Merchant of the Month
Sparkle Plenty

Irene Craciunoiu (a.k.a. Irene Craig) opened Sparkle Plenty in 1972, when Nashville was a quiet little village with less than 50 shops.

Customers and former neighbors pop their heads in the door and say "Are you still here?" Lately she has been telling them, "Yes, and I'm staying until they deliver my wheelchair." They all expect her to be retired at the age of 75. "And I don't want to be. I want to be busy. I want to be doing something," she said emphatically.

And busy she is, working long hours at the shop, ordering and doing all the bookwork herself. She even finds time to bowl every week with friends in Franklin.

Irene's strong work ethic started back in her hometown of Curtis Bay, a suburb of Baltimore, Maryland. "When I was in high school I worked after school and on Saturdays for a department store. I worked in their billing department, then out on the sales floor." Her first full time job was for the Coast Guard. "I was coming home with $26 a week and I was so proud of that. That was a lot of money then."

Her future husband was stationed at the Coast Guard yard. "All of us girls used to go to all of the USO dances. That's where I met Nick," Irene recalled. Nick was the leader of the dance and concert bands.

When Nick was discharged in 1946, the couple married and moved to his hometown of Indianapolis.

Nick continued his music career with bands known as the "Nick Craig Orchestra," "Nick Craig and the Stardusters" and later "Sentimental Journey." He picked up the name "Craig" when the owner of a club insisted he shorten it to fit on the marquee.

In the early sixties, Nick and Irene opened a music business in the Eagledale Shopping Center. It was walking distance from where they lived and their three children, daughter Niki and twins Tom and Paula, helped out after school. The business grew and relocated to Lafayette Square.

After nearly ten years of operating their businesses in Indianapolis, the Craciunoius decided to give it up and move away to the woods near Trafalgar. Irene said, "We thought we had died and gone to heaven when we moved back in the woods on that private lake."

But their retail experience did not end there.

Nick and Irene started up the "Music Loft," a music and gift store, on the second floor of a building in Nashville, and soon after opened "Sparkle Plenty" downstairs. Someone suggested the store's name as they admired the ceiling's glittering finish.

They closed the music store a few years later and ran a second gift shop in the Brown County Inn until Nick passed away in 1985.

Irene admits she isn't "crafty," that she can't paint or create things, but she can sell—it comes naturally. Dick Lawrence, Irene's long-time shop neighbor, calls her "the only sales girl in town." "I enjoy the people. I like to talk. I like to talk a lot," she said with a smile.

Sparkle Plenty carries "something for everybody"—lots of pewter items, jewelry, music boxes, suncatchers, and many collectibles.

When there were less than 50 merchants in Nashville, shoppers could conceivably see all of them in one visit. Irene said it would take a week to mosey around the 300 shops today. Most visitors don't stay that long and return to their favorite places. Many come back to see Irene year after year, including one very famous former coach.

Sparkle Plenty is located on East Franklin Street next to the Lawrence Family Glassblowers and behind the Train Depot.