Our town is about 2/3 dead but of all the closed stores I miss the Wolf Point Saddlery the most.
That and our co-op gas station burned down about 6 years ago.
It was filled with decades worth of parts and a few old guys who knew how to fix chit.
They rebuilt but it was a poor attempt at best. Good place to shop if you wanna buy ffaggy 'western' wear but pretty weak and overpriced on actual farm stuff.
And they even fired a nice older gal and replaced her with some kids(that don't know chit).
For those who grew up in TX, Gibson Discount Stores were the best! They had the largest selection of Guns, Reloading supply's, Fishing Gear, and Archery Equipment EVER! Not to mention, toys, clothes, automotive, electronics, garden tools, appliances, jewelry, tools, ect........
Loved Gibson's!
As a kid, the guys at the sporting goods counter knew when they saw me come in, I'd probably done enough chores, or found enough Coke bottles to cash in for some more .22, or shotgun ammo.
They were in MS also.
when i was a kid bought my first Old Timer knife from there, from the big counter top display.
and fishing stuff. back when Zebco 33 were made here.
Dave
�The man who complains about the way the ball bounces is likely to be the one who dropped it.� Lou Holtz
Just about all Norma Ammunition was $4.97 a box! Didn't matter the cartridge. Still have several old boxes laying around her somewhere!
Founder Ancient Order of the 1895 Winchester
"Come, shall we go and kill us venison? And yet it irks me the poor dappled fools, Being native burghers of this desert city, Should in their own confines with forked heads Have their round haunches gored."
Grew up as a military dependent....and when we were back at home that was in Northern Virginia outside of DC...
many military bases I lived on or are around, are long gone.. and much of Northern Virginia where I lived has long since gone from rural to highly urbanized...
if one moved around alot, one cool thing to do on line is to go on Google Earth and look up addresses of houses where you lived as a kid....
I've done that for houses we lived in, in Albany GA, Manassas, Springfield. and Arlington VA. and where we lived in England for 3 years...
Been back east several times over the last 15 years or so and went by places I use to live... showed my son places I lived and we went onto the campuses of the two colleges I went to in Boston, my home as a real little kid in Princeton WVa.. my cousin lives on the same street...and even the hospital I was born in, in 1952 is still standing... its long since migrated to a new location, but the one I was born in is still standing... its an Assisted Living Facility ( or was in 2012)...
also went by my Grandparents places in WV and Tennessee.. nostalgic where I spent a lot of fun times visiting them when I was a kid... sad to see the properties so ran down nowadays...
in fact, when I traveled back east on a cross country trip, I was sadden to see how ran down a lot of places were...
like in Ohio, Wheeling WV was really depressing, Pennsylvania, Maryland.. places that were almost Detroit Like...
When service stations were service stations, not convenience stores.
My hometown had service stations selling Gulf, Esso (later Exxon), Mobil, Shell, Texaco, and a Petco that was just a gas station, no services offered.
When nearly every small northern New England town had a gun shop and if you were looking for a particular firearm, you had to make a road trip. I particularly miss Bill DeVaux's shop in Norwich, VT, and Bill Guilderdale's shop in Stockbridge, VT. Bill DeVaux's shop was where wealthy Dartmouth people disposed of the firearms from their estates. I remember going into the shop one time when Bill was filling the racks with dozens of Henrys, 1866s, 1873s, and 1876s. A sight like nothing that I'd seen before or have seen since.
When there were multiple dairies in town and you could get your milk delivered to your door in bottles by Honey Garden, Super Test, or Winona.
When A&W Root Beer was the only fast food restaurant in town.
When McDonald's came to town and you could buy a small drink, fries, and a hamburger for less than $1.
I grew up in the 'burbs, and still could walk out the door and go hunt squirrels and dove near the house. Would be jailed for doing so in the same places now.
TG&Y
Woolworths
A&P
small mom and pop hardware stores
Going down the the 7/11 to buy a tube of BBs for my red rider.
Fishdog, you struck a chord with me when you mentioned Gaddabout Gaddis "The Flying Fisherman." I remember that show very well; I never missed one because it had both fishing and flying - two of my favorite things back then.
I also watched Virgil Ward's show. Loved the part where he always showed lure action in a fish tank.
As far as other memories, Yoo-Hoo chocolate soda is right up there with me. I can only remember one place that sold it - a city park/swimming pool near our town. And I didn't always get one no matter how hard I begged Mom. But when I did...well, it was special. Very special.
Jackson Co.only has two incorperated towns,but has a lot small communities,and every small community used to have an elementary school,and a little store that was usually also the Post Office were the old men hung out.The old men always called me a catbird,and I never even knew what a catbird is..All the really small elementary schools,and stores are gone,but a lot of the small Post offices are still open..
Fishdog, you struck a chord with me when you mentioned Gaddabout Gaddis "The Flying Fisherman." I remember that show very well; I never missed one because it had both fishing and flying - two of my favorite things back then.
I also watched Virgil Ward's show. Loved the part where he always showed lure action in a fish tank.
As far as other memories, Yoo-Hoo chocolate soda is right up there with me. I can only remember one place that sold it - a city park/swimming pool near our town. And I didn't always get one no matter how hard I begged Mom. But when I did...well, it was special. Very special.
I grew up watching him on Sunday afternoons
Dave
�The man who complains about the way the ball bounces is likely to be the one who dropped it.� Lou Holtz
Ya know, when I watched Virgil and Gaddabout I could not imagine being that old and still getting around fishing. All the age 65+ old men in my life were "stove up" farmers and coal miners who could hardly hobble to the outdoor privy much less go to far-off fish camps.
For those who grew up in TX, Gibson Discount Stores were the best! They had the largest selection of Guns, Reloading supply's, Fishing Gear, and Archery Equipment EVER! Not to mention, toys, clothes, automotive, electronics, garden tools, appliances, jewelry, tools, ect........
Loved Gibson's!
As a kid, the guys at the sporting goods counter knew when they saw me come in, I'd probably done enough chores, or found enough Coke bottles to cash in for some more .22, or shotgun ammo.
They were in MS also.
when i was a kid bought my first Old Timer knife from there, from the big counter top display.
and fishing stuff. back when Zebco 33 were made here.
The one my father took me to had a big fish bowl on the counter. Within the bowl was a wide selection of odds and ends shotgun shells from broken boxes and the like. They were sold by the piece at a rate a kid could afford. I remember digging around to get the blue ones.
