Abilene, Kansas, part 3

The pleasant mixture of smells inside the Frontier Store included just about every thing from plug tobacco to the scent of fresh-ground coffee that instantly awakened your senses and created an overpowering desire to have a mug of that new perked brew. There was the deep fragrance of new leather that sent your imagination galloping across the Plains astride a pony with a mane flowing like silk. Just close your eyes and stand in the middle of the store. Now take a deep breath and you will know that here you can find cheese, and both dried and pickled fish. There is even the fresh woven scent of new fabric just waiting for clever and nimble fingers to fashion it into a pretty frock for the next barn dance.

Look up in to the rafters and there you'll find hams hanging along with slabs of bacon and cooking pots. Strangely, in this delicious and functional mixture are also stocking caps. Everything you need is here. Arranged around the store are kegs and barrels. A peek inside these containers will reveal sugar, vinegar, flour and molasses. There is fresh produce here, as the season permits, all brought in from out-laying farms and backyard gardens. And when you select your family's supplies don't forget to buy something from the big glass jars filled with striped candy sticks and peppermint balls.

The general store wasn't just a place to shop; it was also something like an information center where news about everything from crops and critters, Indians and politics, as well as grasshoppers and the weather could be exchanged. In the center of Moon's general store stood a potbellied stove. Although it was not lit in summer, in winter it was a glowing center of warmth. This was also where Moon kept his cracker barrel, allowing the warmth to keep the crackers crisp.

Around the stove was placed a circle of chairs, ready and waiting for customers and gossipers alike to take a rest. Most farmers, when they came to town, usually made a day of it. So while their wives did their part of the shopping that didn't interest the men folks, the fellows could go on over to the Frontier Store. There, they could sit around the stove, chew their tobacco-using the ash pan in front of the stove for a spittoon. There was another added attraction to this form of frontier entertainment as well: Mr. Moon enjoyed all this casual companionship and to show his appreciation he kept some free refreshment in a whiskey barrel in the back room. And just to make things convenient and handy, he kept a tin cup tied to the barrel.

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