Paul's Ponderings - February 28, 2008

A couple of weeks ago, I spent the most of one morning “loafing” at Spoon’s Grocery in the Fairplay community, talking to folks and gathering information for a story I wrote about the store closing – leaving the community without a country store at or near that location for the first time since the 1890s. After visiting the store, I began reminiscing (something I seem to do more and more often as I get older) about the country stores that used to be located in every little community throughout the county, and how they’ve gradually disappeared over the years.
This line of thought led me to try to count all the country stores that are still left in the county. The best I can figure, there’s somewhere in the vicinity of 17 or 18 stores still in operation, counting a couple that are actually more restaurants than stores and one or two that are not open full-time. When I was growing up in the 1950s and ‘60s, there seemed to be about that many country stores on Burton Ridge alone.
Growing up in the country – specifically the Gradyville area – country stores were always a part of my life. I can vaguely remember going to Hob Walker’s big store in Gradyville with my dad when I was a very small child, but the stores from that community I remember the most were the ones run by Eugene and Betty Moss, which was located at top of hill on KY 80 before you got into “downtown” Gradyville, Ural Janes’store, and the store first operated by Cager Coomer and then Edgar Compton. I can still recall, as a child of four or five, going to visit my cousin, Bessie Janes, who lived on the Old Gradyville Road behind Ural Janes’store, and Bessie letting me and another cousin or two go to her hen house and collect eggs, then take them to the store and trade them for candy. The only bad memory of those times was having to walk across a narrow, wooden foot bridge that was several feet above the creek that ran behind the store. You couldn’t hang on to the railing because you were carrying eggs in both hands.
As I was growing up, I’d beg my father to let me go with him every time he went to one of the stores. Most of the time, it was to the Moss’store, since it was the closest to our house. Back in those days, the country stores were the focal points in the community, and there was always a lot of “loafing”going on, especially in the afternoons after the adults had quit working for the day, and all day long in winter time when there wasn’t much farming going on. There was always a lot of whittling and knife trading going on, checkers, chess or rook being played, and of course, a lot of tall tale telling.
However, thanks to my father’s job, my country store experiences of my youth weren’t limited to just the Gradyville area. Dad and his partner, the late Kimble Bradshaw, ran a Chappell’s Dairy milk route delivering milk to stores in Columbia and in various parts of the county and I’d go with them to help out when I wasn’t going to school. We’d take different routes through the country on our way to and from the dairy in Campbellsville, so we hit a lot of country stores. Two or three days a week, we’d stop at all the country stores up Highway 206 (then go on into Liberty). Other days, we’d hit the stores in Cane Valley and Coburg, while another route would bring us back from Campbellsville through Greensburg and we’d stop at all the stores along or near KY 61 such as Clay Ridge, Milltown, etc.
As I grew older, I still frequented country stores, even more so when I was in my mid-teens. At first we’d walk to to the stores, or ride bicycles. When some of our group got old enough to drive, we’d all ride to the stores, a lot of times hanging out in the parking lots at night long after they closed. At one time, a half-dozen or so of us acquired small motorcycles, and a cousin and I would take off about every weekend during the summer, traveling the back roads and stopping at country stores in Milltown, Portland, Sparksville, Breeding, Chance, or wherever we ended up.
Over the years, I’ve eaten many a baloney sandwich, drank countless soft drinks and downed many a candy bar or Moon Pie at country stores. I’ve also made many friends through visits to country stores, a lot who  remain friends to this day.
Times have changed, people now go to town to shop instead of staying in their communities, and the number of country stores is steadily dwindling. But, thankfully, there’s still some around, and I’ll still take the opportunity to stop in one and “loaf” a while anytime I can.

Anyone who ever grew up around country stores in the county needs to check out Ernestine Bennett’s two editions of The Old Country Store, Adair County, Kentucky, available at the Adair County Public Library (where Ernestine works). The small books contain a lot of pictures and information about country stores that operated in the county during the past 100-plus years. Looking through her books also brought back a lot of memories to me.