Tag Archives: life in the South

Hardware Store Life

Holiday Mishaps

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I was driving down the road the other day and the song, “Holiday Road,  began to play. That song brings back the memories and the many laughs of the Clark Griswold movies.  One of our family favorites, has to be National Lampoons Christmas Vacation.  I think that we can all recite lines from this movie, it is a classic. I began to think about all of the misadventures the Griswold family encountered throughout the movie and I giggled in the car as the song was finishing up.

My sequence of thinking then moved onto our own unique holiday mishaps and adventures. I guess we all have them, maybe not to the extreme as the movie played out. I hope that your upcoming holiday season is uneventful and blessed. Enjoy our holiday mishaps and adventures!!!! These are some of my favorite and most memorable….

Thanksgiving: In 2018, we had planned a trip to my parents for Thanksgiving. Everyone was excited about going- including my grandparents… my bags were all packed up and ready to go… as I went to bed that night, I experienced the worst pain I ever had in my entire life! It was a kidney stone:(    To say the least, the trip didn’t happen the next day. I ended up not being able to pass the kidney stone, it was lodged in my right kidney- it had to be surgically removed after the holiday passed.

Holiday turkey leftovers are always a challenge. What do you do with all those leftovers in your refrigerator in order to make them “fresh” again for your family? My mom had asked me to make a turkey casserole with our leftover turkey a few years back. I had whipped it out quickly using the same formula as the chicken casserole that our family loves. I placed the turkey casserole into a Pyrex glass baking dish. Boom, it would be done in time with all of the other leftover veggies, etc. We were all laughing, talking, working away in mom’s kitchen. I pulled the casserole out of the oven and began to let it cool before we ate. All of the sudden, the entire dish popped, glass was flying all over the kitchen. Lucky for all of us, no one was hurt. No turkey casserole for dinner- I think we all ate a ham sandwich.

Christmas:

Richard and I were so excited the first Christmas that we were homeowners. We had a beautiful older home with high ceilings. This would be the year that we were going to a choose and cut Christmas tree farm to purchase our tree. Normally, we just purchased a tree from a local spot in town in years past. The Christmas Tree Farm had simply beautiful trees!!! We selected a tree that believed to be around 10 feet high. Once the tree arrived at our house, the realization had begun to set in… our tree was 12/13 feet tall. How were we going to get it in the house??? We knew it would fit inside our home, but getting it upright and inside???? Richard ended up bracing the top limbs for safety reasons and securing it with fishing line, so it would not tip over.

As a young married couple, we had lights, ornaments, but not nearly enough!!! We hit Kmart hard- yep, we are that old folks… we had a Kmart. I still have some of those ornaments that we purchased almost 25 Christmases ago from Kmart in order to fill up our first gigantic Christmas tree. I smile each year those ornaments come out of the box and think of that first Christmas.  All of our beautiful Christmas cards went on our giant tree that year in order to fill in the gaps. Clark Griswold would have loved it, especially when Richard used the chainsaw to get it out of the house!!!!

Mom always wrapped our presents and sometimes did not put a name on them so that we ( my sister and myself) would not sneak into them before Christmas Day. She knew who was supposed to get which present. Isn’t that such a mom thing to know!!! Well, one year we went to our grandparents house for our yearly Christmas Eve dinner. Mom had the presents all ready for each person that night. When Granny opened up her gift, she opened up a pair of mens pants, those were supposed to be for my dad to open up on Christmas Day. Mom was a bit sheepish about the whole thing of course, but she had two snoopy little girls who loved to have hints of what was to come for Christmas Day.  So, Christmas morning came, Dad opened up Granny’s present and they did a switch around gift…. Later on that day when dad was getting rid of boxes and taking them out to the wood stove,  my sister was searching for one of her gifts, but it was already too late… it was in the stove… of course, it was replaced, but mishaps happen.

Happy Holidays to all!

