[Nebbe] John's Grocery has been a mainstay in Iowa City's Northside neighborhood since 1848, making it only two years shy of being as old as the state of Iowa.

On a day that started like any other in 1956, a surprising turn of events led to the creation of the store's enduring nickname, Dirty John's.

♪♪ [Doug Alberhasky] There was a junior high right up the block.

Kids would come in over the noon hour and get penny candy and that just drove my grandma nuts seeing them eat nothing but sweets.

[Doug Alberhasky] My grandma started our deli by making five cent ham salad sandwiches.

Eventually, we had hundreds and hundreds of kids coming in over the noon hour for lunch.

Well, fast forward to 1956, we're the first place in town to celebrate a new magazine, a little bit controversial, by the name of Playboy.

♪♪ [Doug Alberhasky] One day when the truck was going by down Market Street, there were two boys walk up early for lunch.

Well, these two boys saw the truck go by, they saw the stack come out and they saw the opportunity.

So, they stole that entire stack of Playboys delivering it down to the junior high, passing them out to all their buddies in the locker room.

And everything was going great until Otto the wrestling coach caught them and drug them up the principal's office.

Well, unfortunately, Otto had to get back to teach class.

So, he didn't have a chance to tell the principal exactly what was going on.

So, just assuming, the principal called my grandpa and says, Dirty John, what in the heck are you doing selling my boys Playboys?

And the name stuck.

♪♪ [Doug Alberhasky] The Sisters of Mercy were right across the street at Mercy Hospital.

Even though my grandparents were very devoted Catholics, were huge in the community of St. Mary's, the sisters didn't really like the fact that grandpa was selling Playboy.

♪♪ [Doug Alberhasky] And I think that is kind of how the name kind of spread was that kind of backlash from the sisters.

For the longest time, grandpa kind of shied away from it.

But eventually came to endear it.

Over the years, it has kind of taken on almost a legendary status.

For some people, we are their neighborhood grocery shop.

For some people, we're that once a year place that they know that they're going to be able to find the special beer that they've been searching for.

♪♪ [Doug Alberhasky] I think they'd love it.

Their biggest dream was to have their legacy continue.

When they opened, there were 28 other family-owned corner groceries in Iowa City and we're the last one.

To know that your smiling face has brightened so many people's days I think would really warm his heart.

[Nebbe] That's it for this week.