The General Store - Alturas, Florida

When I was growing up in Alturas and was in elementary school, we had a general store that we went to everyday. It supplied most of our weekly needs. For a big grocery week, we went into Bartow to a regular grocery store. So this is to describe the general store. It still exists today, but is all boarded up and falling down in disrepair. The people who had enough money to restore the store have sinced moved on into town. Everyone that really loved the store probably have passed away except for me and few others maybe.

When you came into the store, to the right was a small post office. When Daddy had baby chicks shipped in, that is where they came in a box with holes in it and a bunch of baby chicks. When you went to your left, there was a long counter that had jars and jars of penny candy and little bags to put it in. Then you had your cash register. Then you had a ice cream freezer chest, with little cups of ice cream and little wooden spoons. After that you had you coke-a-cola glass bottles, orange and grape soda's and of course RC colas. You could get moon pies to eat with your RC Colas. Across the aisle from that you had a fresh meat department where they cut up the beef and bacon and chickens. Over to the right, beyond the meat department, were the boots, uniforms, socks, shoes, work shirts, and belts. They had some sewing notions, thread, thimbles, yarn and some material by the yard. Further in the back on the left, they had nails, tools and hardware. Then on the left out the side door, under the roof, they had car and truck repair. The floor was wooden and it had a screen door on the front.

Across the road was the town pool hall. Daddy said only nasty old men were allowed in there, drinking and pool playing. We were never to go in there. In the parking area between the pool hall and the railroad tracks, once a week we could see a movie. They put up a big sheet; we could sit on the tailgates of our tracks and they would show a movie on the sheet when the sun went down.  It was free and if the wind blew the sheet too hard, we could come back the next night to finish seeing the movie. I remember one night, some of the girls decided to wear lipstick for the first time and they decided the movie was a good place to wear it to see what different people thought. Life was so simple back then. 

Rosemary fell out of the truck window one day while we were at the store and busted her lip and head. 

One day, a child fell out the back door of their car and the mother backed up over the child's chest. The child lived through it, but always had a weakness in her chest and lungs from then on. 

On day, when the organist of our church came home and opened her garage door, there hung her husband. He had killed himself while she was in Bartow shopping. I nearly drowned in a fishpond in Daddy's backyard when I was a toddler. I was floating up top and they mashed on my chest to get all the green slim out of my mouth and nose. Daddy took a ax and chopped up the pond. That was the end of that. 

So I'll take more later.