He was a store keeper, one of the interesting characters I met on the back-roads beat.
It was a little crossroads sort of place - West Carlisle. I passed through one day and stopped to investigate.
This is the story that came of it.
| He's the man with everything |
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Next time you need a left-handed
monkey wrench, go to West Carlisle and stop at Fortune's General
Store. You can't get one there, but you can see one. At least,
you can see what Sam Fortune calls a left-handedmonkey wrench. The
thing looks like its mammy was a brace and its daddy was a wrench. It's on a shelf above the merchandise that includes waste-baskets, beans, work gloves, cameras and motor oil. You'll pull up in -front of a beat-up building that gives little indication from the outside that a store lurks within. The worn and weathered porch looks Iike it is more for sitting than selling and the jungle of merchandise inside is not displayed, it is stacked. Sam Fortune will be sitting almost hidden, behind the counter in an old overstuffed chair. A gigantic coal-burning stove occupies much of the floor space near the door. Chairs are lined against the walls and one can imagine some of the good stories told in this room on winter nights when there's no place to go. Sam Fortune is a friendly man with white hair and no teeth. He is an animal lover, too. Back of the store he keeps a couple sheep busy gnawing at the weeds. He calls them with a 10~cent whistle that, for this purpose substitutes for his teeth. When they come to him he feeds them candy bars. Going into the store requires some physical dexterity in getting between the 20 or so cats that sit on the front porch. They range from young to old, big to little, tame to wild. To call them, Sam .says, "Meow, meow." They know what he's saying. Fortune leaves West Carlisle only about once a month. He makes it to Newark once every three years to get his glasses changed. It must be something of an adventure for him to start out of town in the 1936 Chevrolet with 209,000 miles to its credit. Coming into the store - the only business in Pike Twp. - one expects to see flour barrels and crackers measured out by the pound. This is not the case. The atmosphere might be old, the storekeeper elderly, the merchandise slightly untidy, but nothing there dates before 1947, when Fortune bought and stocked the store. He was driving through West Carlisle after being discharged from the Army with an injured back, saw the empty store, liked it and bought it. The building was one of the first built in the town, laid out in 1817. A hotel that once stood next door attracted people traveling between Newark and Coshocton. In its heyday, West Carlisle catered to the traveling man with three doctors, two blacksmiths, a buggy shop and a shoemaker, There were also an undertaker, a tinner, a cabinet maker, a dress maker, two tanners and a dry goods store. Gradually, oil wells became the main source of income for the area. There was also business in sheep and fruit. Many relics of these times can still be seen in Fortune',s store. A grain cradle and flail hang on the rafters of the porch. Hanging from a nail in the ceiling are a candle lantern and an oil-burning miner's light. A combination rocking and high chair is near the back of the store. A coffee grinder and sausage stuffer are on a shelf near a huge iron pot that was used by pioneers. . There are few general stores left anymore. Stacked up beside a modern department store, Fortune's place doesn't amount to much in the way of services But how many department store owners can remember the names of all regular customers? Fortune can - all 48 of the West Carlisle citizens. Seeing Fortune pulling the pigtails of a school girl and joking with young boys, or stroking the back of a kitten, is to know that he can offer meaningful services. Visit with Sam for an hour and you leave wishing both Fortune and his rickety old store could last forever. |
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