Riley's General Store

I wish I had a real photo...

This is a photo I took of a painting of my Grandpa Riley's general store. It's pretty accurate, but lacks some details that I will carry in my mind for the rest of my life. It does spur some good memories.

Somewhere near the front door was a Sunbeam bread sign--it may have even been on the screen door. On the far right, there's a small white rectangular sign. That was the sign for the Masonic Lodge, which was on the second floor of the store. I'd never been in the lodge at the general store, but I heard it was pretty fancy like most Masonic Lodges.

The gas pump did sit exactly where it is in the painting, but when I was real little Grandpa had the old-timey gas pump that had the clear glass tank on the top that filled up with gasoline. There was always an old car or truck parked where this one is parked in the gravel parking lot. On the other side of the parking lot in front was Patoka River and the bridge. Grandpa kept old cane chairs on the porch and anyone coming by was welcome to pull up a chair, sit, and talk.

I loved visiting Grandpa and Grandma, but my favorite thing to do while in Newton Stewart was to coax my dad into giving me a nickel or two. Then I'd run down to Grandpa's store. Once I entered the door, I could smell the old wood. To this day, visiting an old store that smells of old wood takes me back to the general store.

Just after entering the door and to the right was the candy and toy counter. And I knew how to make a nickel go a long way. I'd first buy a packet of fake toy money in bill form. Then I'd use all that play money to buy all kinds of candy from Grandpa. Little did I know then that this was called counterfeiting and punishable by going to jail for a few years. Thankfully, Grandpa never called the law on me. He just let me purchase candy with my fake money.

After having my fill of candy, I'd walk across the width of the store to where Grandpa kept the "dry goods". There was a tin wind-up carousel I loved to play with...and I'd give my eye teeth to have that carousel today. Towards the back of the store were a few chairs--the kind of chairs with the small round seats and the curved iron backs. The chairs were located around the pot-bellied stove that heated the store in the winter and gave the old men that gathered there something to sit around and tell their tall tales.

To the right of the stove was a counter with bar stools where folks could get some of Grandpa's good bologna and crackers. Across the aisle was the Coca-Cola cooler--the kind with the two lids you lift up. It was always full of the small glass bottles of soda. Folks would just grab a soda, open it using the opener on the cooler, and then leave the nickel on the counter.

Customers would come in and tell Grandpa what they wanted. I remember the cereal was behind Grandpa's counter, along with most of the groceries. Grandpa would grab what the customer ordered. If they wanted some bologna, he'd cut it with a large knife and weigh it on the old scales on the counter. I can still taste that bologna today. In fact, there's a local meat locker that makes and sells bologna just like Grandpa's. I'd be willing to bet the same family makes it with the same recipe. Some day I'll ask them how long they've been in business.

Grandpa even had a post office in his store. I don't know how many people lived in Newton Stewart, but there couldn't have been more than 20 houses. Neighbors would come by and get their mail and usually end up talking. Back then they mostly talked about the reservoir that was coming in someday. I can remember hearing them say the reservoir would take their land and their houses, and they would all have to move away. It seemed a long way from happening, but 20 years go by very quickly.

Grandpa died when I was around 11 of an aneurysm, a trait he's passed on to a daughter, son, and one grandson. The reservoir was built after the town of Newton Stewart was purchased for peanuts and all of its townsfolk moved away. I remember hearing talk of an old small graveyard near Grandpa's house that was "moved". They said all they have to do is take a shovelful of dirt from each grave and move it to a new location; and that constitutes "moving" a graveyard full of ancestors.

The construction of Patoka Reservoir was halted for a time when Native American artifacts were found while they were digging and grading the land. We could've told them that before they started. Back behind what I remember as a blacksmith shop was an area where we'd go to scoop up handsful of "Indian" beads, which were actually small fossils. I don't know why they were piled up behind the blacksmith shop, but we kids always imagined the "Indians" put them there.

Once Grandma moved to French Lick and the reservoir finally finished, she'd always tell me not to go see it; that it would make me feel bad. After Grandma died, I did finally go. I found Newton Stewart. The new store built next to Grandma's house was still there and utilized as a garage or storage. The footprint of Grandma and Grandpa's house was still there, with even a few hand-carved foundation stones. A herd of deer were laying in the grass right where the house sat. The trees still overhung the road, and I could walk down the road just like I did when I went to Grandpa's store. The pavement had been taken up, but no trees had grown where the road was. As I walked down to the water's edge, I could tell the water began just before the spot where Grandpa's old general store had been.

Other than Grandma's cinder block store, Newton Stewart had been scraped off the earth where it had been since its establishment.