Village Squire, 1977-02, Page 5Penny Dinney is proud of the children's corner in her book shop.
Penny Farthing
Books 'n' Things
adds charm to Exeter
main street
The wonder of Penny Dinney who runs Penny Farthing in
Exeter is that she ever finds time to run the store that sells
books and things on Exeter's main street.
Penny is another example of today's thoroughly modern
woman with varied interests. A native of Houston Texas, she
came to Exeter with her husband in 1969. Bill's family have
run Dinney Furniture in the town for some time.
Penny has become interested in a wide range of activities
since then. There's her yoga, for instance. She studied yoga
in London and now teaches a class in night school herself in
Exeter. She finds fulfillment, she says, in passing on her
knowledge to others.
She also studied photography at Fanshawe College and
enjoys that. She's also concerned about fitness and rides her
bicycle in the summer and skis in the winter. And she's
interested in natural foods.
But on top of all that, she's long had a love of books and so
it was that line that she got into when she began to think
about opening a small shop.
"I'd always had an enjoyment of books and saw a need here
in Exeter so we decided to take the plunge." And plunge it
was, she says, because neither she or Bill had any experience
in the book business.' People who know the business have
since told them they were crazy, she admits, but she isn't
regretting the move.
It was a year ago this morith that the store opened. The
Dinney's had been looking for a location for the store for some
time unsuccessfully. Then they rented an old barber shop on
Main Street (she still has people coming in, expecting to get a
haircut) and began planning for the opening.
Coming up with a name was a problem as they thought of
all the names they'd like but which were already taken by
other book stores. Since the walls of the shop were lined with
pine boards, Penny thought a nice name might be the Pine
Box, but Bill whose family also has a funeral home, didn't
VILLAGE SQUIRE/FEBRUAXY 1977, 3