Kiger’s Store
Note: Kiger was the husband of Mama’s half-sister El short for Ella or Eller.
Many families during the 50’s either had no car or only one car. People caught rides with others or walked. The nearest store for people living on White Rock Road was Baynes’ Market at Daisy Station. The building still exists as a quasi-convenience store. People walked up White Rock and Davis Roads to get to Baynes’ store. Many of those walking up and down the road would stop and visit or exchange a few words with people living along the way.
Everyone that Kiger talked with on one particular day told him they were going to the store. Kiger decided that if he opened a store he could get their business. He also figured he could get all the local kids pop money. He traded a tree to a saw mill for a load of green lumber. Too impatient to wait for the lumber to cure, he spent a couple of month constructing the ‘store.’ The building he constructed was about the size of a second bed room in a two bed room house. It had the typical slanted roof. (What my sister Vera refers to as ‘outhouse architecture.’) The building was never painted and the boards warped as the green lumber cured. It resembled a corn crib more than a store.
There was a counter with a hinged drop leaf running the length of the room. There were shelves behind the counter and an ice chilled Coca-Cola cooler in front of the counter. There was no refrigeration equipment. The electricity for the store was provided by an extension cord from the back porch of the house. The store was initially stocked with canned pork and beans, Vienna sausages, potted meats, candy bars, peanuts and Nabs. He also had bread and cakes for a while. It drew a lot of kids with their coins. My Uncles, Frank and Buddy, asked him where the cash register was. He pulled out a drawer he had built into the back of the counter. They told him that wasn’t a cash register because it didn’t have a bell. So Kiger hung a cow’s bell off the back of the drawer. It would clang each time the drawer was pulled out.
Daddy would take us to Kiger’s on payday for a pop and candy bar. We looked forward to the treat. I know that he was still selling pop and candy to kids when Daddy died. I don’t know when he ceased to operate the store. I remember the building being there years later, while I was on leave from the Navy.
Kiger and his store were a laughing stock that Kiger laughed along with.
—Garland Davis
I’ve had Garland on my mind. In the last email I had from him he said the Parkinson’s he’d fought for years had gotten so bad he was no longer able to correspond with people online. That was a good while back.
Garland read the Blind Pig every day for years. I went back and found his first comment. He left in way back in 2010.
He sent me the story about Kiger’s store back in 2014. Over the years he wrote many guest posts for me—all enjoyable and all humorous in one way or another.
I wish I could have seen Kiger’s store, especially the cowbell cash register 🙂
Last night’s video: The Family History and Stories of Opal Corn Myers 40.
Tipper
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That kind of living was our life. We had Huskey’s Groceries Store right in front of our four room school house. He sold kerosine on the front porch and had one gas pump. We kids dreamed about all that candy and 5 cent Cokes. It wasn’t a big store, but a lot of work men would get a big bologna and cheese sandwich sliced thick. I loved going in there, but the Rolling Store was my favorite.
I still ask folks up and down the hollow if they need anything because I headed to town or down the highway in the other direction to the Dollar Store. I’m thinking that if I could afford a 14×46 roof on this trailer it would be cheapest using “Outhouse Architecture.” I love Y’all.
“Outhouse architecture ” LOL- that’s funny
there is kiger family here in rural hall nc that might be related…
Wonderful stories !!!
Thank you for this post about Garland. I, too, have been thinking about him. Some of his previous comments included an area near me in NC. Obviously, he has fond memories of NC. I am sending warm wishes and prayers for him.
I love this story as it brings back a flood of memories for me. Mom and Pop stores were all us country folks had when I was young and we were very lucky to have them. Penny candy, peanuts, nabs, moon pies, the best, coldest drinks out of a drink cooler, hoop cheese, the list goes on. I could hardly wait until I got the chance to go to the “store” as we called it.
At one time there was only two blogs I subscribed to. Garland Davis had a blog “Tales of an Asia Sailor.” It recounted his days as a sailor in the US Navy. It written to and in the voice of all the old Navy men I have encountered. Having never been in the Navy, I didn’t understand all he had to say, but I could, sort of, follow along. If one wanted to read Tales of an Asia Sailor, all they would need to do is type that into their browser and it should come up. Be forewarned, it is written for sailors by a sailor and sailors speak a different language.
