Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Hunter's Campfire Back In The Day (Old Country Store)

I'm obviously not from the same era as some of you guys and I'm sure my Old Country Store experiences wouldn't make much of an impression on you, but I remember my Mom working for the local corner grocery for a year or so while our neighbor managed it.

It was a typical little shop with a couple gas pumps, an ice cream stand next door and best of all, an assortment of fishing gear. In those days I simply lived to fish and I'd save my pennies in anticipation of the next trip to the store so that I could add to my meager, but steadily growing lure selection. That store, Thomas's Grocery, even sponsored a T-ball team that my brother, the neighbor's son and I all played for. This was back in the mid-70's. It closed down shortly after my neighbor quit managing it and was turned into an arcade for a couple more years before it was razed. I was through that area a couple weeks ago and that corner lot is still empty.

There was another, even older general store, that we neighbor kids would ride bikes to on occasion with the goal of buying all the candy and soda we could afford with bottle return money. That little store, Olson's, used to have darned near everything. I remember seeing leg hold traps hanging from nails on the wall, army surplus, old gas pumps and more that I can't seem to recollect right now. Olson's was at the corner of 9 mile and Olson road about 9 miles West of Midland, MI and was such an old building and apparently a piece of history that the building was moved to nearby Sanford, MI to become part of an assembly of trains and buildings for a small museum of local history.

About 2 miles from where I sit right now there is/was a Mom and Pop hardware store in Topinabee, MI. The owner recently died and a story I'd never heard before came out about the operation of the store. It seems that the owners of the store had begun some years ago to winter in the South during the slow winter season. Instead of leaving the locals in the lurch regarding hardware odds and ends that they might need, the owner stashed a key and let the locals know where to find it. Then he arranged a credit ledger book to be left on the counter next to an inventory ledger. When a local came in and "purchased" something, they would write the amount in the credit ledger and the name and quantity of the purchased items in the inventory ledger.

Once a month a hardware supplier would come in and restock the shelves based on the inventory ledger and when the owner of the store got back from his winter hiatus, he'd settle up with the supplier and the customers would settle up with him.

Great thread and the pics are outstanding! Thanks guys!

I can remember when I was in high school all convenience stores and what we here in Texas call ice houses,on display you could buy
any caliber shotgun shell,rifle and 22 ammo they had in stock.We all drove pickup trucks with a shotgun,22 or deer rifle on the gun rack rear window of the truck.
We never locked our trucks and we all carried pocket knives to school.
I was in the 9th-12th grade in 1963-1966.

Sorry Mike.....no place in the USA would do that

Growing up in College Park (MD) in the 1950's, there were several hardware stores within walking distance of my home that sold firearms. Many of the finger and nose prints on the glass display cases were mine. At age 13, I bought a box of 222 Remington cartridges for the rifle I was saving up to get - still have the box; never bought a 222 Remington.

Not too many guys like that today!

Sure do. Cans and bottles were for the slow times when the rats were in hidding. Wish I had a nickel for every rat I shot.

Thanks all for the great posts. I can't remember buying individual shells but I remember the first time my dad brought home a brick of 22's. Federals. I rationed them out carefully.
When I still lived in Sioux City we had a small hardware store a few blocks away. Until he closed in the 90's you could still buy one nut or one bolt from bins. Used to have a barrel of fishing rods and once in a while you could get a good one pretty darn cheap. Had wooden floors and two big sheepdogs that didn't seem to mind the customers.

I miss places like that...thanks for the memory

That's customer service right there.

There's still a pretty decent hardware store a few miles from my house where you bag and weigh your own nails and nuts and bolts. They carry just about everything from brake pads to Quickrete. Even have a small selection of hunting and fishing stuff in one short aisle.

One of my earliest memories was going squirrel hunting with my uncle. We first stopped at a shot house ( I had to wait in the car while built up his strength ), and then a little store where he purchased a handful of shotgun shells for a quarter. He let me carry them to the car.

