Grandma Mary-Store at McClurg

I remember going to Grandma Sloan's house around the first of every month, when she got her old age pension, and we would take her to the store. Sometimes it would be at Brownbranch, but the times I remember the most was when we took her to the McClurg store. Lester and Aileen Adams owned the little country store, one of many in the area, and I loved to go there with Mom and Grandma. Sometimes Ginger, Sue and Venessa would also go with us, and that was fun too.

Sue and Venessa and I, and any other kids that might be there when we were would go into the feed room and play on the sacks of feed. Most of the feed then was sacked in burlap sacks, a few had switched to paper by then but most were still in burlap. If you have never been in the feed room in an old country store, then you have missed it! The smell of grain and molasses, shorts (bran) corn and pellets for chickens, rabbits, calves, well, it smelled wonderful to us. Just one of those smells you take for granted. We didn't go in there and say "wow, it smells good in here," it was just something we knew.

The store had its own particular smell too. Again, some might not have liked it and we didn't really mention it or talk about it then,  but it smelled good. A mixture of dusty floorboards, dry goods, crackers and breads and sweet rolls and lots of other good smells. 

There was everything you could think of in the store, like all sorts of canned goods, dry goods like a few items of clothes, overalls and some blouses maybe, and things like sheet sets, fabrics, and even hardware and things like lanterns and rope.

Grandma really liked Aileen. Actually, everyone called Aileen "Sis" so anyway, Grandma liked to visit with Sis while she was shopping. Almost everyone back then, including Grandma Mary, would get a big "bill" of groceries. They called it a 'bill' of groceries because they would buy it on credit until the next month. Grandma would cash her pension check, pay her bill from the month before, and then get another months supply of groceries. Lester and Aileen, and most store owners then would give you a half gallon of ice-cream or a carton of pop or something like that in appreciation of you paying your bill.We  kids were always given some candy, a bottle of pop, or maybe an ice-cream bar in the summertime. 

One of the reasons I liked to go to the store at McClurg was there in a glass showcase they had some costume jewelry, and two or three boxes of kids rings. The rings were a lot better quality than the rings you might get in a box of Cracker Jacks, and I loved them. I would pester Mom to get one of them every time we went to that store. Sometimes I was successful and Mom would let me buy one. They were usually priced at 10 cents or 25 cents.

After Grandma got her bill of groceries she might sit and visit just a little while, then we would take her back home. She and Mom would put away the groceries while I or we would explore the back yard or look for new kittens on the back porch. Grandma never let the cats in the house but she had lots of outside cats and there seemed to always be a new litter. That is where I usually ended up, pleading with Mom to take one home with me. 

Grandma's back yard was where her well was that she drew water from. The well wasn't deep and if you looked down it you could see the water. Her backyard was also full of mustard that she had sown and came up every year and hollyhocks. Pink, yellow, white, burgundy, lots of hollyhocks. The hummingbirds loved the hollyhocks and Grandma was known to sneak up and cup her hand around the hollyhock bloom and capture a hummingbird. I tried and tried but never could catch one. I guess I was too rambunctious. hahaha

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