06/08/2026
The Old General Store
Looking back on our trips to Arkansas I can remember many stories to tell of the things
that happened, the people I love and most of all the old general store. My grandparents
live in a very small town called Saddle, which is in Arkansas, with a population of about
fifty-nine and that’s coutin dogs and cows. To go there is like stepping back in time. It is
a simple life, a lazy life. When I was young my family would go to Saddle to visit my
grandparents whom I refer to as Mamaw and Papaw.
At that time, they owned the only store with the one and only gas pump in town. The
Store is a two-story wooden structure with five crooked and crumbling steps leading up
to a big porch connected to the store. Inside you would find a potbellied stove in the
center of one room which contained a variety of staples and sundries needed by the
folks of Saddle. Ol Ebb from up the hill would be there sitting in a rocking chair waiting
for someone who would be willing to play a game of checkers. The checkerboard was
old and faded with NeeHi pop bottle caps to act as the checkers. One side was orange
and the other was grape. Papaw would be there to fill the orders. If a customer
happened to be a little short of cash Papaw would give them credit. He kept a running
list of whatever the customer bought on a piece of cardboard which at one time had
been the top of a carton of ci******es. There was a refrigerator there to hold the blocks
of ham, cheese and bologna from which Papaw sliced as much or as little as the
customer needed. I remember a man coming in each day to have sliced just enough
bologna and cheese to make one sandwich. Papaw would record the twenty-five cents
it cost on the man’s piece of cardboard.
My older sister liked to help Papaw run the store. He would tell her how much
something cost, and she would push down the buttons on the old adding machine and
then pull the handle to calculate the total. She became very good, and Papaw would
leave for short periods of time to let her run the store by herself. I just enjoyed being
there and looking at the variety of items and getting an occasional grape NeeHi from the
cooler which Papaw kept cold enough for the pop to form little chunks of ice inside. In
one corner of the store Papaw had created a kind of flea market theme to sell used
items no longer needed by their original owner. Things like used books, record albums,
dishes, etc… You would also find pictures painted by my mother and my uncle. They
are amateur artists, but their work is very good. Toward the back of the store there were
racks of clothes which folks had donated to sell. Among these clothes were my great
grandmother’s nursing uniforms which looked like those worn by Florence Nightengale.
These items didn’t ever sell but for the occasional passer through the items were
enjoyable to look at.
With each visit to Arkansas, though I got older and changed in many ways, it
seemed that Saddle always stayed the same. The store is closed now and occasionally
Papaw will go to the store for canned goods or Band-Aids or an item still there that
wasn’t perishable. During my last visit Papaw needed to get something from the store
so for old times’ sake I went with him. Nothing had changed, it had just collected
another layer of dust. As Papaw rummaged around for whatever he needed I browsed
through the items over in the corner. Pictures which my mother had painted years
before were still hanging there, old shoes which she had worn, old dishes I remember
having eaten from and looking into the glass case of special items I saw a cup which I
had created from clay in art class when I was in second grade. I looked over at Papaw,
whom I love very much, and realized that he must love me very much also for having
put such a pitiful object that I had created into his glass case to be on display for all to
see.
I think now of the old general store as a kind of time capsule for our family. Maybe
someday in the future, after we are all gone, a passer-through will stop into the store
and wonder about the people from Saddle and those who created the items on display.
Surely the store will still be there with all its things inside, because in Saddle nothing
ever changes.
