THROUGH
MOUNTAIN MISTS
Early Settlers of
Their
Descendants...Their Stories...Their Achievements
Lifting the
Mists of History on Their Way of Life
By: Ethelene Dyer Jones
Francis
Jasper "Bud" Collins (1855-1941)
Owner
of Collins Country Store
The country store was a part of
my growing
up years, for my grandfather, Francis Jasper Collins, better known as
“Bud”
Collins, owned and operated one. My
family went to his store to trade for items such as coffee, sugar,
pinto beans,
and lard, if our farm supply gave out.
Then there was the clothing and merchandise section where some
of the
simpler necessities of country living could be bought—cloth by the
yard, sewing
needs, socks, hose and underwear, men’s chambray work shirts, overalls,
and
even at times, utilitarian shoes, but not dress shoes.
The country store was especially
useful at Christmas time. In those
depression years when cash was hard to come by and most farm families
depended
upon what they could produce on the farm to keep their families
supplied with
the barest necessities, not much was purchased at the country store. But Grandpa, with Mr. Garn Fortenberry as the
driver for his truck, would somehow manage to go to Gainesville with a
load of
live chickens, eggs in crates, and dried animal skins that had been
bartered
for goods at his store, and take the load to Carter’s Wholesale Company
or
another of the wholesale distributors to get in trade there what he
could to
bring back to his Country Store in Choestoe.
Families in the community kept up with
which day of the week the Collins Country Store would bring a load from
Grandpa had a candy counter on which
sat a large four-sided glass case. Near
Christmas that case had all sorts of delectable-looking confections
displayed
in open boxes. Peppermint, licorice and
lemon stick candy were among the offerings, as were the ever-appealing
chocolate drops. Maybe sometimes there
would be a few boxes of chocolate-covered cherries, but these were few,
as
Grandpa knew not many among his country store constituents could afford
a whole
box of these delicacies.
He had some toys, but not a wide variety. Bags
of marbles, cans of pick-up-sticks,
checker-boards, Chinese checkers, a few dolls, and some miniature
automobiles
were among his offerings. Thinking about
it now, these may have been “special orders,” since they were so few,
requested
by parents in advance for their children who wanted these items from
Santa
Claus at Christmas. I can remember on
Christmas morning wondering if I had not seen something I received at
Grandpa’s
store earlier—and how did Santa Claus then get it to bring beside our
fireplace
for me?
The country store also provided school
supplies: Blue Horse tablets writing
paper and penny pencils. And before
school was out at Christmas, we nearly always could find at his store a
gift
for the one whose name we had drawn at
Going to the store was an
adventure. Since most of the trade was
in barter, we had to catch the chickens we planned to offer as barter
and safely
pack the eggs used in trade. If Daddy
had been successful in catching rabbits in his “rabbit trap,” he might
have
several dried and stretched skins of rabbits to offer in trade. And we nearly always had sorghum syrup to
take for barter, because he was the champion syrup-maker of Choestoe.
Looking back now on this way of life,
we didn’t know it if we were poor, for we always seemed to have plenty
of the
necessities of life: food, homemade clothing, shelter.
Our farm produced well, even in the depression
years. And enterprising Grandfather, up
until his death in December of 1941 (ten days after the infamous
At Grandpa’s Country Store the spirit
of Christmas lasted all year long.
c200 by
Ethelene Dyer
Jones; published
[Ethelene Dyer
Jones is a retired educator,
freelance writer, poet, and historian. She may be reached at
e-mail [email protected];
phone 478-453-8751; or mail 1708 Cedarwood Road, Milledgeville, GA
31061-2411.]
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