Thursday, January 14, 1999

A warm popcorn welcome

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Queen City Country Store treats airport arrivals to a whiff of hospitality

BY JOHN JOHNSTON
The Cincinnati Enquirer

Travelers browse through the airport store. (Saed Hindash photo) | ZOOM |

        Popcorn is popping. Candy baskets are filled. Shelves are stocked with corncob pipes, nose flutes, Bag Balm and other, uh, essentials.

        At the Queen City Country Store in Cincinnati/Northern Kentucky International Airport, Norma Snell and her co-workers are ready for the mid-afternoon rush of pilots, flight attendants and passengers.

        “Did you try our famous popcorn?” Mrs. Snell is saying. “It's known around the world.”

        “I smelled it the minute I got off the plane,” says Irene Vitale, 76, awaiting a plane bound for Boston.

        “Try it. Popped in canola oil. It's lightly salted,” says Mrs. Snell, handing over a sample.

        For many a traveler, this is the first stop after arrival. Or the last stop before departure. It's been that way since 1972 when the first Queen City Country Store opened. That makes it the longest-standing concessionaire in the airport, properties manager Michael Mullaney says.

Norma Snell has greeted celebrities such as Doris Day, Lily Tomlin, Art Linkletter, Richard Petty and Johnny Bench. (Saed Hindash photo) | ZOOM |

        Three such stores, owned by Sue and Charles Cloak of Huron, Ohio, are now in operation. All are in Terminal 3, which serves Delta Air Lines. The busiest shop, the one where Mrs. Snell works, is in Concourse B, between gates B14 and B16.

        It's a place with an ebb and flow linked to the comings and goings of airplanes. A place where travelers might form their first impressions of the region. A place to get questions answered.

        Where's the restroom? Where's the fast food? Where's baggage claim? Where am I?

        “They think they're in Ohio,” says Mrs. Snell, who is 67.

        After a whiff of the popcorn, some think they're in heaven.

IF YOU GO

The Queen City Country Store has three locations in Terminal 3 of Cincinnati/Northern Kentucky International Airport: • Concourse A, across from gate A4: Open daily 8 a.m.-10 a.m. and 1:30-8:30 p.m.. • Concourse B, between gates B14 and B16: Open daily 7 a.m.-10 p.m. • Concourse C: Open 7 a.m.-10:30 p.m. every day but Saturday, when it closes at 9 p.m. A mail-order catalog is available by writing: Wileswood Country Store Mail Order Department, P.O. Box 328, Huron, Ohio, 44839.

        Mrs. Snell, who has worked at the country store for six years, learned about the popcorn's popularity her first day on the job.

        “A lady came in from New York. She had this huge bag and said, "I flew in just to get popcorn. Fill it up.' ”

        Mrs. Snell did just that.

        “We got 16 big bags in there, and she said, "Hey, I think it'll hold two more.' ” The woman departed with more than 2¹/₂ bushels of the yellow, popped corn.

        The corn is grown not far from the Lake Erie shore near Huron, where the Cloaks' business is based. Besides the three Queen City stores, they own Wileswood Country Store (in Huron) and similar shops in the Indianapolis and Milwaukee airports.

        “You don't see any computers in here,” says Mrs. Snell, walking past shelves of souvenir shot glasses, wind-up toys, a large collection of Raggedy Ann and Raggedy Andy dolls, cookie cutters, bars of Grandpa's Wonder Pine Tar Toilet Soap, marbles and jacks.

        More merchandise hangs from nails in the wooden ceiling beams: aluminum tubs and buckets, wicker baskets, kerosene lanterns, fruit pickers and back scratchers fashioned from corncobs.

        Bag Balm is popular with flight attendants, Mrs. Snell says, because it keeps their hands moist. The ointment originally was designed for cow's udders.

        Items with a local flavor include Kentucky and Ohio cookbooks, Cincinnati chili mix and opera cremes from Covington's Papas Candy.

        The whole idea, of course, is to reflect the folksiness and charm of an old-time general store. But nothing does that better than Mrs. Snell herself.

        The Walton woman speaks with a slight drawl, a product of her southern Kentucky upbringing. White hair curls from under a dust cap, which all female employees wear. She's been told she resembles Barbara Bush.

        The only time her smile fades is when she tells of the 1970 traffic accident that killed her 26-year-old daughter. In 1988 Mrs. Snell became a widow after 39¹/₂ years of marriage.

        She has two other children, including a son who is a diplomat in the United Arab Emirates. That makes sense, because there are those who say Mrs. Snell is as fine an ambassador as the Tristate could possibly hope to muster.

        “If she's gone,” says store manager John Poland, “we'll get a lot of people ask, "Where's Norma?' ”

        She doesn't have to work, but does so, she says, because “it's good therapy. I love people. That's what it's all about.”

        She has lots of people around her now.

        “Do you have the cinnamon bears?” Sharon Unflat says, stepping up to a curved-glass candy counter. She's a Delta flight attendant, soon to depart for New York City, where she's based.

        “Every time I come through, I get these for my husband,” Ms. Unflat says, holding a brown paper bag containing the chewy, red candy. “It's my way of saying I miss him.”

        Not only does the store have cinnamon bears, it has cinnamon balls and cinnamon imperials. And jujy fruits, fireballs, salt-water taffy, red cherry buttons, jaw breakers, old-fashioned hard licorice drops, and more.

        “These were my favorite when I was a kid,” says Mike Harris of Coventry, R.I., snatching up some root beer barrels. “They don't sell 'em in Rhode Island anymore.”

        “I buy this every trip,” says Suzie Rees of Largo, Fla., picking up packets of chili mix. She hasn't lived in Cincinnati for 17 years but returns for family visits.

        On a typical day, about 20,000 people walk past the country store in Concourse B, Mr. Mullaney says. Most are everyday folks. Not all.

        One day a man stood at the counter wearing a black hat trimmed in snakeskin. “Gee,” Mrs. Snell said, “you look like Richard Petty.”

        “I am,” the famous race car driver replied.

        Tiny Tim dropped in once. “Looked like he hadn't had a bath. He still had the same, dirty suit he always wore. His hair was so stringy. And this is what he wanted,” Mrs. Snell says, pointing to little packets of Sen-Sen, a licorice-based breath freshener. “He bought all I had.

        “I've had Doris Day, incognito. And we had Lily Tomlin. I met Art Linkletter one morning. I called him Red Skelton, and Skelton had died. He laughed. Tyne Daly, we had a ball with her.

        “Johnny Bench is a regular. He buys the popcorn coconut oil.” It sits on a shelf, in unlabeled pint jars.

        “One day, this blond lady came in and she wanted three (jars). I said, "Only Johnny Bench buys that much.' She said, "I'm Johnny's wife.' ”

        Mrs. Snell chats with everybody. She asks where they've been, or where they're going. She asks pilots if she can go with them. And she rarely forgets a face.

        “Hi captain, how you doin'? Did you have a nice holiday?”

        Capt. Ted Bode, who lives in Brunswick, Maine, has been flying for 18 years. And has been stopping in the Queen City Country Store at least that long.

        He's here for popcorn. “You can find a whole bag on the floor in most cockpits,” he says.

        “One of the nicest guys you'll ever see,” Mrs. Snell says when he leaves. “Always gets popcorn for his crew. That's how our popcorn gets around.

        “We get a lot of nice people.”

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