Frank and Addie (McCain) Groninger bought and operated the Groninger’s General Store in Burrows during the years when small towns had a lot to offer the rural community as well as the townspeople.

The store was open seven days a week. Frank and Addie would start early in the morning and be available to customers until late at night no matter how small the purchase. They eventually lived in the house right next door. On Saturday nights business was so good, the customers would be in the store until about midnight. 

The store had just about anything anyone needed or wanted, and customers would trade their eggs and chickens and produce for goods.

The Post Office was located in the back of the store when they bought it. Frank became the Postmaster about five years later. He would hang the mailbag twice a day for the mail train to pick up. He decided to retire as Postmaster when he was 80 years old.

The store flourished for several years – even during the war when there were so many rations on items.  After Frank and Addie were not able to work in the store, their son Charles and Kathalene became the new proprietors in 1948.

After World War II, small towns gradually lost their businesses. The little general store could not compete with the big supermarkets.  Customers had faster transportation than the horse and buggy. They wanted to shop in bigger towns with larger stores. Eventually, the customers became so few there was just not enough financial income to keep the store open.  The doors were closed in 1959.

 However, there is a nice ending to this bit of history. The Groninger’s General Store was moved to Dayton, Indiana in 2000. With much of the original store intact, it now sits on Ron Koehler’s property, next to his nursery.  Photographs can be seen on the home page of this web site.

I do not always get a chance to go to the Covered Bridge Festival, but this October I was able to go twice!  Once to Mansfield and then to Bridgeton, Indiana.  Part of the attraction, on the first trip, was yard sales and barn sales along the way. We took more photos the second day when we spent more time at the actual festival.

Scott and I had a great time with friends, Carol and Yvonne.  We all ate too much, bought interesting items, did a lot of window shopping, and made plans to go again next year.  I am adding captions to the photographs to give you a mini tour of our day.

Bridgeton Covered Bridge, over a waterfall

food stop, Walleye Fish

Grist Mill store front

Bridgeton Country StoreI loved the fact that some of the town people raise chickens!

Bridgeton 1878 House

Collums General Store - full of treasures!!

wood carver's wares

I came home with a new found love of pumpkin ice cream and Amish hot pretzels as well as a renewed appreciation for indoor plumbing.  Notice there are NO photographs of porta-potties One stop that got the females in our group excited was this scrapbook supply booth in the general store. I plan to write more about the store, based out of Muncie Indiana, at a later date.

a wonderful assortment of scrapbook supplies

A lifetime ago, when I was a little girl, buckeyes were for good luck.  I remember having the idea that putting a buckeye in my pocket was a lucky thing to do – though I have no memory of who put that notion into my head.

One of our Mustard Seed vendors, Debby Beaver, recently brought a bowl full of buckeyes to the shop. Somehow the price of 3/25¢ makes me doubt any magic effect, though they do make interesting bowl fillers. I like the old metal container she displayed them in, too!

I did try to find some information to back up my memories of buckeye good luck charms. 

According to one of my old dictionaries: the brown glossy seed or nut of such a tree…

Wikipedia says: In addition to using the tannic acid for leather working, Native Americans would roast and peel the nut, and mash the contents into a nutritional meal they called “Hetuck”.

The buckeye nuts can also be dried, turning dark as they harden with exposure to the air, and strung onto necklaces…

The price and location are hard to beat, so I will end up with a few buckeyes this week.  If you want some, please stop by! Your buckeye stories and/or facts are more than welcome.

From Scott – I recently had the pleasure to read an account by the first man to sail around the world by himself on a boat named the S.V. Spray which was a 36-foot-9-inch (11.20 m) oyster sloop that this man rebuilt from a broken down wreck and then proceeded to sailed for many years. His name was Joshua Slocum and his account was titled, “Sailing Alone Around the World”. The book was very well written and the humorous way that Slocum painted word pictures within his narrative was very enjoyable. He was a very interesting man and was 51 years old at the time that he started his 3 year journey in 1895. One thing that I found compelling while reading this book was the fact that my grandfather was born the same year Slocum started on his circumnavigation and would have been an infant at the times that were being spoken of in the book. Slocum was an experienced seaman and made many voyages around various places in the world during his life until he disappeared at sea in 1909 at the age of 65 while sailing the Spray. He, experienced as he was, was not able to swim, so any wave action that could have capsized the craft or swept him overboard would have been his doom. All in all, this is a great read from the public domain. I am finding that I really like the older public domain books that are available to read or listen to for free. There is adventure waiting and knowledge for the picking!

I am selling some old items for a missionary friend of ours. While I do not know how much I can get for a Ford Model A Instruction Book – the small slip of history found inside seems like a treasure whether it will sell or not.

A handwritten receipt for the $175 purchase price of a used 1929 Chevrolet bought in 1933. With a $16 down payment and $55 trade in allowance for a Ford, the balance is to be paid in 11 payments of $11 and a final payment of $12.50.

The dollar figures speak of a time gone by. One that is fun to day dream about. Now people pay more than $175 for a bike – and everything seems more complex.

I remember my grandparents talking about how they paid my grandfather’s employer for their house. No bank. No interest. They just agreed on a price and made payments until it was paid in full. He had originally traded pigs for the house, so he was happy to get cash for it.

It is a bit sad to think that the old car is probably long gone by now. My grandparents are, too. So is their house. I am glad that there are still slips of paper as evidence that those times really happened.