You could buy shotgun shells by the each , didn't have to buy a whole box. I don't remember how much they cost each though.

I wonder if there is a store anywhere in the USA that still does that ?

Mike

Passing times my friend...
I remember my first handgun,paying for while while still in college,the store owner sold me 12 rounds for a dollar...

Growing up the old store had 22 short for 1/2 cent and long and long rifle were a penny a piece. I believe the shotgun shells were 5 maybe 6 cents a piece.

I wasn't very long after the price went to 1 penny for short, 1 1/2 cent for long and 2 cent for long rifle that they quit selling them like that.

As a 10, 11, 12 year old I bought many shells that way

we used to buy .22 shells individually out of boxes...could also buy smokes the same way.
we sent off lots of squirrel tails to the mepp spinner co. to feed our habits.....

Mike, my Dad said back in the depression era that they bought 3 shotgun shells for a nickle. He also said that if they wounded an animal that it was his job as a boy to run the game down and finish it off w/a stick. They would never waste a shell for a finishing shot on an animal. He told a story of having only one shell and a jackrabbit jumps up and my grandpa missed the shot. He said he cried because he knew there would be no meat to go w/the water bisquits. powdr

Only a few years ago I was in a shop in Casper, WY and bought individual brass. I lost two 7 mag cases out of my box while after antelope and picked up two at that store, can't remember the name.

This is a pic of my great-grandfather in his country grocer in Cleveland, Tn. About 1958.

with the Kayo milk man dropping off delivery.

The original image is much crisper obviously, with a silver certificate the old man is ringing into the drawer.

way cool. my grandparents owned a little store when i was a kid. I still have some of the store tablets. papaw sold groceries on credit to certain people. man i used to love getting a big baloney sammich in there.

My dad owned the local gun shop in the late 50's/early 60's in our small town. He'd sell you whatever as long as you had the cash. IIRC a typical gun purchase went like this ... How much is that used model 94? It's $22. Here's $22. Enjoy your Model 94. He had a 50cal and a 30cal machine gun on tripods in the front window. Both had the firing pins removed. My brother and I used to climb into the window and strafe passing cars.

When I would go to the Jack Sprat grocery store with Mom, they would let me take one cookie from the bin to eat while she shopped. Mohr's IGA across the street would let you buy a nickel Popsicle and have them split it in half so you could take half with you to eat and leave the other half in their freezer to come back and get whenever you wanted.

Bought my first shotgun in the early sixties by wadding up five and one dollar bills and sending them away to a gun store in the south (saw the add in Shotgun News). Thinks it was called Vic's for Guns. It was a used NRA very good sxs 16 made in France. Couple weeks later the postmaster said he had a box for me. Shoved some of my Pa's roll crimped Peters shells in it and started shootin ducks off the Poplar river. I was too young to drives so I just threw the gun over my shoulder and hiked through town and down to the creek.

If ya wanted to buy shells, you might have to wait in line behind the farmer picking up some dynamite or strychnine. Things have changed. Not all for the better.

Remember when .22 shells came in the "chicklet" packs?

When I was a little kid in the 50's we lived in Young AZ, where my old man was from. No electricity, lighting by candles or kerosene lamps, the proverbial two-room school, a couple of dirt roads thru town. There was a rambling general store in Young operated by two bachelor brothers, Ray and Glen Hougland. Houglands' store sat on a small rise in the middle of town and had a gravity gas pump out front. I remember one day walking over to Hougland's store with my dad because Glen asked my old man to help him inventory the place. I sat on the counter eating saltine crackers while Glen and my dad heaved stuff around and dug thru years' worth of accumulated odds-and-ends. At one point, I specifically recall my dad tossing back a dusty tarp to reveal an enormous folded pile of brand-new Levis 501's. When he pointed them out to Glen, Glen basically scratched his head and muttered about "wondering where those were." Later, my old man removed the covering from a large wooden barrel and discovered the barrel was full of money! Because Young had no bank, the Houghlands simply kept their cash in a barrel in their store. Glen shrugged, considering the matter completely unremarkable.

Ray and Glen are both long dead, and their store, insofar as I know, has long been closed. I still wonder about that barrel of money, however....

