Well, the first frost of the fall showed itself last week. To be perfectly honest, I enjoyed breathing in the air on that first frosty morning. As I observed a few farmers huddled in the warmth of their pickup truck cabs, I was reminded of some of the cold mornings of my youth. When cold spells came one right after another, it seemed folks were content to simply try and “ride out” the winter.
Winter chores were few and most days were spent trying to find a warm place to hold up. One favorite spot was the local country store.
In my boyhood days, most communities had a country store or general merchandise store. Along with local churches, these stores served as the principle gathering places in the community.
During bitterly cold weather, farmers would get out in the morning and tend to chores that had to be done. Among those chores in the coldest weather were checking on new-born calves, breaking ice on ponds and replenishing wood and coal supplies. With the morning chores behind them, most farmers would head for the country store.
I remember with great fondness three particular country stores: Dewey Manning’s General Merchandise in Watervale, TN, (later John A. McCall’s Store), Leonard Carter’s Store in Riddleton, TN, and Ralph Holbrook’s General Merchandise in New Middleton.
Most country stores featured, somewhere near the back of the store, a pot-bellied stove. In the winter, it attracted farmers like flies. On some winter days you could walk in a store and not be able to see the stove for the farmers gathered around it. Farmers would be warming their hands or their backsides as they shared stories of the past night and morning. Topics of discussion would range from what their thermometer read that morning to how thick the ice was on their ponds.
I always found the pot-bellied store in a country store to be most interesting. Some store proprietors would set a pan of water on top of the stove to keep the air from getting too dry. Sometimes the stove would get so hot the stove door or stove top would glow red from the fire inside. Occasionally, someone would spit on the stove, and the spittle would dance and hiss until it vaporized.
A cardboard box half-filled with sawdust served as a spittoon. It usually sat right in front of the stove to accommodate the tobacco chewers. Some smokers used that box to snuff out their cigarettes. Others carefully poked their cigarette butts through the vents in the stove door.
Most country stores had oiled wood floors that made a creaking sound when you walked on them. To recall that sound today is like music to my ears.
And of course, every country store had a counter or table where food could be consumed. For some reason, red and white checked oil cloth comes to my mind. And a prominent feature of every eating place was a bottle of Louisiana Hot Sauce.
I wonder how many tons of bologna and cheese have been eaten in country stores over the history of time. That would be worth looking into. Bologna and crackers, cheese and crackers, Beenie Weenies, Vienna sausage, potted meat, “Possum” brand sardines and crackers, to name a few delicacies, have made many a meal.
On the subject of cheese - the cheese that was once eaten on crackers in country stores was real cheese - not like the “cheese product” found in grocery stores and on fast-food burgers today. It was cheese sliced right off the loaf, and it tasted like cheese.
A few weeks ago, I purchased a pound of that real cheese in the deli department at a local supermarket. The cost? - $6.99 per pound. I watched the person slice it off the big loaf. I peeled the plastic off each time I enjoyed a slice. I ate cheese and crackers for two weeks. It was worth every penny.
A while back I went looking for some “Possum” brand sardines. They’re not around anymore. I tried two or three different brands of sardines to resurrect a memory, but it’s not the same. Sardines are no longer crammed in a can. I opened one can, and it had three little fish in it. And they had plenty of wiggle room!
Oh, the days of pot-bellied stoves and creaking floors and real cheese and “Possum” brand sardines. Warms me up just thinking about them.
Copyright 2025 by Jack McCall
