Nestled deep in the Blue Ridge Mountains of Appalachia sits a quaint Mom & Pop Country Store. Behind it stands Peeled Chestnut Mountain believed to be named by the Cherokees and Shawnees after peeling the bark on one side of the chestnut trees to mark their hunting territories. The Native Americans are long gone, but the mountain and its beauty stand and paint a different backgrund for the store with each changing season. Sitting between Bramwell, West Virginia and Pocahontas, Virginia, the two towns have been left behind by the coal mining industry. The people remaining, however, stand as strong as the mountain itself. KIDD'S COUNTRY GROCERY portrays the trials and triumphs, struggles and determination that have made this country what it is. It offers a unique glimpse into a fading piece of Americana: the everyday family business in pursuit of survival, success and the opportunity to carve out a place in this world. Get read to laugh a lot and shake your head in amazement as you read about the day-to-day adventures of Barbara, Ray and little Jaime along with Aunt Pearl and the many customers that frequent their little store.

Kidd's Country Grocery

By Patricia Woodard Synan

AuthorHouse

Copyright © 2011 Patricia Woodard Syman
All right reserved.
ISBN: 978-1-4634-0302-7

Chapter One

The Dollar

November 1, 1981

The quiet Sunday morning air was filled with the smell of wood smoke and the deep blue sky promised to chase away the chill that lingered from the cold night. Barbara took a deep breath. I love the smell of autumn ... the crisp air, the smoke, the sourwood trees. She let out her breath with a loud sigh. Ray looked over at her and smiled. He knew how she loved to smell the air when it was fresh ... or smoky ... or rain-filled ... Barbara absent-mindedly held five-year-old Jaime's hand as he skipped across the parking lot that stretched from their little rental house to the store. They were nestled in the mountains on the border with West Virginia just outside of Pocahontas, Virginia. Barbara looked up at Peeled Chestnut Mountain that towered behind the store. She noticed some more of the yellow, red and orange colors had dropped to the ground during yesterday's rainstorm. Pretty soon the mountain will be brown. She knew everything about this day would be imprinted on her mind. She shook the image from her head and raised her free hand to her pounding heart as she watched Ray slide the key into the worn lock and jiggle the glass door. Today she and Ray would open their own business – a small country store that they were buying from his parents.

Jamie looked up into his Mom's face. She brushed a piece of lint from his dark blue shirt as he asked if he could have a bottle of pop. She sighed. "No, Jaime, it is too early for pop. Wish I had taken time to press your shirt."

Jaime pulled the shirt away from his body and looked it over. He shrugged his shoulders and walked through the door that his dad held open.

Barbara walked behind the counter and opened the brown paper bag she was carrying. She withdrew a bank deposit bag and took out their starter bills of ones, fives, and tens and put them into the cash register.

Ray turned on the lights and gas pumps. "We're ready for business," he announced. Barb's hand flew to her thumping heart again.

Ray walked over to the glass door. "Here comes our first customer. It's fast Eddie ... and, here comes Junebug from the other direction. Don't forget about the first dollar."

"Don't worry. I won't," she said.

She nodded to Eddie and Junebug as they walked in the door. Eddie headed for the wine cooler. Junebug walked up to the counter. "I need a bottle of that cough syrup." He pointed as Barbara turned to get him the bottle from the display of medicines and beauty aids that were on the shelves behind her. She sighed. Thank goodness our first sale won't be the bottle of cheap wine that I know Eddie is going to buy. Barbara rang up the sale. "One dollar and eighty-four cents," she smiled at the young man. Junebug handed her a five-dollar bill. Her smile faded as she looked at Ray with raised eyebrows. Ray grinned at her and shrugged his shoulders. She bit her lower lip, furrowed her brow and then opened the register and traded the five dollar bill for five ones. She laid the five bills in Junebug's outstretched hand. He stared at her as she took two of them back. She laid one beside the register, put one in the register and took out sixteen cents. She then counted out the sixteen cents change to her first customer. "Thank you," she nodded and smiled as Junebug stood staring at her. Finally he nodded, turned his head and coughed.