 

 

 

 

 

Hardware Store Life

Brushy Mountain Apple Festival

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If you are a local, you know the first Saturday in October is always the date set aside for the annual Brushy Mountain Apple Festival. This year will mark the 42nd year of festivities 🍎🍎🍎. It has become a bit a tradition for folks in these parts… either you flock to downtown North Wilkesboro and embrace the festival or you ignore the downtown area totally. There is not much in between. People either are ritual followers of Apple Festival or not. As a downtown merchant, we are in the first category. We love it! 🍎🍎🍎🍎

It is a unique way to experience the festival through the eyes of a downtown merchant. After purchasing the hardware store in 2015, we were told by our existing staff that they tended to close early on Apple Festival Day— they always worried about people asking to use the bathroom. We found out pretty quickly that it was not the case. In the past few years, only a handful a folks have ever asked to use our restroom. It was not a legitimate reason to close our doors to a very captive audience who are ready and willing to flood inside our doors to browse around and shop.

Many people who are Apple Festival 🍎goers return to our store to shop each year because they love being in our store. We love to see them each year. There are certain items they have come to expect to find in our store- Mrs. Hanes Cookies 🍪 for example…

It takes loads of preparation for Apple Festival. Usually at the August Hardware show, we always try to target some of our new product offerings to be in store by Apple Festival Weekend. We are well on track this year.

This year a few of our local artisans will be in store to talk to our customers as they are shopping. They get to see their products in store. Now our customers can put a face/name to a specific local artisan. I am hoping for a great showing for all!!!!

The morning of the Apple Festival 🍎 many craft vendors come inside our store to purchase last minute items they may need to finish up the setup process. That takes lots of planning on our end, & we have made a coordinated effort to stock essentials that might be needed- from the proper fire extinguishers, sharpies, duct tape, tarps, extension cords, etc.

Finally, that preparation is executed on the day of Festival… we arrive early to serve those vendors early- we set up our store beginning around 5:30am so we are ready to go, and we will work a long day- closing our doors as the festival breaks up and clean up begins.

Apple Festival is a big day, the crowds are usually big, and we love to see a full downtown. As a downtown merchant, it makes for a full heart ❤️ to see the streets packed with people and activity. Are you ready for the Apple Festival??? 🍎🍎🍎🍎

Hardware Store Life

🇺🇸 American Flags, “we remember…”

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September 11th a day that many of us who are old enough, will always remember where you were located the moment you learned the news of what transpired that morning.

This post is not about the history of the September 11th attacks but the days & months after September 11th. “We remember…”

I remember with clarity in the days following the events of September 11th, a huge surge in American flag sales skyrocketed. People just wanted to show support for those who had lost so much in this awful tragedy. The trickle down was felt into all small towns within our nation. Our small town was absolutely experiencing the same…

September 2001 was well before we were hardware store owners. Richard was working for another company during this time. He would often see folks buying up American flags as fast as they were arriving inside the store. One day Richard was able to purchase one of those American flags for our new home. I was excited to have one coming! Richard had just texted me the news, he was finishing up an errand and would be home shortly. He was in town, and he left the flag in the car… the American flag was stolen out of his car while he was gone. Absolutely nothing else had been taken out of the car, just the flag was missing.

We didn’t get the fly a beautiful American flag at that time to honor those who had lost so much. I do believe that we as Americans all carry that patriotic spirit/sense of remembrance every day since the events of September 11th.

This experience with the loss of the American flag left an impression on both of us. Upon buying a hardware store in 2015, one of the first things we noticed was the American Flag flying outside the store everyday. We wanted to make sure that our customers could always find a high quality American flag in our store for purchase. So when we arrived in New Orleans (our first hardware show) we made sure to order from Valley Forge Flags to keep that tradition alive.

In 2018, we added another service for our customers- drop off old American flags for proper disposal. Our customers can leave an old American flag and we will make sure the Flag Code of the US in observed in the discarding of the American flag. Our community received this service well and plan to continue to do this well into our future.

American Flags… “we remember”…

family fun, Hardware Store Life, memories, supper

Supper vs. Dinner

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Sometimes in conversation as I remember talking to my Granny at the end of the day, I would ask her what they both had for dinner. As she began to talk about her meal, I soon realized that she was referring to her mid-day meal, not her evening meal. My vocabulary was not the same as hers. I quickly learned that her view of supper/dinner was different from mine. Does it matter? Well, I guess it is all about perspective.

A major NC magazine in our state just recently published an article about Sunday Suppers. It was well done. I’m not going to rehash the intent of that article. But, it did bring back up all those supper/dinner conversations that I had with my granny came to my mind when I read the article.

