A Little Something More - David Roth

I run a local grocery store, a friendly place to shop

One day a boy came to my market looking for a job

He said his name was Johnny, I could see that he was different

I also saw a sparkle in his eye and so I hired him

I started him collecting carts and sweeping up the floor

In no time flat young Johnny was a bagger in my store

He took such pride and worked so hard it rubbed off on my crew

And just because he only did the best that he could do

Johnny is a bagger in our local grocery store

Packing people’s food away as they go out the automatic door

Just a job ten thousand other people do

But Johnny found a way to make it new

Johnny came to work one Monday grinning ear to ear

He told me that his Dad was teaching him to use the home computer

Typing this and printing that, whatever he had done

The look on Johnny’s face that day was brighter than the Indiana summer sun

A couple weeks went by and I began to notice something

It started in the parking lot after people had done their shopping

They were digging through their groceries and coming out with smiles

I made a mental note and came inside to check the aisles

The store was pretty busy, must be 5 o’clock, I guessed

And here the line in Johnny’s lane was twice as long as all the rest

«No wait on 1 through 4,"I said, they didn’t seem to care

«We want to be on Johnny’s line"they said, and stayed right there

That’s when I discovered Johnny’s magic secret brainstorm

A little note he put in every shopper’s bag before they went home

Every note had what he called his «thought"for that same day

And Johnny signed the back of each good thought he gave away

I can’t begin to tell you how the mood in our store shifted

Whoever heard of coming home from shopping so uplifted

We see new people every day we’ve never seen before

And some folks say they come in now each time they pass our store

Johnny’s got the longest lines of any place in town

He’s also got some syndrome that the doctors label «Down»

If you ask me how one person makes a difference any more

Come on by, see Johnny at our store

Johnny is a bagger in our local grocery store

Packing people’s food away as they go out the door

And he’s making things a little better than they were before

The most important person in our store

Johnny gives a little something more

I run a local grocery store, a friendly place to shop

One day a boy came to my market looking for a job