"May I help you?" Barbara had turned toward Eddie as he handed her two one-dollar bills. She realized he already knew the price of the wine was $1.66. She handed him change and put his wine in a paper bag. "Thank you," she said.

Eddie picked up his bag. "You're welcome." He walked out the door behind Junebug. They stood in the driveway and talked awhile. In this small neighborhood everyone knew everybody and many of them were kin to each other. Junebug and Eddie were first cousins.

Jaime looked up at his Dad with the same warm, dark brown eyes that he had inherited from him. "You gonna put a pit-cher in that, Dad?" he drawled as Ray took the frame that held their licenses down from the wall.

"No, son. I'm gonna put a dollar bill in it."

"Why?" Jaime cocked his head and looked up at his dad.

"Well now, since this is the first dollar we just made in our new business, we're supposed to keep it. It's supposed to bring us good luck. We want our store to grow and make us a good living, don't we?"

"How's puttin' money in that frame gonna do that?"

"I don't know, Jaime, but superstition or no, we're not taking any chances."

"Oh." Jaime looked up into his mom's green eyes. "What's super- super-ti-tion?"

"Well, it's when you do silly things to bring you good luck!" She laughed and tickled his belly as he squealed and scooted away.

Ray hung the frame back on the wall, stepped back to measure its straightness with his eyes, and cleared his throat. "Well ... what do you think, Mrs. Kidd?"

Barbara grinned. "I think it's just fine ... Mr. Kidd."

He walked outside with Jaime, as she lingered behind the counter staring at the frame and chewing her bottom lip. Well, I guess this is for real. We've done gone and bought ourselves a store ... or at least we signed the loan to buy it. It's too late to turn back now. We'll have to make the best of this. She looked around the store and her shoulders sagged. The shelves were mostly full and it was clean, but the roof leaked badly. The floor had dirty looking tan linoleum patched up with darker brown tiles covering the broken and worn places. A line of coolers sat in front of the windows hiding most of the daylight. The fluorescent lighting didn't do much to chase away the dreary look inside. The building was one hundred twenty- five feet long but only twenty feet wide. Attached to one end of the store was a two-bay garage. On the other side of the garage sat a modest green house that they were renting from her father-in-law. Running behind and slightly below the store was a little dirt road with small makeshift houses sitting between it and Laurel Creek. Known as "The Bottom," it was where the poor people lived. Peeled Chestnut Mountain rose behind the creek. In front of the store ran a two-lane country highway and across from it a subdivision where the houses were made of picturesque bricks and frames owned by middle-income residents. Ray's plan was to open the garage and earn money as Barbara worked the store.

Thinking that this whole venture was going to be a challenge, Barbara's thoughts were interrupted when the wind chimes that hung over the door rang out as it was opened. "Hello, how are you?" Barbara asked.

The customer smiled back at Barbara. "I'm fine, thank you. Just need a pack of Winstons."

"That'll be $1.25 including the tax." Barbara said as she handed him the cigarettes.

"What! I'm gonna quit if they go up one more time! I remember when I used to buy them for ten cents a pack."

"I know," Barbara said. Back when it took you a whole day to make a dollar. Barbara smiled as she handed him his change and kept her thoughts to herself. She continued waiting on customers with Ray talking to them all as Jaime played while asking childish questions.

Lunch time arrived along with Ray's brother, John, and his wife, Shirley, and their three kids, Sarah, Seth and Billy. Barbara ran back and forth between the counter and the kitchen, which was at the far end of the store, trying to make lunch while waiting on customers. She sliced ham and tomatoes; unwrapped cheese slices and slapped them onto large slices of white bread.

After eating her sandwich, Shirley headed toward the door. "John, watch the kids. I'm going to run up to Mom's."

John and Ray walked straight outside as Shirley left. "Let's go check out the garage, John. I want to open it as soon as possible," said Ray.

