feralmerril
Absent Comrade
My grandpa (mothers dad) started a large country general & hardware store in a village in auroaville wisconsin, along with a partner around the early 1900`s, maybe 1905. Both familys lived over the store. It burnt down about 1918 and the familys went to southern california and started another for a couple years. Then grandpa came back a few years later and one across the road from the one that burnt. I was raised in it untill after the war. Dad didnt like the store business "Living at work" from the time your feet hit the floor until you went to bed again. He went to work as a machinest. I remember the store was about half groceries and half hardware. We also had gas pumps. Grandpa sold out to mom and went back to california and retired. Dad worked for AO Smith durring the war, was frozen to his job and only could get home maybe once every couple months. Mom ran the store alone before and up through the war. My older sister went to live with a aunt whos husband was in the navy. Mom let me range a mile around the store. They cut glass and all that. I have fond memorys of being raised there. A mill pond across from the store, a creek behind it. Here are a few pictures of it. First picture is of my folks wedding day in front of it, secound relatives of both sides of my family, Third, grandpa and me, last, sister and me. My mom was a outgoing woman that knew everyone and had roadside stands and pedaled groceries around various farm markets etc until in her 70s.
