He revisited Frog Hollow, the immigrant Irish ghetto in Hartford where his maternal grandfather had run a grocery store.
He had run a grocery store, but as soon as he was free to open his studio again, he did.
His father, whose name was also John, helped run a grocery and for a time worked in the coal mines of West Virginia.
"If you were to strike that today, there is no doubt Scotland is a more costly country [in which] to run a grocery retail business".
"They want their children to have a higher position," said Mr. Lee, who shelved his dreams of studying philosophy to run a grocery, and now owns a supermarket in Flushing, Queens.
In 2004, she told Oprah Winfrey that she always wanted to run a grocery store, "a place where you can have a running tab … hold mail for people … rent bicycles in the summer".
Susan Flannery, a town commissioner whose parents used to run a grocery store here, said: "People say they'd like a community park, a place where you can have a picnic and kids can ride bikes".
If you are a Malaysian in Malaysia, or a Kenyan in Kenya, or an African-American in Watts, and you want to run a grocery store, you start with a handicap: you have friends and relatives who want jobs, or discounts.
