Going to the Store with Grandpa

^{Page edited 10-Feb -22. MT}

Source: Edward Ellsworth Laughlin (In his own words.)

I was in the front yard one day, under the maple tree, when I saw Grandpa coming up the road in his buggy. He stopped and asked, "Do you want to go to the store with me, Edward?"

“Oh, yes,” I replied.

"Then, go ask your mother," he said. I ran as fast as I could and Mom said I could go, but I must be good and do everything that Grandpa said. I ran back out to the road and Grandpa got down from the buggy and lifted me up to the seat. It was an open, one-seat buggy. It seemed to be so high to me, rising high above the road. Grandpa came around and climbed in on the other side. He picked up the leather reigns and clucked to the horse. The horse was black and well-behaved. We went off at a gentle trot.

Riding up on an open buggy with my Grandpa on a beautiful sunny summer day was a great memory and unforgettable. When you travel a country road in an open buggy you get to see everything in a way that is not possible with today's mode of travel. We went into the town of Falmouth, Indiana to the general store. It had everything that I could imagine. There were barrels of flour, sugar, crackers, pickles and even salted mackerel.

There was no electricity, so of course, there was no refrigeration. The store had high ceilings and shelves all the way up. There was a long ladder on rollers so the clerk could get to the upper shelves. Grandpa had a long list that he gave to the clerk. The clerk went from here to there in the store to get the items on the list, and he placed them all on the counter. Then he wrapped and bagged everything as he ran down the list, adding everything up on a piece of brown paper. He wrote the total amount of the order in a book and gave Grandpa a copy of the charges.

Most farmers ran a charge and paid it off once or twice a year, at harvest time.

The storekeeper gave me a stick of peppermint candy. Boy, it sure was good!

For more stories about the Laughlin families, visit Laughlin Family Stories.