So upon reflection, I began to ponder my usage of “dinner”. I use the term “dinner” all the time to gather my family to the table, but the reality is that we really are seated for “supper” instead.

Why supper??? The word supper is less formal. Dinner can be a full fledged event with fancy dinner napkins, china, etc. But, when we gather at home, it is not a formal affair. Our family is blessed to have passed down to us, the antique farm table that was in my mother-in-law’s kitchen. The table is definitely not formal by any means, and it is the only table around which we gather to eat. At this farm table we engage in the conversations about the day, hold discussions about local events/news, and let the puns roll. (Our form of making our son roll his eyes 👀 at us.). Supper at our house is a time to simply gather, eat together & unwind from the day.

This was modeled well in my family as a young child growing up. All four of us always ate together at the table in the kitchen. As they say, “old habits die hard”. Meals gathered as our family unit or shared with friends are a strong part of my memories of home.

Now in present day, the weekends are probably the most relaxing suppers we get to have as a family unit. Saturday evening supper is probably one of my favorite times. This tends to be the meal when we can relax, kick back at the end of the day. Saturday supper tends to be one of our Traeger nights- smoking a good piece of meat, or grilling up fish, or whatever is on sale at the grocery store! Do you guys do that too???

Saturday supper doesn’t have to be all fancy, high dollar meals that breaks your budget 💵. Sometimes supper is quite simple at our house–homemade chili beans, or biscuits in a Lodge skillet & country ham, maybe even soup and Traeger grilled cheese sandwich, or lastly, a crockpot meal that we all love.

So I guess when I call my family to say, “dinner is ready”, I really mean supper because that equates to family time. 😊

Happy Supper Saturday y’all !!!

bucket list, family fun, Hardware Store Life, Shop Local, Summer

Summer Bucket List

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Small town life is charming to some people, but maybe a little dull to others because they feel like they are missing out on something.

We truly live in a great community and the positives are many. We have many great places places to visit within our county boundaries. This Summer “Bucket List” is good whether you are vacationing this summer or just simply doing a “staycation”. Many items on the list are plain family fun things to do. I hope you enjoy the list😎. Have a great summer!!!

Summer Bucket List: Written from a business owner perspective…

1. Eat local- check out lunch at a food truck or enjoy a locally owned restaurant

2. Check out Concerts in the Commons, Wilkesboro

3. Just grill… enjoy food with your family – want to switch up your grill? Check out Traeger at Wilkes County Hardware

4. Go to an Outdoor movie- 🎥 in North Wilkesboro coming soon

5. Stroll and shop in Downtown North Wilkesboro – start shopping at Wilkes County Hardware, then walk around 10th Street and up to Main Street- you avoid the hills around town… 👍🏻

6. Do a family game night- board games & card games are great for the whole family 🤪

7. S’mores & Fire 🔥 Pit time!!

8. Make homemade ice cream!!

9. Check out the splash pad in Wilkesboro

10. Stroll on 10th Street & other Downtown streets for the Art Walk in July!

11. Play flashlight 🔦 tag

12. Ride in your car 🚘 with the windows down and enjoy your music 🎶 playing

13. Go to Glen’s to get a chocolate dip cone- it is a classic treat

14. Enjoy a nice afternoon at Wilkes Heritage Museum to learn more about the history of our community

15. Catch fireflies after dark or just stargaze

16. Spend the day at Stone Mountain

17. Visit the Farmers Market on Saturday morning

18. Visit one of our local vineyards, we have some beautiful & scenic places here in Wilkes

19. Don’t miss the Annual July 4th fireworks 💥, find a spot downtown to sit and watch the fireworks show with family & friends

20. Draw with sidewalk chalk and just have fun😄

21. Go fishing 🎣 -Kerr Scott lake views are priceless

22. Walk or Bike 🚲 the Greenway

23. For peace, relaxation & serenity- find the Labyrinth at St. Paul’s Episcopal Church

24. Hold an outdoor game night for friends & family

Lastly…

25. Enjoy the summer breeze when it comes & the mountain views- everyone else doesn’t have the same opportunities

Happy Summer! Create your own “bucket list” or DIY list for summer. We hope to see you soon fulfilling all of your summer wishes.