Steve concentrated on school, fun and friends. Jobs were for parents and old people, and he'd get one right after college. That is, until his parents make him start earning his own spending money by going to work at a jewelry store.

During the coming years he learns that people can be very different than he'd imagined, life is a little more difficult than he'd been led to believe, and growing up is decidedly more painful than he would prefer.

Small business was once a mom and pop operation on any street in America. The same term currently applies to a company of 500 employees. With single enterprises consuming more acreage than a farm, what possible motivation drives a few to unlock the door into a tiny shop? What brings them 6 or 7 days each week to a space likely smaller than their competitors' bathrooms?

Perhaps the mom and pop is a dinosaur, reeling briefly in a wake of the comet of change. Jewels from my Pocket provides a brief glimpse into the culture of a truly small business through the eyes of a Midwestern lad who happens into a summer job that alters his course in life.