The Oliveburg Store

Not far from Manchester and Ashland, Ohio is a general store in a little village called Olivesburg. Olivesburg is little more than a crossroads these days although at one time, according to Wikipedia, dynamite may have been produced there.

The store, founded around 1840 offers excellent ice cream, a room full of antiques and all kinds of kitchen gadgetry, but it was the baking section that got my attention. Never have I seen so many kinds of cake toppings in one place.

 My friend Donna was fascinated with something else:

Now that's a rolling pin!

I came home with a couple tubs of cake toppings to use at Christmas, and a couple bottles of local wine. Small stores like this one can be the backbone of a community, and make an interesting place to stop when traveling too.

I remember one such store not far from my first house, in a tiny community called Buckhall in Virginia. We stopped there for gas, milk, bread, chicken feed and just conversation with the store owners. I wonder if the store is still there; given the growth in that region it has probably long since disappeared or has morphed into a convenience store--and I bet there is no chicken feed for sale any more.

Thank goodness there are still places like Olivesburg, where ice cream, gasoline, milk, gifts, cheese, plumbing and baking supplies, and all sorts of other notions are still sold in an eclectic mix in a store with wood floors and shelving and smiling friendly clerks.