I grew up on a farm and went to school three miles away for the first through 12th grade. The town consisted of the school, a church, the country store and about 10 houses.

The store was the center of everything. If we had a big snowstorm, everyone called the store to see if we had school. I wonder how many calls they got. We had about 150 students in school, mostly from farm families.

The store opened early and would stay open until after the basketball games were over. Some kids would go over to the store after school, eat and wait until the bus was ready to leave for the away games.

Before our school had a hot lunch program, many of the students would go over and get a cheeseburger and ice cream to eat at noon. After the lunch program started, there were fewer lunches served at the store.

An especially nice man, his wife and their daughter ran the store. He always said that he knew if he had to leave, he could just leave a money can and paper and pencil, and he could trust the kids to write down what they bought and pay the correct money.

After the school closed and reorganized into a larger school, the store began losing a lot of business. Finally, the owners had to close the doors and get jobs else where. I can remember a lot of good times at that store.

Half Pint - by Bud Barnett '57

We moved here from Missouri when I was a freshman and by that time the store was owned and operated by Dale and Doris Dalton. As far as I knew, The Store was being managed by the Daltons the same way it had been managed for the preveious 30 years (or more).

Like a lot of country farm boys, we did not have a lot of "city treats". I loved ice cream and that was one of those special treats that were not common. One of my first discoveries at the store was that you could buy a half pint of ice cream. If there was not already a half-pint of your choice, then Doris would cut in half for you and the price included one of those little flat wooden spoons. Since I was working for Max Bauer and later for Joe Rold, I had my own money that I could spend on whatever I wanted (or could afford). I had lots of half pints during my Wales Days.

...who has the story about Gilbert Clark's bet with ? that he couldn't eat a jar of mustard?