In the Germany Valley of Rabun County, Georgia, where I grew up in an age now gone, Isaac (Ike) and Leona Marietta Welborn Justus had a country store. Ike was a distant cousin of mine, as was Leona, thru the Welborns. Ike’s great-grandparents were William and Sarah Justice. The store was actually the front part of Ike’s big, rickety old two-story house. As some of the flooring was uneven, one could almost get seasick walking around. Outside in the front was an antique gas pump, with gas pumped by a handle up into a glass top with the gallons marked on it. When put in a car, the gas ran down by means of gravity.
A pipe made of wood carried water from a spring in a cove behind the house to a big horse watering trough under a tree. Around the tree was a bench for folks to sit on and talk. On the porch of the house/store was a room on one end containing oil and such for vehicles, and perhaps some rather strong liquid refreshments for thirsty men. It was said Ike hired men to operate stills on the side. Ike put money in farmland and also had a rickety old mill standing high over some rapids lower down on the valley creek. I loved that old mill!
We young people liked visiting the store. Ike sold boots, shoes, overalls, farming tools, thread, horse shoes, harness parts, axes, shells for guns, etc. An assortment of candy was in jars and behind the glass counters. When Mother (Durell Dickerson Justus) sent me to get some thread or coffee, or a bolt of cloth she needed, I’d get enough money for a Pepsi or Orange Crush and a bar of candy for walking about a mile to the store. It was a real delight to smell the aromas there!
Every autumn a shooting match would be held near the store. My Uncle Noel Justus loaned me a sweet 16-gauge single shot shotgun to hunt squirrels that won some shooting matches, competing with 12 gauge shotguns! I kept it for years and for some reason let him have it back, but a fire broke out in his house and burned everything Noel had, including the shotgun.
Leona had a great memory of family and area history, as did her daughter, Ruth, who was a couple of years older than me. Ruth was giving me family history – Leona had died – but I put off more talks and got busy on other things. Then Ruth died suddenly and I’ll never know the rest. I did learn that tree stands were first put up in nearby gaps – not for deer – but for shooting wolves that ran in packs in the early days.
