Ned Cash Jewelers closing its doors

Feb. 11—Peggy Shanahan, one of the co-owners of Ned Cash & Associates Jewelers, is full of little trivia about the old shop, which is set to close later this month.

She shared one with The News on Thursday — "The Store with the Big Clock Out Front" did not always have a big clock out front.

"That street clock out front? That was actually installed in 1992. A lot of people think it's older," she said.

It's an understandable mistake, she says, owing to an old photo of Newcastle Street in the aftermath of a Category 4 hurricane that struck Brunswick directly in 1898. It threw 16 feet of storm surge at Brunswick, devastating the downtown business district.

In an old photo, amidst the destruction, one can see a clock still standing on the sidewalk. At first glance, one might be mistaken. They're both round, and they're both clocks on the sidewalk.

"But it's like a pocket watch. It doesn't look like this one," Shanahan noted. It's also on the wrong side of the road.

That mix-up actually caused some confusion at the Georgia Archives, she said. Because of its position on the opposite side of the road, some records misidentified north and south in relation to the city, thinking the older clock was on the east side of the road, where Ned Cash's stands.

But the clock in the 1898 photo did belong to a jewelry business — Mott's Jewelers — she added.

She had some other little tidbits. The building was built back in the second half of the 19th century by the local Masonic lodge, Ocean Lodge. The ladies' auxiliary raised money for 14 years to pay for the construction. Before Ned Cash, the man behind Ned Cash Jewelers, bought the building in 1990, it was also home to a clothing store and a grocery.

Shanahan's ex-husband, Mitch Parrish, had worked with Cash for a long time at Cunningham's Jewelers and went into business with him. Shanahan came along later.

She moved to Brunswick in 1995 and worked in sales and marketing at Cellular One, eventually taking over management of three stores in Southeast Georgia. A mutual friend of theirs also worked at Ned Cash. When the friend had to take off to take care of her husband, Parrish asked Shanahan to fill in. She had degrees in psychology, human resources and marketing, so it wasn't an immediately natural fit.

"It was definitely a baptism by fire," Shanahan joked.

The rest is, as they say, history.

That's an easy cliché to say, but 20 years of history is a lot. She and Parrish married and divorced, maintaining an amiable relationship and continuing to work together. They eventually worked up to 50% ownership of the company and bought the rest when Cash died in 2013. She learned to string pearls and got involved in jewelry buying, coming to know many of their suppliers.

She learned the Four C's — cut, color, clarity and carat. A gem's cut is its shape, the color is an indicator of quality, clarity is a measure of imperfections and carat is the gem's weight.

"I spent so many hours there I'd say it's home," Shanahan said. "There's a side door I use. I think to myself, 'I've been doing this so long, what will it be like when I don't open this door.'

"... Sometimes we need to grow up and leave home."

It's been a full 20 years, said 53-year-old Shanahan, full of changes.

Over 20 years, shopping and buying habits change a lot, for one. The Internet was a drastic shift, but it corrected somewhat over time as shoppers realized that buying things online was hit or miss when it came to the quality of the product.

Another is the increasing difficulty in spotting laboratory made gems. Getting a new automated system capable of identifying the most recent crop of fakes would cost around $6,000, she said. That said, it's not too hard for an educated, certified gemologist like Parrish to identify them.

The COVID-19 pandemic was yet another, but once again shoppers realized they wanted human interaction and expert opinions and eventually came back.

For Shanahan, this chapter of her life is near and end. Ned Cash is running a 60% off sale until Valentine's Day and taking offers after that. Anything not sold after a while will be scrapped.

"I don't want to do that. It really hurts my feelings," she laughed.

Jewelry makers put a lot of effort into their work, and they're all pieces of art — some more appreciably than others.

One she's worried about is a platinum and 14-karat gold Tiffany & Co. cigarette case. It's a very interesting piece of history, but not exactly appealing to modern sensibilities. Some are listed online at upwards of $10,000, and she doubts anyone locally is that interested in a fancy cigarette case.

"We don't smoke much, and it's really expensive," she said.

Her reasoning for leaving the business is due to three bouts of Non-Hodgkin's lymphoma.

"I've had to face my mortality several times and this most recent time, it was in my face," she said.

She beat it twice via traditional methods, but after chemo failed the third time she was left with little option. A new blood treatment and a bone marrow transplant was the only option and it was not a sure thing.

It worked, though, and she was once again cancer-free. With that news a new lease on life.

"I'm old enough to recognize this is a new chapter, and I'm young enough to enjoy it," she said.

Parrish will continue fixing clocks in the storefront, which is one of his favorite parts of the job, she said. But what's next for her?

Who knows? Shanahan doesn't have anything lined up, although she'd like something she can do remotely, so she can travel with her dog Lambic.

"I guess I'll be looking for a job," she said.