Appalachian Story of the Old Country Store

There was a time when all these little country stores dotted the whole rural area across America, not just the Appalachians. The newer generation hasn't got a clue really, but these are still around. The baby boomers remember. And to find these old places, you have to get off the main road. You get on these back roads, these country roads, back to these little communities that have been here since they settled this country long ago. Now these old stores, like I said, they literally are right about every little community had a little country store to go to. I can remember my grandparents telling me about these so much. And I can remember them so much when I was young too. Places like this. Don't matter if it's down the mouth of a holler, down at the end of the farm, back in the end of these mountains, mining camps, little old stores like this all across these Appalachians and rural America where everybody got together. Everybody knows what's going on. Everybody doing their trading at these little old stores that come out of these farms and these hollers. That's the way it was. And you always seen the men get together. They'd be playing checkers or gossiping or just telling tales, sitting around all the time. Seemed like that's where they like to gather all the time. And I've even seen places when I was real young, they would cut hair, anything needs to be done, these little old country stores. And in the wintertime, you see these men, they'd line up around this stove turning around trying to keep warm in these old stores. That's common. And I can remember my grandparents telling me about stuff like this. All these old country stores. Everybody in the community kind of told me. And they was owned by little mom and pops across America. They took care of the community. They served their needs, what they needed. And they had about anything you needed in these little old stores all the time. And I can remember when I was a little old bitty thing, I'd get up just out of daylight, get my trusty little old wagon, and we'd go out looking for pop bottles, me and my friends and my brother. And we'd gather them up, clean them up a little bit. You'd have to hurry to get them out because everybody else was looking for them too. We got three cents for them, and up until I last I knowed of it, it was five cents. But nowadays, they just, they don't do that no more. It's aluminum cans. But the stores don't take aluminum cans. You've got to go to a recycling center to get paid for these. So I never fooled with them. But I'd get to the store with my pop bottle and cash them in. They got to knowing me all the time, us little old boys. And man, you felt so good when you had 50 cents or a dollar in your pocket from them pop bottles. Oh, sure. It was a R.C. and moon pies, a bag of tater chips, or a candy bar. And when you stayed at your grandmother's house during the summer or on the weekends, or just coming off the house at farm, places like this, and you run these fields, you had such a good time. And you'd hear your grandma hollering at you, you need to go to the store for me. Come and do some trading for me. Us cousins, we'd, ain't nothing better on a Sunday afternoon or late summer eve, evening, to go walk down to the store. We'd all head down to the store with a pocket full of change if we had it. We'd get down to an old store like this. My mama would always have a list of stuff she wanted to get for us kids. We'd have lunch the next day, or dinner that evening. I'd always get me a pound of bologna. They'd cut you up an old pound of bologna, wrap it up good for you. We'd get a loaf of old bunny bread and big old packs of Kool-Aid, and we'd eat good there at the house, old boney sandwiches and tater chips. And the kids would bring them home like this, up these hollers from the country stores back in the good old days. Now these old stores, there's not many of them around. Now they're convenience stores, gas stations, but they're still around. Places like this are starved. They're off the beaten path, but they're still around. But they're a dying art. So to find these places, all you got to do is get off the beaten path and go around these old communities. They're still around. So I hope you enjoyed this little video about the old country stores. This generation don't have a clue. The baby boomers understand it, that's for sure. So I want to thank you for watching. God bless, and I'll see you next time.