Barbara ran back and forth the sixty feet between the kitchen and the counter to clean up. She froze as Jaime screamed. "Mommm! Billy hit me in the head with the ball."

"Put the ball uu-pp. You know you're not supposed to be throwing a ball in the store," Barbara said – slowly and deliberately.

"I told ya, Billy," ten-year old Sarah smirked.

"Yeah, she told ya," nine-year old Seth mocked.

Jaime rubbed his head while six-year old Billy grinned. Barbara turned away trying to contain her urge to strangle him as another customer walked in.

"Hello," she sighed with a false smile.

"Ouch!" yelled Billy.

"Got what you deserved," Jaime spat back.

"That's enough of that!" Barbara said, aiming her impatience at the two children while apologetically raising an eyebrow to her customer. "Sorry," she said.

"That's okay, but how do you do it?"

Barbara grinned and shrugged her shoulders. I'm just trying to cope until their Mom gets back. She rang up the chips and soda and thanked the lady. "Come back," she said.

"I will."

Barbara turned to the children. "Kids, if you have enough energy to fight, you might as well use it to fill up the pop cooler. And quit running in the store."

They looked at her as if she had asked them to stand on one leg and repeat the Gettysburg address. They opened their mouths to protest, but hesitated as she clamped her mouth shut and squinted her eyes.

"Okay," they moaned. They each got a few bottles and laid them in the old horizontal, bright red Coca-Cola cooler. Before too long they escaped out the door and up to the churchyard that sat just beyond their little rented house. She sighed as she heard them screaming and laughing. I guess I should have kept them inside where it's warm. She finished the pop cooler and swept the floor in between waiting on customers.

The day passed as the customers came and went and the children played and argued, running in and out of the store. By now, it was time for supper and Shirley had not returned. Barbara sighed as she peeled potatoes at the counter. I can mash these but what meat can I fix while I divide my attention between customers, stove and children. She took the potatoes to the back, washed them and threw them in a pot of water on the stove. She spied the hamburger in the meat cooler and patted out some burgers and opened a can of corn. The wind chimes rang out as she put the last burger into the skillet. She turned the burner down a little. "I'll be right there," she called to the customer.

She met Jaime half way up the aisle. "Hey, Mom, can we have a pop?"

"No. Supper will soon be ready. Go tell your dad and the others to come and eat."

Jaime ran out the door yelling for his dad as Barbara waited on her customer. Another customer came in just as she said thank you to the first one. "What can I do for you?" she asked as she nervously thought about the food on the stove.

"Well, let me see. Where do you keep the pop?"

"Over in that corner." Barbara pointed to the Coke cooler. As the mother and daughter walked to the cooler, Barbara sprinted back to the kitchen to flip the hamburgers and turn off the potatoes and corn. The woman waited patiently as Barbara hurried back up the aisle and slipped back behind the counter. "Sorry you had to wait."

"No problem," she said.

Barbara rang up the sodas and was about to tell her the amount when she noticed the little girl reaching in and out of the candy display. "Do you want me to add the candy she got?"

The woman turned around. "Oh, no, you don't," she said as she started pulling candy bars and packs of bubble gum from the little girl's hands and tossing them back into the candy case. The little girl started to wail, but the mother ignored her.

She paid for the sodas and turned to leave when the girl stomped her feet and sobbed, "I want some candy ... I want some candy."

"Oh, all right," the mother said as she reached down and got her a Cow's Tail and laid it on the counter. "Kids. You can't bring them into a store," she said as she reached back into her billfold. As they were leaving the little girl grinned and reached in the display again for a Milky Way. The mother slapped her hand as she took the Milky Way and threw it back into the candy shelf. "One is enough," she said as she pulled the little girl out the door.

Barbara rolled her eyes as she started straightening the candy and putting them into the right boxes. Ray walked in with John. "Jaime said supper was ready."

"Almost." Barbara straightened up as she smelled the hamburgers beginning to burn. She raced back to the kitchen and turned off the stove. Grabbing the potatoes, she started draining the water and got them mashed in record time. Ray stayed at the front waiting on the customers. "Mom, I thought you said supper was ready," Jaime said. Barbara turned as the kids walked into the kitchen.

