Jack McDonald in front of old store( circa1939).
Goods were exchanged for cash, or chickens and eggs. The chickens and eggs would be taken to Indianapolis— a two-day trip— and sold to poultry dealers. Kess could then buy special order merchandise that he didn’ t usually stock in the store. During the time he was selling from the huckster routes, his father, John Tom McDonald, would tend the store. Kess’ s oldest son, Herbert, also helped out. When the wagon was nearing home on Greasy Creek Road, Kess would blow on a bugle to announce his approach. Herb listened for the bugle, and would meet his father on top of Bean Blossom Overlook with a second team of horses. The teams were
Old grocery building in 2016. joined together to bring the wagon down the hill and ford the creek just south of Bean Blossom. Before joining the navy at the age of eighteen, Herbert drove a huckster route for his father for a couple years. Upon his discharge at the end of World War I, Herbert worked in Indianapolis and Kess focused on the store, giving up the huckster routes.
Herbert married Gladys Mayne Christie and they had a son, Jack. When Kess died in 1933, Herb moved his family to Bean Blossom to take over the business. The foundation of State Route 135 had just been laid from Nashville to Bean Blossom.
Living next to the store, light was provided in the evenings with kerosene lamps. There was a kerosene stove, a handpump outdoors for water, and a privy. In 1934, The McDonald household was the only home in Bean Blossom with electric lights when Herb bought an electric light plant run by a gasoline-powered generator. An extension cord brought the power source to the house. The generator was used for a number of years before there were electric utility lines. Gladys recalled that if she wanted Herb to come home from the store when a late card game was going on, she would simply turn off the generator.
The store itself was small, but an important hub of the community. Wooden counters ran along each side and the back of the building. Groceries
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