By Catherine Whisenant Travis

   My parents bought a little  Farm in Morgan City, Alabama in 1928 when I was only 4 years old. I don’t remember Morgan City having any stores in its vicinity at that time. I do recall

that Mr. Roy Edwards opened one up around 1930 or 1931.

My most vivid memory, however, is of the store that my grandparents, Bill Whisenant and Sarah Eveline Youngblood, opened later in the 1930’s.

   Granny and Grandpa Whisenant operated it out of their back yard. The store sat behind their house and looked like a smokehouse. It was stocked with flour, sugar, coffee, tobacco, snuff, candy and all the other items people needed. They even sold socks for men and stockings for women as well as material to make dresses.

    My grandparents lived a short distance from our house so we could walk across the field to visit them. Wonnie way my oldest sister and often accompanied Mamma when

something was needed from the store. When our brother Melvin and I got old enough, Mamma would let us go with her.

   Money was tight during the Depression years and Mamma would often trade something we had in exchange for the items we needed from the store. She would carry a couple of hens (with their legs tied together) and Wonnie would carry a lard bucket filled with eggs. Mamma would make a list of the things we needed, and she never forgot to put her snuff on the list. But the children weren’t left out. She always told us to get some candy.

   Grandpa was also a peddler and known by everyone in the community as “Wicker” Bill Whisenant. He peddled his

goods from a horse drawn covered wagon and buggy. My grandparents would pack the goods from the store into boxes and Grandpa would peddle those items to our neighbors in Greenbriar Cove and the surrounding area.

   Money was scarce for other people also, and Grandpa would allow people to trade home grown items, eggs and chickens for the goods they needed. That is why he always kept a chicken coop on his peddling wagon. When folks didn’t have anything to trade, Grandpa would allow them to get their goods on credit. He kept up with his sales or credit purchases in his ledger. That ledger is still in the Whisenant family and dates back to the 1930’s. It would take Grandpa all day to make his rounds. Most of the time Granny stayed home to operate the store, but would go with him occasionally.

When she stayed home, all of us kids enjoyed getting to spend the day with her. It was especially fun when Uncle Wheeler was there since he always took time to play games with us.

   Granny died in 1936 and I remember the day she was buried. It was cold and snow

was on the ground. Her body was carried to Mt. Olive Cemetery in nearby Union Grove in a horse-drawn wagon. Grandpa didn’t do much peddling after Granny died. Uncle Jim Prichard and his daughters Evelo and Lena Mae moved in with Grandpa to help care for him. When they moved out, Grandpa took turns living with his kids. He lived his last years with Uncle Floyd, and died in 1948.

   I have many wonderful memories of my grandparents and their old homeplace. I often visit there, but it just doesn’t look the same as it did before. I do, however, still have the sweet memories of the time I spent there as a child.