"It is," Barbara said.

"Don't look like it to me," Billy said.

"Here," Barbara said as she sat the pot of mashed potatoes she had finished back onto the stove. She nodded to Sarah and Seth. "Get a plate and get you some food. What do you want, Billy?"

"Just some potatoes and a hamburger," he said. "I don't like corn."

She filled his plate and turned to Jaime. "What do you want on your plate?"

"Some potatoes and corn. Those hamburgers look burned."

"They're not burned, just a little well-done," Barbara said as she flipped them over.

"I want a bun to make me a real hamburger," Seth said.

Barbara sighed. "Go get a pack from the shelf."

John and Ray appeared in the kitchen. "Burned the hamburgers, huh?" Ray said.

Barbara glared at him. He didn't seem to notice as he filled his plate. She filled her plate and poured glasses of milk for the kids. "I wanted pop," Billy said.

"Me too," Seth, Sarah and Jaime said in unison.

"Drink your milk," Barbara said as she headed toward the counter with her plate in hand – eating from it as she walked.

Dinner done, dirty dishes to wash and customers to be waited on, Barbara thought as she sat her plate in the sink and started scraping the dishes. I'm so tired. Wish I could go home and crawl into bed ... I'm going to run an X tape when I get back to the register to see how much we've done. Barbara grabbed her stomach as the excitement of their first day in business made it flutter.

She finished the dishes and walked back up the long aisle with the mop in her hand just as Mrs. Fox walked in. Barbara had spent most of the previous two months working in the store with her mother-in-law as they waited for their licenses, loan approval, etc. She had learned much about running the store and at the same time became familiar with many of the customers. She knew how Mrs. Fox loved to talk, complain and exaggerate.

She nodded her head and sat the mop down as she went and stood her place behind the counter and waited for Mrs. Fox to do her shopping. "You know," said Mrs. Fox, "I'm sure glad Ray's Daddy give him this here store. I'm just sure you young folks will have more energy to run it. Why it was just awful the people they hired to work for them!"

"Pa didn't give ..."

Mrs. Fox ignored Barbara as she continued on. "There's nothing worse than gettin' a box of cereal home and findin' the date more than two months old. I just tell ye, Barbara, I wouldn't have it. Why I'd just march right back up to this here store and say to your mama-in-law, 'Now listen here Betty, this here cereal's done got old. I want my money back' ... Course sometimes I'd trade it for another kinda cereal with a better date. Some people don't pay attention to dates. But, no sir, not me. I pay attention to those kinda facts."

"I've noticed," Barbara said.

"Some people's just lazy, ye know. They couldn't care less iffin they're workin' for somebody and lazin' around when they should be moppin', dustin' and checkin' dates. Know what I mean?"

"Yes, I do; and I'll try to watch those dates." It's a wonder my face doesn't get sore from all this smiling.

Mrs. Fox laid a loaf of bread, a gallon of milk and a box of Fruit Loops onto the counter one by one as she held them up to the light to read the expiration dates. "Can't see no date on this bread," she said.

Barbara started ringing them up. "Oh, the bread man picks up the ones we have left everyday and puts in new loaves," Barb assured her.

"I guess," Mrs. Fox said with a sigh.

"That'll be five dollars and eighty-nine cents," Barb said as Mrs. Fox was rummaging in her purse. Barbara patiently waited as she extended the palm of her left hand and rubbed her neck with her right hand. She rolled her head as she idly looked around. Suddenly she froze – stifling a scream. On the wall directly behind Mrs. Fox a bat was hanging – upside down.

(Continues...)

Excerpted from Kidd's Country Groceryby Patricia Woodard Synan Copyright © 2011 by Patricia Woodard Syman. Excerpted by permission of AuthorHouse. All rights reserved. No part of this excerpt may be reproduced or reprinted without permission in writing from the publisher.
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