Bob Green’s Store

Bob Green’s Store
by Dan Gill

Ride out through the countryside just about anywhere in Virginia, and you will find the remnants of old country stores. Easy to recognize, they are modest clapboard structures with an open porch roof facing the road. Hardly any still fill their original role of serving the daily needs of small, rural communities: Most are abandoned or have been converted to antique shops or some semblance of the original store geared to attract tourists. Most were built between 1900 and 1930, toward the end of the horse and buggy era and into the era when automobiles were still a luxury and travel was an adventure. In those days, and on into the fifties, the country store was the heart and hub of each little community of farmers, watermen and workers within walking distance. It served as a combination post office, gas station, community center, candy shop, meat market, grocery store, hardware store and snack bar.

In the days of dirt roads and horse carts, there were always benches and front steps in the shade of the porch roof, where folks could sit to watch the world go by (the world was much more personal then) and exchange pleasantries with passing neighbors. The pace was slow, so they could have a tolerable conversation just in passing. That is one reason many country folk still wave even if they don't know you. Another is they are afraid you may be related. The overhang was also used to suspend small game to "ripen," but that was before my time.

Even into the fifties, a trip to "town" was a major undertaking so folks did their main grocery shopping on Saturday. Local stores had to fill all of the daily needs for the rest of the week. In the country, supper was ready promptly at 5:30. After supper, the men gathered at the store (pronounced sto - as in "let's go sto") to discuss matters of historical, social and philosophical import. In other words, they sat around the stove, on upended drink cases, chewing tobacco, drinking "soda pop" and telling "whoppers". Kids fortunate enough to sit around the periphery received an education in local and world affairs, weather, local history and life in general from a unique perspective.

Bob Green’s store, now “Something Different Country Store and Deli,” was typical, though slightly larger than most because Bob and his family lived upstairs. I remember it well. As a kid in the fifties, I often walked or rode my fat-tired Schwinn bike two miles to the store to buy penny candy. On the left side, behind the worn pine counter, there were shelves to the ceiling displaying gum boots, brogan shoes, work clothes, straw hats, gloves, oyster knives and other necessities. Toward the back there were cubbyholes for mail and a drawer for stamps. In the very back, there was a large cooler with wooden doors where locally grown beef and pork was hung until Bob cut them to order on a massive wooden chopping block, or ground them into fresh sausage or hamburger. The deli case was on the right side. In addition to local seafood and meat, there were hot dogs and cloth wrapped bologna. On the counter, there was a large wheel of sharp cheddar called “rat cheese”, and scales to weigh stuff, which sometimes included the proprietor’s thumb. Now, I don’t know that Bob ever “thumbed the scales,” but my Grandmother, in the Northern Neck, often said that she had “bought old man Jim several times over.” On shelves behind the deli there were groceries, breads and canned goods, including sardines, Vienna sausages, saltines and pork and beans for a quick lunch in the fields or on the water.

Bob spent most of his time on a stool behind the front counter where he could keep an eye on the whole store and look out of the window to see who was passing by or needed to pump gasoline. Special things were kept in this corner of the store: the candy case was built into the counter with a glass top - just at eye level but out of the reach of kids. Behind the counter were pocketknives, chewing tobacco, cigarettes and some hardware. Bob kept some fireworks under the counter, including cherry bombs for fishing in the local pond. In those days, there was a two-cent deposit on drink bottles so we kept a sharp lookout along the road. Each bottle was worth 2 BB Bats or Mary Janes.

There was little in the way of “self service”, only a drink box and an ice cream freezer. Bob shuffled along behind the counters pulling stuff off of the shelves and adding everything up on a paper bag. As with most country stores, Bob ran it mostly by himself and was open every day except Sunday for about fifty years. If he needed a break or things got busy, he would call to his wife upstairs to give him a hand.

After Bob retired, the store changed hands several times and evolved into more of a convenience store with a drink and beer cooler covering one whole wall, grocery shelves in the center and a small deli area for sandwiches. About three years ago, we transformed it into “Something Different,” specializing in fine Nuevo-Neanderthal cuisine (meat, fire, good!). We do the barbecue, smoked turkey, smoked meats and salmon using traditional methods: They are dry-rubbed or brined rather than sauced. Just about everything is homemade including breads, desserts, soups and sides. We make an authentic she-crab soup with crab roe and sherry, my mothers “no-filler” crab cakes and local soft crabs. Like Bob, we grind and bag our own country sausage and, at certain times of the year, we have our own grass-fed beef. If you are looking for “Something Different,” come on by: We are just North of Urbanna.

Something Different Country Store and Deli
More Blurbs from a Country Store

Published in Pleasant Living magazine 2005

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