Anybody ever been in a place like this? Or sat in the rockers out on the front porch?
Postcard by Alan Teper
The proverbial old country store… One of my uncles ran one for years in Central Louisiana, carried pretty much everything from A-Z and I do remember saddles… 🙂
The ‘smell’ of the store was a mix of food, leather, iron, and amalgam of years of coffee pots, and wood smoke. I remember my uncle ‘holding court’ behind a cash register just like the one below, unless it was one of the little old ladies, then he’d go get whatever they’d come in for…
From Ripley Auctions May 2011 gallery
I remember visits and being fascinated with it, and being able to punch the keys and crank the handle when somebody came in and bought something…
I also remember us both getting in trouble, because the thing to the left of the register was a paper tape and that was how my Aunt did the daily books… And my uncle had let me ‘play’ ringing up sales… It wasn’t pretty! And he carried people on credit too. Their word that they would pay (eventually) was good enough for him.
He was one of the folks that taught me to judge people by looking beyond how someone dressed and learn about the person themselves. One that I remember to this day was an old man who came in wearing threadbare overalls, rundown boots, and not much else. My uncle gave him everything he asked for on credit. Later that day, a man pulled up in a fancy car (either a Lincoln or Cadillac) came in flashing rings, watches, etc. and my uncle demanding he pay in cash. He also showed my what a flash roll was after that guy left, saying something about not trusting him.
Sadly, today the only place you’ll see a store like this is as a museum somewhere.
Years ago there was a tiny town in central MN that consisted of a church, maybe 20 or so homes and a huge general store. They carried everything from field seed to sewing needles. They even had a pickle barrel beside the counter. Whenever my mother couldn’t find what she needed in the big town nearby, we went to the general store and sure enough, they had what she wanted. I loved that place, with its dusty front windows and creaking board floors. Broke my heart when it closed down.
There was an old store like that in Comfort, TX when I lived there. It burned quite a while back. It had everything. I bought rope, britches, and nails on the same day!! Smelled amazing. Even had a super dangerous elevator in the back. I don’t think it had sides, just a floor…. Never saw it used.
http://www.mysanantonio.com/news/state/article/Comfort-general-store-to-rise-from-ashes-921723.php#photo-490861
There was an old corner store where I grew up. Mr. Sharp smelled like stale pee and withered leg, but he had a neat store. I helped him when he needed work done at home. I’d trade for stock at the store instead of money. I got sorghum syrup for helping plant a tree, and some work gloves for something else I did.
I didn’t realize how much I missed those places. Thanks for the trip!!!!!
I dont’ think they ever got it going again…..
Man, my editor must’ve been asleep! Ingenhuett’s never recovered, and Mr Sharp HAD a withered leg.
Mullan’s Grocer and General Store. Downtown Yatesville. About a forty minute walk, ten minute car ride, 15 minutes on four wheeler or by horse.
I think Pop still may be paying off my Dr Pepper, moon pie, Lance cracker, and Powerade addiction there.
I remember you could buy a pair of Lee jeans and they would hem them while you checked out.
Snowsville General Store, East Braintree, Vermont. Very much like it, and I used to go there often when we lived in West Brookfield. Still there, so far as I know, and still in business.
That part of Vermont hasn’t been overrun with Birkenstocks and crunchy granola people. Yet…
The old Newtown (PA) Hardware store. If they didn’t have what you wanted upstairs, someone would go down to the basement and find it for you.
Had one where I grew up. New owners took it over, made some “improvements”, and now it’s closed. If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it.
The stove threw me off but otherwise it looks a lot like the Placerville Hardware Store, at 163 years old it’s the oldest hardware store West of the Mississippi, the second-oldest business in California, and owned by the same family for 63 years and four generations – and still operating. They have it all, from gold-pans and dredges to cast-iron pots – they have everything you could imagine. Just picked up a couple screen-doors there last week
J&J Feed Store in Earlsboro,OK. I used to spend a few days each year with my buddy Richard Lay,USN ret.
Every day started out at the store with an ever changing group of cowboys,ranchers, farmers,municipal workers and all sorts of locals.Sat in an old booth and on plastic chairs,drank much java,listen to Richard embellish his stories.(He said embellishing didn’t count as lyin’).He’s gone now and the store is closed.
Sure was fun.