Little country store near here, with dry goods, local food stuffs/preserves, butcher shop, little deli, beer, hardware & plumbing and basic housewares, ammo of course, hell. Almost bought an angle grinder one day while picking up meat.

Prominent "CCW Welcomed" sign on front door. God Bless America!

After church on Sunday, Dad and I would go to the dump with one of those packs and shoot cans and (gasp!) bottles.

Yup, great memories.

One Sunday it was so cold that our old tomcat spent the whole day licking his balls so that they didn't freeze and fall off. We drove to the dump, kept the car running and the heater going, and I rolled down the window and shot from the car. I suppose that I (like kids everywhere) never told Dad thanks for the effort he put in to see that I got to do things.

Wish I coulda included the smell of the store.

No kid with a good dad ever says thanks enough. Now, I know that leading a productive life is all the thanks they ever wanted. ;-{>8

not quite as old but my first gun was my grandfather buying me a Winchester 190 at JC Penney for $75.

I was rationed a half box of shells each Saturday and had to make it last all weekend.

I still have the gun and gave it to my son.

Bought many a shotgun shell at the liquor store, the Mom 'n Pop stores besides the gas pumps use to have a large jar of pickeled pig nuckles at the check out, and the local hardware had model cars for $1.98 and pocket watches for less than $5.00.

I have set of those scales

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.

Looked like Fort Knox to me.


I think the smell was some kind of oil used on all the hardware.

Clark Brothers is still there...... some of the good ole still there.

When we went to the Southside Cafe, they would let me go behind the counter to select my own bottle of pop from the cooler. They would be hanging in slots and sometimes I had to do quite a bit of rearranging if it had been loaded with two brands sharing a slot.

anybody from the Midwest here should remember being able to buy gas ,beer and a .22 or shot gun...... rite off the shelf at "Holiday gas stations" guns were just sittin on the shelf in the middle of a asile.........man them times were the chit!

who remembers gambling at the coke machine. we would all put in a $5 and play far away. the coke bottle with the farthest away city got the pot.

The Holiday station in nearby Petoskey, MI closed down a little over a year ago. Even up to the time they shut down they still had some fishing goodies as well as a modest selection of ammo. No guns for sale though.

Yeah, we've lost a helluva lot of freedom over the past couple generations. My grandfather used to tell of buying dynamite at the local farm supply for blowing stumps and he didn't even have to show ID or sign for it.

[/quote] Yeah, we've lost a helluva lot of freedom over the past couple generations. My grandfather used to tell of buying dynamite at the local farm supply for blowing stumps and he didn't even have to show ID or sign for it. [/quote]


I'm thinking some change is for the better.

I have a couple of boxes of Holiday shotgun shells. Used to stop there quite a bit. Always fun looking around.

Not very damned often and the instances described above {buying guns and dynamite} aren't among them. I'm even old enough to remember when you could buy guns from a store or mail order catalog with no paperwork involved. Those were the good old days ! What's that old saying about those who would exchange freedom for security deserve neither ?

A great thread. But still a little depressing looking back at the way things were then and seeing the way things are now.

I have a couple of boxes of Holiday shotgun shells. Used to stop there quite a bit. Always fun looking around.

I have an old fishing lure[I think rapalla]still in the box that was sent to my grandfather from eight-O-Clock brand coffee as some sort of giveaway/promotion when he owned an old type corner grocery store back in the 40's and 50's & 60's.

raef i've still got an imitation scout knife that has blade, can opener, fork and spoon. my mom sent in kool aid packs to get the knife.

Stush,

Unfortunately, it's been closed for a long time now. She got robbed by some punks and severely beaten. The store closed shortly after that. Also long gone are Calari's, which was the gas pump/roadside store on Sabula Lake just down from Mrs. Cornelius's, and Morelli's over in Penfield. We used to go to Morelli's for whatever we forgot to bring to camp with us. He still had the high shelves, with the ladder on tracks to slide along the wall and get to the dry goods up above. You may also remember Bailey's ice cream stand in Dubois by the side entrance to the mall. Sadly, it's gone too. Whenever we went to camp in the summer, that was always a special treat to go to Bailey's for a twist cone.

I might be wrong, but I think I remember an Army/Navy store
in Oil City/Franklin, PA many years ago.

