Bos, although my second cousin's store was called Smith's General Store, it was actually more like the country store you described. It was the only store within 30 miles, and carried a little bit of just about everything you can imagine -- food, clothing, school books, farm implements, brooms, etc. The post office was a kind of lean-to built onto the side of the store. The store was a clapboard structure with a galvanized tin roof. This was in the early to mid 1950's, and it was one of the few places that had electricity, so Raymond had a gas pump installed in front. There was a bench out front where the old timers would spit and whittle. In the winter, they moved inside and sat around the pot-bellied stove. Ladies brought in eggs, milk and vegetables, for which Raymond gave them store credit, which he recouped by selling the produce. He had what we called a "swamp box" -- a big cooler filled with cold water where he kept soft drinks. The local custom was to buy a big old Royal Crown Cola and drop in a handful of peanuts. I don't know who started that procedure, but I never ran into it anywhere else.

I have many fond memories of that old store. I went back years later, and found that the dirt road had been paved, and more people had cars, so people started driving to Cave City or Evening Shade for their groceries. Raymond had died, and the old store was boarded up. I haven't been back up in those hills for at least 10 years, but the old building was still standing, the last time I was through there. I pity people who don't have a place like that in their memory.