The Store

I was born and raised in Pendleton County, Kentucky.  Born in 1944, I was premature and was considered a weak child because of that. 

   When I was about two years old, my grandfather, Frank Blackburn, bought and operated the Locust Grove store just off Highway 22 about half way between Falmouth and Williamstown, Kentucky.

   In the picture you see my sister, Faye, and myself at the age of two years old.  I do not remember these days, but my mother, who helped her father run the store, said that I used to go into the store and steal cookies and eat them.  I suppose you would have done the same thing had you been in the same situation.  I probably thought that they were free, because we lived in a small house just next door to the store building. 

   This was just before I contacted Polio in 1947.  This story is told in Chapter Two.  As you can see, I could walk perfectly well in those days.  Many times men would come to the store and sit outside on the front porch.  I do not know if the man in the background is my grandfather or someone else. 

   Notice the gas pump to the right.  I wish I had one like that now just to place in the front yard.  It would be a good conversation piece.  Of course, it is gone from the store nowadays.  I do not know what happened to it.