The places Garland mentions in his comment are in Forsyth County, Northwest of Winston-Salem, about 77 miles Northwest of me. Looking at Google maps it appears that a new section of I-74 has cut right through Garland’s childhood community. Instead of being adjacent, Daisy Station and White Rock are separated by a four lane Interstate Highway. Is that progress?
The other blog I read, still do and probably ever will, is this one.
Thank you, Tipper, for sharing such a tender story.
How is Granny today? May God comfort and heal her.
i think that car pooling must have been all over the u.s. in the 50s and 60s. we had only one car always, out there in the first post WWII subdivision out in san francisco—the one she wrote “little boxes” about!— and until 1968 my dad would car pool into the city one day every week to go to work, so my mom could have the car to ferry me around to all those baby boomer after school ballet and piano lessons and such! grocery shopping, too, of course, she must have gone out of her mind with boredom—our next door lady from montana never even learned to drive so she was REALLY stuck! i used to walk the <mile to the “shopping centers” (there were two, in opposite directions) when i was around 10 or so, but i don’t remember our moms, who would have been in their 50s, doing so.
Loved the story. We had a mom and pop store called Ray’s. Later after the Ray’s got on in years they sold it and it became Terry’s. They had a two pump gas station. Sometimes mom would have me go get a gallon of gas for the lawn mower. I would walk the maybe half mile, pump it myself and pay a wopping 30 cents and trudge home. I was about 8 years old.
Richard
Loved the picture of the old store and remember reading Garland’s comments years back and enjoying them. I could put myself right in the story that Leta’s commented on. R.C. Colas, Moon Pies, Peanuts, slice or two of hoop cheese, and couple slices of bologna. Yum, Yum.
Tipper, I watched Corie and Katie’s video of their 1st gig since the pandemic. They did a great job and I know ya all are so proud for them. God bless you all and special prayers for Granny.
my grandfather operated a grocery store in tampa when my mama was a child, around about WWI i guess it would’ve been. she always talked about the penny candy in jars on the counter. i never found out exactly where, but tampa was only about 20 years old then, having really only come into its own at the spanish-american war, so i imagine somewhere in what’s now known as tampa heights, a mile or so north of downtown. mama always said it failed because he offered too much credit, and i know after it did they removed to a dirt farm in citra, on the outskirts of ocala, but my mom never did so that must have been after she graduated in ‘26 (my aunt, two years younger, graduated in ocala.) so maybe the grocery store was into the early 20s, just about the time the self-serve idea was starting up to drive out those credit-happy locals: “ The success of Piggly Wiggly was phenomenal, and other independent and chain grocery stores changed to self-service in the 1920s and 1930s.”
There were several small Mom and Pop’s grocery stores around where I grew up. They’re all gone now, the chain convenience stores put them out of business. I loved those old stores where I could get an ice cold soft drink and a candy bar or a snack cake during a hot summer day. They all seemed to have the same smell. It was a mixture of tobacco smoke, cardboard boxes and ripe bananas among other things.
When I was little my cousin and me would go to Swanson’s store in Lawrenceville, Ga. We’d have the best time looking for what candy we wanted.
Two houses up from my Momo was Willard’s barber shop. She’d give us change and we’d each get a coke then go around back and put the bottle in the wood crate when we were finished.
We had the best time playing all around where she lived. We didn’t go in until the porch light came on. Those were magical times.
We had a little community type store similar to that growing up, it had a wood exterior and a screw in light bulb hanging from the ceiling via a heavy stiff electrical wire that went at an angle to the back corner of the store. It supplied tobacco products, dry and tinned goods as well as having the cooler for drinks. Farmers would gather out front and discuss their crops or just carry on with recent events. Everyone just called it Trulas or Trulers, later her daughter updated it and modernized it with proper electrical wiring and lighting, even a gas pump, but we kids would go there growing up and get RC colas, moonpies, popsicles or candybars. It was close enough that we were allowed to travel unattended by an adult, as we would cut through Mr.. Hickeys cow pasture to avoid traveling the roadway. I don’t know if it was just my getting older or my overall objection to losing the naivety of youth, but it lost its charm after Truler left and her daughter took over.
Tipper, you don’t have to publish this comment. But wondered if this might be your friend and if he was on your mind because he just passed away. This is a Garland Davis from KY who died last month.
https://www.mckinneybrown.com/obituary/GarlandA-Davis
Really enjoyed the post today. Thank you!
Allie, thank you for trying to find out about Garland, but that isn’t him. Although he was born in NC he has called Hawaii home for many many years. Glad you enjoyed Garland’s memories!
