Dad was a farmer and a very good one. He was also a merchant - a grocery store owner. I don't know the reason but he bought a general merchandise store in Clear Springs, Tennessee about 5 miles from the farm in Milburnton. Clear Springs was often referred to as Jockey. Again, I don’t know why, but an awfully lot of people called it by that name. The store was pretty typical of most of the stores that operated out in the country in those days. Dad sold everything from gasoline to farm equipment to clothing (farm overalls!) to groceries to haircuts. The store was a huge, white building and close by it (about 25 feet) was an old flat roofed, tarpaper covered building that was our beautiful home.
People came from miles away to shop at Dad’s store. He was highly respected as a person and as a businessman. Dad’s word was as good as his name. You could trust him. He never, never told a lie.
Saturday nights at the store were special. It was quite an event. As a matter of fact, it was, indeed, a community event. Folks came in from all around the area. There was a big pot bellied stove in the middle of the store with chairs benches all around it. It the wintertime, the farmers would come in on Saturday night, set around the stove and talk. In the summertime, too, they would set around that old stove and discuss everything from politics to religion.
Going to The Shanks General Store on Saturday night was the social event of the week. It was also time to buy the weekly supply of groceries. Or, fill the car up with gas (However, as I recall most of the folks only bought $1.00 or $2.00 at a time!) Or, you could get a haircut. Dad had the only grocery store in Tennessee, I believe, where you could buy gas, your groceries, a plow, a pair of overalls, get a bologna sandwich and get a haircut all at the same time.
Dad had a friend, Orem Thompson, who would set a chair on some wooden boxes in the back of the store and give haircuts. I got my hair cut in the back of that old store for many years. The cost? I don't remember! Probably about 50 cents.
Dad also sold sandwiches! His sandwich menu was not very extensive. You could get a bologna sandwich or a cheese sandwich. That was it! In the cooler was a big stick of bologna and a stick of cheese. For 10 cents you could get a slice of bologna or cheese and 2 slices of bread or, if you wanted, crackers. These crackers were different. I’m not sure you can buy them today. They were four of the smaller crackers that you buy today “joined” together to make a cracker the size of a slice of bread.
Dad always had some mustard or mayonnaise available for the sandwiches. A slice of cheese about 1/4 inch thick and two of those big old giant crackers, a little mustard and a Pepsi was hard to beat. I loved it! And, you couldn't beat a thick slice of bologna with a dab of mustard and a couple of slices of bread and, again, a big Pepsi or a big old orange drink.
In front of the store was a single gas pump. By today’s standards it was truly an antique gasoline pump. It had one of those clear, glass tops on the top of the pump that you pumped 10 gallons of gas into and then let that drain into the car gasoline tank. On that glass pump were marked the number of gallons you had in the container. You would usually pump 10 gallons into it and if the customer wanted just two gallons, you’d let 2 gallons drain into the car tank.
I don't remember the price of gas in those days (the middle 40s), but I suppose it was only 20-25 cents a gallon. People would drive up and honk their horn and one of us would go out and service them. As I recall, the gasoline was Texaco.
Dad let everyone have credit to buy their groceries or gas. The folks would come in, buy their groceries and ask Dad to charge them until they sold their tobacco crop, which was always in the Fall of the year. Dad would "carry" them on the books all year and when the tobacco went to market and they got paid for their tobacco crop, The Shanks General Store was the usually first stop for a majority of them and he was paid in full. There was no interest or carrying charges! Some, as you might expect, did not pay. When Dad sold the store, he was owed hundreds, if not thousands of dollars, most of which he never collected.
Dad had his own accounting system. One, quite frankly, that was not that unusual in those days. And, it was a good one. There were no computers. No cash register. I’m not sure I can describe his accounts receivable section - that’s where he kept his charge accounts. There was a big stack of “metal “ pages about 24 inches by 24 inches that lay just behind the store counter in easy reach. On each page of those metal pages, on the front and back, were metal spring-clips that held the 3 inches by 5 inches charge slips. There were probably about 12 clips on each side of these metal “pages”.
When someone came in to buy something, it was itemized on the charge slip which was nothing more that a piece of paper about like the one that a waitress takes your meal order on. There Dad would write down what the customer bought and the price. At the top of the little form was the “balance brought forward”, then you would add up what they had just bought, and then at the bottom would be the total of what they owed Dad. This was always done in duplicate. The customer would get a copy and Dad would then insert his copy under that customer’s particular clip. That way, the customer always knew what he owed. When Dad was finally paid, all of the little pieces of paper were removed from the clip, marked “PAID” and given to the customer.
Over the store was an apartment-like living quarters. Actually, it was one huge area. There were no rooms. Someone had finished off the area and put wallpaper on the walls. It had nice hardwood floors. Mom and Dad used in occasionally as a sleeping area when we had company. There was no bathroom, of course. There was an outdoor toilet beside the store.
There was one lady who lived close by that tried to beat the system. She and her family only lived about a quarter of a mile away and she was often sending the kids to the store to get something. Or, it was close enough that she stopped in almost daily to pick up a few items. Instead of having Dad add the newly purchased items to her account, she would ask Dad, or have the kids ask Dad, to “put it on the wall”.
Her account was usually pretty big and it was her way of trying to keep it from getting bigger. Her intentions were to have Dad to hold the “ the little charge form” and she would pay for it in a few days, and, therefore, the items would not be added to her already highly inflated charge account. Unfortunately she seldom ever paid for those slips “on the wall”.
The little slips were literally on the wall. They were hung on a nail. Behind the store counter were the shelves holding the groceries. There on the shelves were the boxes of cereal, the flour, the corn meal, the cans of vegetables, the bags of sugar, and so forth.
Customers would tell Dad what they wanted and he’d get it off the shelve, place it on the counter and use a scratch piece of paper or the side of the paper sack that he would bag the groceries in. If they were paying cash (which was seldom), he would add up all of the items to get a total, collect the money and place it in a wooden drawer that pulled out from under the counter. If the groceries were to be charged, he, of course, would use one of the little charge forms to itemized the groceries, show the total and add them to their account.
On one of those shelves, was a finishing nail, which had only been partially driven into one of the boards dividing the shelves. It was there on that nail that Dad would hang the little charge forms when he was asked to “just put it on the wall”. And, they would usually add, “I’ll be by to pay you in a couple of days”. But, they seldom did!
Anyway, our next-door neighbor who liked to have her groceries “put on the wall” left my dear, softhearted father with two sizable bills - the ones on the wall and the ones in her regular account. While she and her family were well respected in that little rural community called Clear Springs, they left Dad with sizable debts.
I think the way Dad handled his debts, not only with this lady and this family, but with everyone, said a lot about Dad, the person. He was so nice, and so sensitive to people’s feelings, that he would rather take a financial loss, rather than offend anyone over what they owed him. As a result of his kindness and sensitivity, he lost a considerable amount of money simply because he would not pursue or push those that owed him money. It bothered him when he thought others were mad or upset with him. He couldn’t stand that!
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