If you didnt grow up by a good country store; i.e. a mercantile, - TopicsExpress



          

If you didnt grow up by a good country store; i.e. a mercantile, then you may have missed it. This is just my perception when I was a young kid. Read on!! Pot Bellied Stoves and Moon Pies Years ago, when I was a kid, my grandparents lived outside of Benton in Salem on the old Salem road at Helmich drive. A lot of afternoons, and Saturdays, my dad would go visit and Id do the taggin along. In the fifties, Salem was definitely the country. There were no big box anything stores near by. No C-stores. Were still in the land of Grocery & Gas Stations. Nothing was too close. I remember several times when wed gone to Salem and something needed fixing, a trip back to Benton wouldnt work cause the stores would be closed. Beavers, Davis, or one of the others in town, all closed at noon on Saturday, so that was out. The only alternative was going up to Congo. As in Mercantile. At the fork in the road. Did you ever go? Interesting place. Just a sprawling white building, with several barn type structures build out back between large oak trees with a gravel drive way. And way out back, there was a large pond. or to some a small lake. I D K. In retrospect, it was like a country store should be. Big glass windows in the front and back. a regular height, white acoustic ceiling ceiling tile. you walk in the door on the south west side out of the gravel parking lot, you notice the cars making the curve to the right going to Avila or Ferndale or maybe they really were on a trip and would end up at Brushy lake or Lake Maumelle on Hwy 10. that was a trip!! The rest were yielding to traffic, so they could go straight ahead to Steel Bridge Road and on up to Paron, if they were going that far. Maybe Henderson Road or Union Cemetery. one never knew. A lot of the roads past Congo Merc were gravel in the 50s. It was gonna get rough either way. When you walked in the door, you were stopped by all of the gadgets. If you were a gadget guy, you couldnt concentrate. In decorators terms, it was busy. In fixer-uppers terms, it was heaven. In Maertens terms, it was profit. Screwdrivers, hammers, saws, hand and pulp saws and all the things to screw, hit and sharpen with. Lights, bulbs, pots, pans, brooms, kitchen tools and silverware, and all points in between. There were about 4 or 5 rows to the left, with a big glass window that looked out upon nirvana, if you were a carpenter, a plumber, or just a regular Joe, with a house, barn or shed to fix!! Storage Barns, old and weathered, with not so shiny tin roofs, that may as well held the Gold from Fort Knox. These guys didnt care about that. They wanted the real man toys. Barrels of 10 penny nails, roofing tacks or fence brads. Or screws, bolts, or boxes holding rolls of barbed wired. Or bailing wire. 2x4s, 2x12s. Trim works for cabinets. Big 4x6 beams for the barn. Or the real gold. Cooper. Fittings or long sticks of copper or pipe to thread. Pipe to fix mamas sink. Cause supper WOULD be late if Dad was. And that was a dangerous pot to stir. Dont make Mama mad!! Or, even worse, Saturday nights bath would be postponed. That was equally a dismal scenario. Cause the feather bed was usually a lot better than the plank floor. You were on the dogs turf then. And if you had to talk a walk out back, you passed the Kerosene. You know. Some places had that tall glass tube, 7 tall with a hose coming out of it. A lot were gravity, but some had a pump. Some were square metal boxes with a hand pump to fill up the can. it was the late 50s and early 60s. You never knew when the lights were going out!! and you had to keep the lantern you might need handy!! or you might need to take out a wasp nest. Yellow Jackets or big ugly Red wasps. They all froze up when the kerosene hit them!! But, getting back to the really important stuff in a 10 year olds mind, when you walked in the front door, you saw shelves to the left and not so many shelves to the right. A large front window that looked out in the yonder, the tail end of cars going north, getting smaller by the second. In the middle of the room, was money central. The old register. I cant remember how many. One or two or three. Dont remember the brand or how tall they were. I just remembered, they dinged!! You know those things arent important to a kid!! Just the ding. But even more important, just how many quarters you could amass in those days. cause every quarter was 2 bottles of soda and a moon pie. Thats if your keeping count. and you saved your pennys, cause going through 5 quarters was enough for another moon pie!! 5 Cents!! RC Cola did that RC and a Moon Pie for a dime about then. I think they had one of those convenience coolers. You know, big and square, like a reach in freezer that held a bazillion bottles of 16 ounce SunCrest orange soda. or Nugrape, or one of those ice cold Cokes. The little dinky bottles that they recycled about a thousand times till the glass bottle was opaque. Not clear. Hurry up and make a pick. they all look the same, was usually what I got if I lingered too long. Or, youre wastin cold air, hurry up. and my brother was even worse. But he didnt go much, thank goodness!! It was a family store. The Meartens were German, or Swedish or something. I didnt know then. I just knew where the store was. Now, where I grew up on Military, we were out in the country til I was about 12, and by then Red Crawford had developed a little plot of land, dug a hole in the ground, and called it Lakeview and the city wanted taxes on all of that. Why you could cut down Northshore drive and be at Alcoa in 4 and half minutes. But until about 1964, it was the country. And the city came to the country. Hungry I guess. But you want to talk real country, we are there at Congo Mercantile. Theyve got the goods, the shelves, the barns full of more goods, and theyve got the money in the middle. But the centerpiece of the whole place, especially in the winter, was the Pot Bellied Stove. You liked it. when you walked in the door and it was 35 outside, you just knew where the stove was. you could feel the relief of warmth. I remember it was to the right of the money pit. It had chairs around the stove. Arranged as if it were the center piece at a party. Cause some Saturdays, it WAS a party. Folks like farmers, ranchers had worked hard all week and they got out of the house. New overalls, clean work boots. Well, maybe. Depending on if they hadnt been to the cow barn or the chicken coop. Some stuff you just cant wipe off all together!! Some were sitting around relaxed having a soft drink. And some were holding their spit cans. They were practiced spitters. They didnt miss. Lord. They did it all day. How could you not be in practice. Some could hit a wasp at 10 feet from a Farmall tractor in 3rd gear!! Pretty special stuff!! Some days, they were just talking. What ever came up. Or maybe they were finding out how to put up that automatic watering device theyd just bought. Information pipeline of the day you know. The pot bellied stove at a country store. You never needed a computer to make a cow or chicken drink water. You just needed water and a little time. Theyd get to it!! Or maybe they were catching Bud Campbell doing play by play for an afternoon Razorback game. You never knew. But it was like they were ALL centered on the one warm thing in the room The Pot Bellied Stove. They kept it going. Adjusted the flu valve if needed. Reloaded the red oak. Watched for spit cans and cokes and talked on through the day. Or the play. It was their other home. The country store. Oh, they were all around Saline County. They went by different names. But the one I remember best is Congo Mercantile. Its about the only one my dad went to in a pinch back in the 50s in Salem. You could count on them. Open til late on Saturdays. And if you were in a big bind, theyd meet you. Pretty sporty, huh?? It was the spot to be when you needed resolution to that problem. And a good spot to be when you wanted some camaraderie. When you were told to get out and go do something. You know that can happen. You may have heard the same joke 3 times that week, but you knew the punch line. It wasnt too bad. It was the country store. And they just cant replace them in those big box stores. You just cant find them any more!! Theyre just memories of a 10 year old. But a real memory. And when you travel now, out in the middle of nowhere down a two lane road and you come up on an old country store with four or five pickups around it, youre tempted to stop. Arent you?? Well. Why?? Maybe, just to see if they have an old pot bellied stove and an RC Cola ??
Posted on: Thu, 01 Jan 2015 14:27:46 +0000

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