I'm a little too young for the kind of experiences you guys speak of, but a few memories still come to mind. Anyone here familiar with Sabula Pennsylvania? Mrs. Cornelius's general store was on 255 across from Sabula Lake. You could buy anything from a dozen eggs to a 3 pt. hitch for your Ford N. Dad was notorious for forgetting to pack his ammo for deer season. Mrs. Cornelius always kept a box of Remington 180 gr. 300 Savage ammo in stock, just for Dad. If anyone else asked for it, and it was her last box, she wouldn't sell it to them, 'cuz she knew Dad would be in for it shortly.

I stopped in that store many times growing up. It was on our way to our camp in Potter County, so we went by it all the time. Haven't been up that way in a while. Is there even a store there anymore?

Ah, the memories of our youth. I grew up in the fifties and could walk through the neighborhood with my .22 rifle and a couple of friends on our way to the fields we played in and no one thought anything about it.

The closest thing to nostalgic around here is the farm supply store where ammuntion is sold near the checkout counter as an impulse item. They carry a fair selection of cartridges from .22 to .300 Win. The .22 shells cost a wee bit more than a penney apiece these days and they make you buy 50 at a time. The centerfires cost more than the $27.50 I paid for my first .30-06, purchased used at the local hardware store in the late fifties.

My Grandfather had a grocery store on the waterfront in Cincinnati. He provisioned the steam boats on the Ohio River. He would start packing their order when he heard the whistle sound as they rounded the bend.

I'm not 100 years old but I am still enjoying this thread.



Travis

My great-great Uncle's store. Building is still standing, the business closed in the 1980s.

It was located in a valley nearby two great trout streams and the Wisconsin River. Fisherman and hunters frequented the store with awesome fish and hunting stories. As a kid I was like a sponge and absorbed all the stories. A couple other things I remember is the distinct smells in the store. Pipe tobacco smoke and the hog and cow schit from the farmers.

The big treat for me was the cold Coca Cola pop immersed in the water of the Coca Cola cooler. You opened the bottle on the side of the cooler.

I grew up in the 60's only 30 miles north of NYC. We would walk through several neighborhoods with 22's and shotguns on the way to the woods to snap some caps. Most of the properties crossed were owned by people we didn't even know. Nobody ever questioned us. In HS I could bring my cased 22 and ammo on the bus for after school rifle team practice.

At the local store I'd pick things up for Mom using only our last name. One time the burger meat I was sent for never made it home. My brother and I ended up in a rumble with some neighborhood kids that typically roamed around and bullied every chance they got. When we were done the chop meat was spread so thin over somebodies front yard that none could be salvaged. Mom just laughed...... that time.

Yes! I was responsible for many broken boxes of 22 LR's and 12 guage shells at the local hardware stores. I also think I was a better shot in the days when I went afield with maybe 30 cents worth of 22 cartridges or maybe 6 shotgun shells for a dove hunt. When I graduated to having real money (like a checking account with $50 or so in it) one could still write counter checks. Just a blank form where one wrote in the bank name and city and then the vitals. Real handy if one was traveling and didn't happen to have the check book along. Those stores also had real inventories, not just a shelved item or two that were ordered and shipped in as they came off the shelf. Those country stores were also pretty much the social hub of each township. Saturdays would find half the community there sitting outside on wooden soft drink crates or nail kegs. A far cry from the rush through a big box store today.

Along the sames lines were the gun stores. I was a kid in Va at the time, and Clark Brothers Gun Shop out of Warrenton would let us post date checks and hold them if we were short on cash. They would also do full refunds on items when one was upgrading. I had little to no $$ left for a scope when I purchased my first new rifle there. That being I started with a 4x Tasco, traded that back for a 6x Weaver, and traded that back finally for a 3-9x Weaver that it (Rem 600 6mm) still wears today. Those boys did a lot to foster a kid's entry into the shooting sports.

Those were the good ole days indeed.