Blume’s Grocery Memories By T. Frederick “Freddie” Blume First store was located at South West corner of present day Hwy 49 and Robinson Ave, on same side of Hwy 49 as Harrisburg School. The store building was owned by D. T. “Sonny” Brown’s family. Plato V. “Pete” Smith and his family lived in the rear of the store. The store had no indoor toilet, rather an outhouse. Approximately 1940, David Blume quit his job with Cannon Mills went into the grocery business with Uncle Jay Cope (Kate Blume’s maternal uncle). Kate was very upset with David for quitting his job which resulted in no secure income to support his family with a new baby (Freddie, born in Jan 1939). After a few years, Uncle Jay Cope died. I have only a slight memory of Uncle Jay. The first store was a general store: groceries, meats, fish, dry goods (work uniforms, overalls, shoes and work boots), hardware, tires, gasoline, cattle feed, flour in sacks, nails in wooden kegs sold by the pound, beans sold by the pound, a candy counter with candy also sold by weight. The candy counter was my favorite section of the store. When my brother John “Johnny” David Blume, Jr. and I were small, we received 25 cents allowance per week. However, we could only spend the 25 cents in Dad’s store, which works out to be 5 cents per day Monday through Friday. I spent my allowance at the candy counter. The gas pumps were tall with a graduated glass cylinder on top. The gasoline was delivered to the car through a hose by gravity from the glass cylinder. A gallon was measured by watching the gas liquid level go down the graduated glass cylinder. The glass cylinder was refilled by manually pumping the lever. Best I can remember the price of gas was about 10 cents a gallon or lower during “price wars”. Gasoline and petroleum products were supplied by Gus Widenhouse. The early store was not a customer self-service format. Customers came in with a list and gave the list to David. In turn he would go around the store and gather the items on the list then tally the cost and bag the items and carry the customer’s purchases to their car. He was also the butcher. The store hours were from 7 am till 9 pm. The store was closed on Wednesday afternoons and Sundays. Vacation was once a year in October, when David would go fishing with some of the men in the community. He would leave to go the beach to pier fish on Sunday and would return Wednesday night for 3 days of vacation per year. Kate would keep the store open during David’s 3 day vacation. Early in the 1950’s, David bought a lot from Dr. Lubchenko across Hwy 49 directly opposite the Harrisburg School. On this lot a new and larger store was built. The store was built by Wood Quesenberry (Jenna Sue Quesenberry Taylor’s father). A barber shop was added to the side of the store. For many years the store remained a general store, but evolved slowly to selling mostly groceries. This new store was self-service with shopping carts, an indoor bathroom and electric gas pumps , very modern. His meat came from Cook’s Packing Co. (the same that later had the Buffalo Ranch near Mt. Pleasant). Fish was supplied by The Charlotte Fish Co. He bought his groceries from Thomas and Howard Wholesale and his hardware from Allison-Erwin Co. I remember Dad mentioning that someone taught him the basic techniques of cutting meat but I do not remember who. I am sure it was informal. Quality and freshness of the meat was important. I have his wooden meat block in our kitchen. At about 7:00 or 7:30 a small more or less regular group of men would gather at the store. This group included names like Charlie Alexander, John Davis, Gene Davis, Ernest Stallings, Jim Alexander and others. The membership was not fixed, rather personalities often changed from night to night. The Community, Cabarrus County, the state of North Carolina, the Nation, the World or the Universe might be on the agenda. Any reference to politics or religion resulted in a contentious discussion. On Friday afternoons David would go out to several households and they would give him their grocery list. I remember names like Carrie Spears, Lillie Johnston, and Matt Spann. These were elderly folks with no convenient transportation. Most of these folks lived in the the Belfonte Church area. Their grocery order was filled and delivered to them on Saturday morning. Matt Spann lived in a very small shack off the road. It was necessary to hike through the woods about one-half mile, because the narrow road to her house would be too muddy or over grown with brush. She bought a 7-day wind up clock and Dad would re-set the time and wind it up for her each week. The weekends were the busy days for the store and over many years several generations of high school students in the community worked on Friday afternoon and all day Saturday. My brother and I worked in the store when we were in high school. After high school and military service, Johnny returned to become the barber until his death in 1969. In those days, before computers, as per requirement for tax purposes, an inventory count of all items in the store had to be accomplished by pencil and paper once a year. In January of each year Dad would give each family member a tablet and pencil and assign a row of shelves filled with groceries. Each item had to be listed, counted and multiplied by its price. Usually the process required about a week to complete ? a tedious process. From the beginning till retirement, Blume’s Grocery extended credit to its customers. Most would pay at the time of purchase but some would pay once a week or once a month as they received their paycheck from their employment. A few would pay in the fall of the year when their crops were sold. Dr. Lubchenko donated the lot next to the store for a Volunteer Fire Department. The Fire Department was organized, a building was built and a fire truck and equipment was purchased. I am not sure the exact year. David Blume participated in helping organize the fire department and in his turn he served as chief. I am sure the current fire department has information on this history. Also I remember that David Blume seemed to be one of the first to be called for any general emergency in the community, possibly because most people knew him at the store. About the year 1966 the store and barbershop were enlarged. Today the Harrisburg Hardware is in the building. Our family still owns the building. David and Kate worked till 1975 and retired to the farm on Hickory Ridge Rd. They had built and moved to a house on the farm about 1971 or 1972. As far as I can recall, the store was robbed twice. The first robbery occurred at the old store just before closing time. Someone stole some tires that were displayed outside the front of the store. The second robbery occurred at the new store. David and Kate had locked up the store at 9:00. As was their routine, Kate got in their car on the passenger side. David put the cash box on the back seat and got in the driver’s side. From the darkness a young man opened the back seat door and threatened David and Kate with a gun. He then grabbed the cash box and ran. David reacted instinctively by chasing the young robber on foot. The robber ran towards Roberta Rd. where a car was waiting for him and they were successful in not being caught. David and Kate meet when David’s sister played the piano at the wedding of one of Kate’s sisters. David was also a friend of Vic Harris (Kate’s brother). David and Kate married in 1932. It was a double wedding with Ted and Mildred McCachren. The very small wedding was at 8:00 in the morning at the manse of the Harrisburg Presbyterian Church. After the wedding David and Kate drove to Myrtle Beach and Ted and Mildred to the mountains. They wanted the wedding to be early in the morning because in those days it was a day’s drive to the beach. My take on the time and size of the wedding is that my Dad (extremely frugal) wanted to hold down the cost of the wedding. That also explains the double wedding and sharing the cost with Ted and Mildred. And it explains the two flat tires that occurred on the drive to the beach. The logical reason - do not buy new tires till the old ones wear out. Their first house was next door to the Harris house where Kate grew up. They started building the house before they were married in order to have it finished when they were married. The road was a dirt road then but today the address is 4343 Stallings Rd. Their first son, Freddie, was born at home in Jan. 1939, and Johnny was born Nov 1940 in a hospital in Charlotte. Our family still owns the house.