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Monday, September 29, 2014

Short's General Store

The weather couldn't be better here in Missouri the last couple of weeks.  We are having a wonderful Indian summer.

I am being nostalgic today, so I thought I would tell you about my grandpa's General Store.  It was known as "Short's Store".  I loved going there as a kid it was there as long as I could remember.  The store was attached to my grandparents house by a breezeway, kind of a sitting area, like a small sun room.  My grandparents loved working in their store, and worked seven days a week.  Grandpa and grandma always dressed nice to go to work everyday. Grandpa wore dress pants a nice shirt and a western tie everyday.   Grandma always had a nice casual dress on.  They both worked real hard running their store, working the cash registers, the lunch meat counter, pumping gas, mostly grandpa did that, and grandpa had a butcher area in the back where he ground his own beef and cut up the meat for the store. They always had a couple of gals working there to.  The store had old wooden floors, counters with canned goods, breads, candy, penny candy, chips, toiletries, frozen food cases, clothing, cloth and sewing needs, shoes, fruits and vegetables, a big soda case, tobacco, and on holidays, they had all the extras.

Holidays were extra special in the store, Easter baskets full of goodies for sale, watermelons on the 4th of July and fireworks, Christmas, Halloween, and what was left over from those holidays the family would get to enjoy it.

Grandpa and grandma delivered groceries to people who couldn't come get them, they had running tabs for folks, credit back then.  The store was always a buzz with people coming and shopping, salesmen selling to grandma and grandpa, people hanging out and visiting while drinking a soda pop. There was marking the groceries as they came in, cleaning produce as it came in, cleaning every crook n cranny daily, along with cleaning that lunch meat area and the butcher area. They even sold kerosene.

Back in those days there weren't many grocery stores around, and the closest bigger town was about 5 miles away. people really used these general stores for their shopping.

When we were little one of my favorite memories of that store was when we would go visit. Grandpa would give us a little brown grocery bag and let us fill it up with penny candy. Now that was a treat!

My grandparents were so loving and fun! Beyond the grocery store, in their home, we had big family dinners, and grandma could really cook!  If they needed anything they would just walk over to the store and get it.  we had all the food, treats and really anything we wanted.  now back in those days that was a big deal because it was like being with rich grandparents.
Now , mind you they did well, but were not rich, but in our eyes they were.

The community were very fond of my grandparents and to this day people still remember Short's General Store.

Love you forever Grandma and Grandpa

1 comment:

  1. That was really neat!! I read it to Abigail and we both enjoyed it :)

    ReplyDelete