Rural areas across the country are dotted with tiny towns that exist only in name if not in reality. In fact, most of them don’t even make the map anymore including a little place called Stella which isn’t far from my home. All that’s left today is a church and an old general store that was shuttered when I was young.
It opened in 1887 and changed hands some over the years. When I was small, it was owned by Shag and Helen Fout, an elderly couple who had run the place since the late sixties.
I don’t remember much about the interior anymore and would absolutely love to see inside again. There were creaky wood floors and a big pot bellied stove. That, I remember. I also remember the smell, a scent that I can’t begin to describe here but that represents the passage of time in my mind.
I also remember going there at Christmas to buy bulk Christmas candy. They had big bins and you left with candy scooped into paper bags. It was tradition to go there for candy every year and I looked forward to it.
It’s funny because this place rarely bubbles to the top of my mind but I always revisit those memories as the holidays near. A part of me wishes to go back for a little bag of chocolate covered peanuts or little milk chocolate stars.
Make the Journey Fun 
That reminds me so much of a little general store in the small town I grew up in. The owner used to give paper bags to the kids and let you fill them with candy for fifty cents!! 🙂
I love it! Kids today will never know the value of a little paper sack full of candy. 🙂
That was my great grandma and grandpa’s store. I remember standing out front of the store for the auction when I was 5 years old. I miss those days!
Oh my gosh! I bet you do miss it Mandy! What a memory. Were Shag and Helen your great grandparents?
Wonderful bit of nostalgia there. I recall the Amish stores around Lancaster, PA. My dad bought his bags of chocolate-covered peanuts at Sears!
Haha. Regardless where you get them, chocolate covered peanuts are the best!
The Maynards knew that store well. I remember everything about that store. How the aisles were etc. loved it there !
Hi Todd! Thanks for sharing that! I wish I remembered more but was quite small when they closed. What I remember is more of a feeling than a place.
I remember that store well but most I remember Shag and the traveling store, my aunt lived on Dunkle Creek and he always came down and stopped at her house, If I was there with my Mom visiting her grandkids and I got a quarter to go buy stuff from the store then when we were safely back on her porch out of the way she would go and get things she needed from and then she would always buy a big bag of mixed candy and fill the candy dish and we got to pick out a few pieces too. I am sure he ended out the last of several boxes of candy and mixed it together and sold it that way on the traveling store. Of course I knew Joyce well too sometimes we just talked about the people on the ridges around the store
Such wonderful memories! Thank you for sharing Margaret!
Oh what a memory..We lived in the old Robb place when I was little. The house was sold and dismantled, and the old log house was put back together again on Rt. 56. But all the kids would ride our bikes to Fouts store for pop and candy, and ride back..It was about 5 mile ride one way. But we had fun.
Thank you for sharing this wonderful memory! Those were the days when it was safe to let your kids run around like that!
Shag was my former mother in laws brother my former mother in law and her husband also owned a country store in Allensville
Hi Deb! Did they own Allen Brothers? I loved that store too.