Hymie
Gentryville General Store, Gentryville, MO – it was still there a few years back. Just a wide spot where a county blacktop crossed a state road. I still remember the excitement of sliding bottles of Orange Crush out of the horizontal soda cooler. It was the jumping off place to my mom’s family farm, which is still there, too. Of course, it’s a back-to-nature hippie commune-slash-horse farm now.
I had one like it in my hood growing up, but not as large as this one in the picture. I would go get my dad cigarettes and mom some snuff and have him put ‘on the list’. He also had an old coke lift-top icebox outside and on the honor system. I don’t know of anyone who ever stole a drink. And at Easter he would have a big box of colored chicks (pink, blue, red, green, etc.)for two cents each. I remember being so disappointed that they didn’t stay that color when the grew up. Just white. Kids today don’t know what they are missing.
We had one, Lyon Garrett Hardware on Main St. You could get darn near anything there, put it on the tab, and settle up at the end of the month. Clerks knew you and were so helpful and friendly…
Next time you’re in Natchitoches, LA, stop by Kaffie-Fredericks on Front Street. It’ll take you back 75 years. It’s still a full-service hardware/department store where you can buy toys, dry goods, hardware, plumbing supplies, you name it. If they don’t have it, they’ll tell you where to find it.
Yup, any number of them in Tennessee where I grew up. Cookeville, Murphreesboro, Franklin, Ashland City, Clarksville, all over the place. You could find nearly anything in them, though it may be under two or three piles of other stuff…
You forgot tobacco smoke. They always smelled of tobacco smoke. Cigarettes and pipes. And in the winter they smelled like wood smoke from the stoves.
There’s one like this in Moultonborough, NH. It has everything… and even the old registers like that!
Wow, I didn’t think I’d get a response like this, but I’m truly glad to hear there are at least a few of them still around! Paw, I’ve actually been in Kaffie-Fredericks! My uncle’s place was on 474 between Florine and Negreet.
We lived in so many towns with 100 or so people that a store that size wasn’t feasible.
Still have one here – Young’s Hardware, in Hopkinsville, KY. If you need it, they probably have it – and friendly service to match…it’s like a trip back in time…
My Mom was from Louisiana and we made a couple trips down there while I was young. One of the trips we went to visit Mr. Jarvis Westbrook’s General Store which if memory is correct was in Prospect. I it looked much like the one pictured and I remember being fascinated by everything that was there and having a Grape Nehi from the cooler. And just another side note – my Mom had a big white,enamel coffee pot like the one on the stove. I’m in the process of cleaning out her house and come to think about it haven’t seen that coffee pot.
WSF- Yep, my uncle’s wasn’t that big either…
Lucky- Thanks!
Margaret- I know where that is!!! I was born about 15 miles from there Haven’t thought about Grape Nehi in years… sigh
J.B. Sandoz Hardware, Opelousas, LA; old red planks as a floor, drop change in the cracks and it’s gone forever; cash registers like that one; everything a farmer, mechanic, or home owner could possibly need; great BIG coal pile out back (for sale). I handed out ash trays and key chains at one of the anniversaries when I was a kid (family store). Mother HATED it when I played in that coal pile!
the stove’s been gone for years, Jack passed about ten years ago, but Jack’s Country Store in Ocean Park, Washington is about as close as you can get to that in this day ind age. My trip yesterday, had the butcher cut some pork to specification, asked the produce manager when the dill would be in, bought some beer and a flapper valve, coon fingered a machete and talked myself out of buying another pressure canner. And they have a huge selection of Archie McFee’s finest goods.
Bob- LOL, I can imagine… I didn’t know you were a Louisiana boy too!
Oh man, the memories! Those really were the good ole days.
Worked in one when I was 10 (1953).
Swept floors, filled paint thinner bottles out of a drum out back,
etc.
Made a little money I gave to mom.
XS3- Yep, a different time for sure!
Skip- Long before child labor laws… Much less handling chemicals… 🙂
Oh yeah. Long long ago. Way up in Watton Michigan. That place is long gone. Replaced by the IGA. So long ago that no one would remember. But me.
Oh yeah. Worn wooden floors, a coke machine where the bottles stood in ice water, and the 25 cent cigarette machine. Used to be about one every few miles in rural Connecticut. (sorta sounds like an oxymoron these days,don’t it?)
Last one I was in was Yakutat Alaska. An amazing array of stuff. All the necessities of remote life.
I remember a place like this when I was younger.
There is a place close to this called Riggs Hardware in Sullivan, Indiana