her parents being hesitant the first time, but also grateful because they were being bad. It ended up being one of Penny’s favorite things to do and she would look forward to Sundays when they would come in. She knew it meant a little adventure of possibly wading in a creek or going for a ride instead of sitting at a table for several hours.
She worked in the store from the time she was in 7th grade, but recalls helping out as early as 5th grade when she would help her dad cut ice cream bricks for ice cream sandwiches to be sold at the Connoquenessing fire hall stand at the big Butler Farm Show. Her dad would slice the ice cream – 8 slices per brick – and her job was to wrap the pieces in wax paper and put them in the freezer. They’d run the freezer down to the fairground the morning of the event and the slices of ice cream would be put between two wafers to make delicious ice cream sandwiches. She even got to stay at the farm show all day when her dad would drop off the freezer of ice cream slices.
Her dad’s philosophy at the store was that the customer is always right and the customer is always first. The store hours were long. They were open 6am to 11pm, closing only for Christmas. Her mother would get there at 5:30am to get the store opened and stay till 4. Penny was opening on weekends by the time she was 16. A gentleman, Mr. Ripper, would come in shortly after the store opened and would help customers without taking any money. He’d get people their coffee and tell Penny (on weekends) or her mother when people would need to pay.
Her dad had joked that she wouldn’t be allowed to drive until she was 21 (sometimes saying older than that), but ended up buying her an old, straight stick plymouth as soon as she got her license so she could get down to the store for the lunch rush before anyone else. He’d hand her a hamburger as she went out the door and she’d head back to school. She also had a special parking spot by the school thanks to another customer of theirs, Mr. Waldrin. He said since she left before he got home, she could park in his garage. She said she ended up having better parking than the teachers thanks to him, which also helped her get over to the store on time for her lunch shift.
In the afternoon, an older woman came in at 3pm and worked till 11pm. There were 2 night shift slots for high school workers: 3pm-7pm or 7pm-11pm. She said this shift was a good “first time job” for teenagers to learn how to be polite with customers, make change, and come out of their shell. In addition to her immediate family working in the store, Penny’s older cousins Ronny, Gary, Marie, and Sally Ann all worked at the store in high school. Before Penny started her shift when she was done with school for the day, she’d pick up her grandad, who they lovingly referred to as Pop Isaly, and take him to the store. When he wasn’t sitting at a table in the back to help keep an eye on the younger workers, he would head across the street to the movie theater. She said she’s pretty sure he saw just about every movie that went through that theater. Her dad would close up the store then run his dad home. He and Eugene would also hand out long pretzels to the little kids.
Her family lived in an apartment behind the Isaly’s and there was a bright spotlight in the parking lot that could be seen from the window of their home. If the light went on during the day or off at night, it meant they needed help, no matter what you were doing, you needed to get over to the store. Penny said there were a couple of times she was relaxing or snuggled up to her boyfriend when the light would go off and she’d have to drop what she was doing and get over to the store to help out.
As Penny got older and got married, it became more difficult to run the store. Penny would have to be up at 5am and have someone at the house to get her 4 kids off to school to get to the store to open on time. They decided to try to sell. They found someone who ended up running the store who wanted to buy it, but unfortunately, the store burned down before the sale was complete. They lost everything but the lot. From there, Cliff continued to be a successful school teacher, founding the gifted program at the Butler middle school, and creating a school tour program that his daughter carries on today. Penny raised 4 outstanding children and now has 11 grandkids, 4 great-grandkids, and a sweet dog named Ike.