Raymond Bial

Country Store to Corner Market Raymond Bial

Country Store to Corner Market: Texas, Oklahoma, and Arkansas offers an enjoyable, engaging, and enlightening look at country stores, from early dry goods and general stores to mom-and-pop markets, green grocers, bakeries, and butchers. The book traces the history of stores on the rural roadside and neighborhood groceries in the city. It continues to the Piggly Wiggly and other early supermarkets. The three states encompassed in the book cover a broad swath of land. It is a unique and varied region that stretches from the Gulf of Mexico to the Southern Plains and Arkansas Ozarks. Country Store to Corner Market weaves a popular history of these ventures from frontier times to the stores and markets of today. Mostly, it is a story of people and their common bond to their homeplace and each other.

Through a fascinating array of captioned photographs of clerks, customers, farmers, and townspeople, this book emphasizes everyday life, from buying flour and sugar to visiting with a neighbor while waiting for the morning mail. Country stores and corner markets were once the gathering place for everyone in the community. Pull up a chair and enjoy these touching and occasionally humorous glimpses into the lives of your ancestors.