Yesterday's general store was today's Costco, Home Depot and Superstore rolled into one — and then some. General stores sold a little of everything through the years: groceries, hardware, dry goods, caskets, corsets, spinning wheels, furniture, appliances, feeds, seeds, kerosene, gasoline, medicinal lotions and potions for man or beast, and of course candy, ice cream and pop. "General stores usually had the look of an overstuffed warehouse, and if you wanted something, they had it buried somewhere ..... you just had to ask." Not only was the general store a one-stop shop, it was a place to meet and greet, gossip, solve world problems and tell tales, tall and true, a pillar of rural community life until done in by the automobile, mail order catalogues, big box stores and shopping malls.