Mike Henry says he keeps his promises — and in the pawn business, that means a lot.
“If I tell you I’m going to do something, then I am going to do it,” he said. “I try to be a man of my word.”
Henry, 65, owns The Oddity Shop, a pawn store on East Church Street in downtown Greenwood.
He and his wife, Lori, have been selling, buying and pawning everything from watches and tools to cars and tractors since September 1995.
“I’ve had some weird stuff,” he said. “I’ve had people come in and pawn false teeth, with gold on them.”
Selling things such as dentures, which he assured were clean when they were brought in, is just one of the reasons he loves this business.
After owning a roofing and construction company for 25 years, Henry decided he was done with that line of work and wanted to find a new passion.
Henry — who has lived in Greenville since leaving Arkansas at the age of 4 and is looking for a new Greenwood home — said he found his love for the business after working for an Indianola pawn shop owner, Bud Turner, who he said was “like a second father.”
After that he and his business partner, Ron Melton, opened the Oddity Shop in Greenwood.
Henry said the store’s name was all Melton’s doing.
“One morning, I picked him up, and he said, ‘I think I got it,’ and I said, ‘Got what?’ He said, ‘I got the name … the Oddity Shop,’” Henry said. “I said, ‘Let me chew on that,’ and then I finally said, ‘That’s it.’”
Along with Melton, Henry said he could not have done all this without the help of his wife.
“We just do not have any problems. I hear it all the time — people wondering how I can be with my wife 24 hours a day, seven days a week, but we just really get along,” Mike Henry said as Lori Henry passed through the office to pick up paperwork for that day’s sales. “I listen to her. I mean, she’s a lot smarter than I am.”
Together, they have two sons: Caleb, 30, and Allen, 34.
When he isn’t working, he is doing one of two things: hunting or fishing. “I am about as big of a redneck as you are ever going to find,” he laughed.
Henry said he has traveled all around the country, as well as Canada, to hunt elk and deer. If he is not doing that, he is probably hand-grabbing catfish throughout the Delta.
“It is what I was brought up doing,” he said. “Hunting and fishing — it’s what I love to do.”
Henry said it is not just the store that he loves to run or the days he gets to be outdoors, but it’s interacting with others that makes him the happiest.
“The best part is dealing with the people. My customers are my friends,” he said. “We know each other on a first-name basis, and I know about their families. They’re my friends, and that is the most rewarding part.”
•Contact Adam Bakst at 581-7233 or abakst@gwcommonwealth.com. Twitter: @AdamBakst_GWCW