Happy Birthday!

crane's in williamsburg mo. it was still like a 1920's general store up to 10 yrs ago. it's a little more modern these days. still have $1 flat meat sammachs

We used to shoot rats at the city dump. We would tape a flashlight to the barrels of our .22s and blast away. Cops caught us once and hauled us in. I had tossed my Remington pump away as we were running from the cops. Later, at the station they called our parents who came and bailed us out.

As we were walking out the cop said, "Hey kid you forgot this" and tossed me the .22 which I still have to this day.

Speaking of Army/Navy stores we had an Army Surplus store back when I was growing up. Man I loved that place. Shelves of bayonets (dad wouldn't let me have one for some reason). real military clothing, military rifles still half coated with grease, all kinds of good stuff. My buddies and I all had real stuff to play army with-helmet liners, cartridge belts, shovels with khaki holders that clipped on the belts, you name it.
Last time I was in one it was all cheap imitation stuff and tactical gear. Lots of cheap knives. Kinda sad.
I finally got dad to give me an M3 trench knive he picked up somewhere. Sadly, I decided to sharpen it with a grinder which ticked dad off somethin fierce.
A little side story about old stores. Years ago there was a shoe store in the top floor of a building downtown. Had to walk up a flight of stairs to get to it. As you entered the store there was a big poster of a guy aiming at some elk. I always liked that poster.
Anyway, the store closed and some time later that poster appeared in my uncle's garage. He pinned notes to it. When he passed I got the poster (the uncle who was executor of the will said "take the dumb thing."
I brought it home and did some investigating on the net. It is the work of Philip Goodwin (one "l"), a famous illustrator from the early 20th century. It measures probably four feet by five feet. I made a nice walnut frame for it and it rests in our rec room. I haven't found one that large and have no idea of what it's worth, but it's mine.

Speaking of Army/Navy stores we had an Army Surplus store back when I was growing up. Man I loved that place. Shelves of bayonets (dad wouldn't let me have one for some reason). real military clothing, military rifles still half coated with grease, all kinds of good stuff. My buddies and I all had real stuff to play army with-helmet liners, cartridge belts, shovels with khaki holders that clipped on the belts, you name it.
Last time I was in one it was all cheap imitation stuff and tactical gear. Lots of cheap knives. Kinda sad.
I finally got dad to give me an M3 trench knive he picked up somewhere. Sadly, I decided to sharpen it with a grinder which ticked dad off somethin fierce.
A little side story about old stores. Years ago there was a shoe store in the top floor of a building downtown. Had to walk up a flight of stairs to get to it. As you entered the store there was a big poster of a guy aiming at some elk. I always liked that poster.
Anyway, the store closed and some time later that poster appeared in my uncle's garage. He pinned notes to it. When he passed I got the poster (the uncle who was executor of the will said "take the dumb thing."
I brought it home and did some investigating on the net. It is the work of Philip Goodwin (one "l"), a famous illustrator from the early 20th century. It measures probably four feet by five feet. I made a nice walnut frame for it and it rests in our rec room. I haven't found one that large and have no idea of what it's worth, but it's mine.

Highlandville....looks like they fancied it up and raised/blacktopped the lot.

Had steps last time I was there...





I delivered a few batteries up that cursed step.

Neater place on the inside...

Its right next to this place in the same dead town...

Can anyone recall paying for a purchase where one of these was positioned next to a giant gold cash register under a large ball of twine. The clerk would ask if you would like your purchase wrapped. Only used brown paper bags for very small items.

I was always in too big a hurry and stuck the .22 shells or fishing tackle in my pocket. Which reminds me, the sinkers bobbers etc were in little glass partitioned bins with individual prices in a metal clip on the front.

In fact, I can't think of a retail store, when I was a kid, that didn't have a large ball of twine hanging over the cash register.

When I was a kid, Dad was the partsman for the IH dealer in town. The owner also had a hardware store. Mom kept books for both places at that time and Dad would help out in the hardware as needed. One Saturday night, I was amusing myself by walking quickly along and running my hand over the tops of the front glass on those shelves that you were talking about. (The sections were held together by metal clips.) As I tooled along with my mind elsewhere, I came to a piece of glass that had a semicircle broken out of its top edge. Fortunately, blood cleans up quite nicely from glass and wooden floors.