General Merchandise

This name applied to the country and-or the crossroad building in a small village where it was more than a grocery store

This meant coffee, tea, sugar, spices, molasses and dried fruits. It also included a section for hardware. A farmer could get his horseshoes, nails of all sizes, axes, mattocks, long iron bars, pocket, butcher and kitchen kutter knives.

It had a shoe section—The latest for the ladies in high heel high button top shoes, the old 'Watsontown’ clod hoppers for men. The soles of this shoe were fastened with wooden pegs rather than brass nails. Rubber boots, felt boots and arctics in all sizes.

There was the large glass case with all sorts of 'penny candies'. Many an Indian head penny passed over this case for a favorite piece of candy to a boy or girl.

One group of shelves was the 'drug department'. Here one could obtain Laudanum for the baby, or Lydia Pinkham’s Compound for the housewife or your choice among many other patent medicines that were so popular at that time.

If you needed dyes, you were sure to find a large box of 'Putnam Dyes' of all shades. Next would be a drawer—O.N.T. Cotton thread- George A. Rogers. Lifting up the lid you could find the size and color you needed. Up on another shelf would be still another box containing packages of safety pins, straight pins, hat pins and needles.

At the rear of the store, next to the hardware were all colors of paints, dyes for paint made from lead compounds, linseed oil, turpentine, etc.

Near the front of the store was a large glass case containing custom jewelry. A good pocket watch could be bought for a dollar, or for a few dollars more you could get a gold filled one for 'Sunday carrying'. Perhaps several jews harps along with a choice of harmonicas were a quarter each. Here was an assortment of collar buttons and all sizes of paper or celluloid collars for men's Sunday shirts.

High on the upper shelf in large round boxes were the hats. Derbies and beaver hair in various shades for men and the latest style for the ladies. Sun bonnets were also available for the farmer's wife to keep the sun out of her eyes when she toiled in her garden.

On a nearby counter were the scrub brushes, paint brushes and brushes to whitewash the yard fence each spring with lime and water. You had your choice of clothes brushes, whiskbrooms and long handled broom corn brooms, some were trimmed, others were not.

Still another section was the stoneware. Here were the 'London stone dishes', cups and saucers, fancy glasses for the table as well as stone crocks that held up to twenty gallons.

Just beyond the candy counter was the tobacco. Here the customer had his choice of 'Chawin tobaccy'—Red Man, Union Workman, Five Brothers, Cutty Pipe, or if you preferred the plug, a five or ten cent cut of 'Brown's Mule' could be purchased. In a round box was a fresh supply of 'E' Twist or Yankee twist.

Cigars or tobies sold for two for a nickel. The merchant always had on hand a supply of 'penny stinkers’, a long slender black leaf cigar. Yes, they sold for one cent, and a what a 'scent' they gave out.

Many country stores had a section set aside for 'Uncle Sam'. The merchant was the postmaster. There were no mail deliveries. People had to walk miles for their mail or send a letter to a mail order company.

One more important section was the dry-goods counter. Here the ladies purchased sheeting, materials for bed ticking and pillows, heavy cloth for men's work shirts and pants. Later these two items could be bought already made up in most sizes. Also calico, gingham for making patch quilts or making dresses, various shades of flannel for nightgowns were available.

There used to be an old saying that the country store sold something for everyone young and old, male and female from the cradle to the coffin. P.T. Barnum once said, "there is much to be learned in a country store".

Jokers were always found in and around the country stores. The merchant had to keep up with the traveling drummer or a smart customer. For instance there were the "calico hog troughs, horn gun flints, pocket saw mill, basswood or hickory hams, white oak cheese, tin bung holes, post holes, white lamp black, sky hooks, left handed monkey wrenches, dew sifters, etc."

The salesmen generally provided some sort of amusement to the store loafers, and once in a while to the neighbors who lived close to the store. There were once two who traveled together in a model 'T' Ford. One sold candy and the other hardware. They were clowns. On one occasion they stopped at a country store. They put on the act of being so intoxicated that they did not know where they were and who they were. The performance was one for the stage in a theatre.

Another time while traveling along a country road, they found a large black snake whip which had fallen from some farmers wagon. Throwing the whip into the back seat, they proceeded on to the next village. After making their sales to the merchant, they prepared to leave. However, the old Ford refused to start. A half hour's labor and frustrated attempts to crank the motor failed. Finally the one salesman remarked to the crowd, that had now gathered about them; that he knew what was wrong with the D--- lizzy. He reached into the back seat, pulled out the long blacksnake and began to lick the 'hades' out of the wheels and tires. After a sound thrashing, he threw the whip into the back, walked to the front. The other salesman had remained back of the steering wheel during this time. He gently pushed the switch-key with his right foot. The crank was given a half twist. Much to the amazement of everyone, the motor began to roar. The two men then drove off as though nothing had happened out of the ordinary. This incident caused much comment in the community for days.

Another incident took place in a local country store—a traveling salesman with an unusually heavy head of hair tried his best to force the merchant, who was bald, to buy this product. When all his efforts failed, he remarked that the merchant "did not have enough brains to recognize a bargain".

The merchant replied that he always had been told that hair and brains did not mix. This remark so infuriated the salesman that he began to abuse the merchant with all sorts of insulting remarks. To end the session, the salesman with his wares made a hasty exit with the merchant in pursuit with a heavy stove poker in hand.

Several weeks after the drummer had made his sales, the merchant could expect to receive notice that his merchandise had been shipped from New York, Philadelphia or Baltimore to a central point 15 to 20 miles away. When the railroads came into existence, the goods were shipped to the nearest railroad station. In either case the merchant had to hire a team to pick up his purchases that were packed into large and heavy wooden boxes. There were no free deliveries.

The old country store with the painted "General Merchandise" in front, is fading slowly out of existence in Bedford County. In the near future they will be just another notch in our local history as are the covered bridges.