Boy what a store!

I love garage sales and looking through other people's prized possessions, so I was absolutely blown away when I went to the Country Boy Store last Friday. Just south of Hopkinsville, the huts may appear slightly shabby, but they house enough gadgets and gizmos to keep any guy busy for quite a while.

Although I was there to shop for my mom, I know my Dad and brother would love this store. The camping/fishing/hiking/hunting accessory possibilities were endless! You could find practically anything you wanted in camo, and it took at lot of self-restraint for me to not try on some of the Army helmets or the gas mask fellow staff writer Ben Joubert found down one of the aisles.

But, hands down, the things that caught my eye the moment I walked in the door were the guns. Sure, I'd seen hunting rifles before. The shotguns were nothing new. It was the guns that looked like they were straight out of Rambo that surprised me. One was absolutely massive, looked like it could put a hole in pretty much anything and was just hanging right next to the door. Another was on the floor in the back of the store, and looked to be about as long as I am tall.

Not surprisingly, the four young men who came to the store while I was there were equally as excited about the find. They thought the weapon hanging by the door might work though, and hinted at trying it out, something store-owner Gant Golladay didn't seem too thrilled about. He said not to stress or detail the guns he had at the store in my story because he has thieves come by all the time and try to take the weapons. Even though he has a security system that beeps ominously every few minutes, the remote store is still susceptible to burglary.

Gant said if a thief wants to get in, he or she will find a way to make it happen. Still, he didn't seem like the type of person who would great an intruder with tea and cookies.

A few other notes I remember from my afternoon at the store: 

-I thought for sure that I was going to knock something over, resulting in everything cascading on top of me and possibly injuring everyone in the store. The casual lack-of-classification for where to find things added to the atmosphere of the store, though.

 -Conservatively, I would put the number of old toilets on the property at 25. I found them in one of the other sheds and all over the back yard in different degrees of disrepair. Not sure if there's a huge market for used toilets...

-The store's cash register could be the coolest thing I've ever seen. Gant couldn't remember how long it had been in use at the store, but there was nothing computerized about it. It seemed to have grown into the counter itself, not easily distinguishable from the next item for sale. The small calculator entered accepted my total for the hanging basket item that I bought, and sent a signal through wires that hung from the ceiling and ran to the wall a few feet behind the counter. After a second, another hidden draw gave a little ding and opened. I may be easily entertained, but I love homemade anythings and these seemed like a fine example.

My mom Helen displaying her new hanging thing

-Hundreds of little pieces of farm equipment and other antiques were pinned to the walls of the store. Gant said when one of the original owners got an item he didn't think would sell, he would nail it to the wall. Now, Gant is confident some of the old items are worth a pretty penny. 

-My mom was kind enough to act like she enjoyed the hanging thing that I got her. After debating between the basket and a plug-in water fountain contraption, I decided it was a safer bet the basket would stay operational a little bit longer.

Thanks for your continued interest in and support of my bucket list column. Keep sending your comments, questions or complaints to dboucher@kentuckynewera.com or post them to the blog. Look for a different perspective on the Country Boy Store in tomorrow's post.