I browsed that picture and saw several remembered and interesting things. The first thing was the wire screen “fly flappers”. I’m pretty sure I remember them but can not swear to.it. Then there was the box of marbles. And there were the assorted jars, some with glass tops and bales and at least one of the old zinc lids. I saw a string of dried green beans to. And I especially noticed the hand grinder. We had one when I was a kid and it had several ways to change the grind. We used it to make sausage as Dad kept a hog or two for some years. I saw the row of shotgun shells and at least two stoneware jugs. That picture could make an ” old timey” jigsaw puzzle.
I recall Garland’s post as always being interesting and often informative as well. He also had me puzzling about how an Appalachian boy would go to sea. That has puzzled me for years, they are such seeming worlds apart. You also touch on another feature of this community you have created. We tend to be old timers (more than just physically) and members get called away home and they are missed.
i remember those wire fly swatters all the way out in san francisco!
I remember several stores similar to that in TN, GA and NC. There are probably many in Mexico on the outskirts of larger cities. I saw several the last time I was there. Some were simply on a covered front patio with the extra stock stored back in the house under beds. If you were polite you asked if they had whatever item you wanted – never said you wanted or needed it. If the store keeper felt you ‘needed’ it and he/she didn’t have it they had failed you. By asking if they had it you could most likely find it in stock next week. There’s a larger store near us that carries food, clothing, pet supplies and even some paint and hardware. I’ve asked for items on several occasions and been told, “I guess we don’t carry that.” and found it in stock a couple of weeks later.
I loved this story and it reminded me of the old Ranch Chaneys store going to granny’s. We’d often stop for a drink and cookies when going to see her. Daddy liked to sit around the old wood stove and catch up with guys there chatting while we looked around. Very fond memories. Prayers up for Garland.
In my first comment I forget to mention the cowbell registerer, I have never saw one on a cash register, buy have seen them hung on doors to ring when someone came in the store. I am or was a bird hunter, me and others would attach a small cowbell to our dog collar not only to help keep up with the location of our dog but also when it went silent it let you know your dog was on point. Now you can buy electronic devices to serve the same purpose.
One more thing, I have a very good friend that has Parkinson’s. His name is Mike and he has been fighting it for a good many years, but it has gotten a lot worse this year and I fear he is getting into the last stages of it.
I really enjoyed that memory, so well written that I could almost feel I was there. I will be praying for Garland. How hard it must be to find yourself unable to do what you once enjoyed.
I grew up in a little communit called Newtown on Link Road in Rutherford County Tennessee. My cousin owned a little country store called “Newtown” and I remember my grandmother would send us with a list of 4 slices of cheese, 4 slices of bologna, 2 RC Cola’s and a Snickers bar. This was her treats for the month after my grandfather passed away. On Saturday nights the entire community would come together and hang out on the front porch and getting a handmade bologna, cheese sandwich wrapped in wax paper and a cola in a glass bottle with a bag of peanuts poured over in was the reward for our parents hard work. Men would be helping each other repair a tractor, truck or car and the women shared canned good recipes. What wonderful memories. I wish I knew how to attach a photo as I have so many of that beautiful little store. Thank you for the memories we are not in Appalacha but we are in the deep south and very much country folk our ways are a lot like yours in Wilson Hollow.
The description of the store and contents remind me of some of the old country stores in my area. I pointed out the place this week to my son where my Great Uncle had a store back in the 50’s. I also remember my parents and many neighbors only having one car. My Daddy along with some neighbors that worked at the same place would take day or week about and “carpool” to work. My Daddy would always point out a store to me in an area of his childhood and tell me about spending the first dollar he made at the store. He also would tell about the store owner having a pet coon and a tom cat jumping on the coon one day. He laughed and said the last time they saw the cat he was running across the road as fast as he could run and on through a cotton field. I know things were hard for many people back in the times of these stores but the friendship of the neighbors, especially the men hanging out around these stores late in the evenings fellowshipping with one another is one example of the things I miss about the old days. I hesitate to write this today, but I also remember an older black couple, Aunt Mary and Uncle Frank, in my community. They had no car, and Uncle Frank was crippled, Aunt Mary would walk a little over a mile to THE Store and get a bag of some things she needed. There was not many times she had to walk home, someone would give her a ride home. When I was a teenager and had begin to drive I would pick her up and take her to store and back home anytime I saw her walking.