I was driving through Darwin, Virginia yesterday when I came across Stanley's General Store. I can't resist places like this so I had to stop. It was about what one would expect with a couple of surprises. As for the expected, it looked like a general store with the usual stock. One thing they had that you don't get in the city stores though, sodas in glass bottles. An old slide top RC Cola cooler was stocked with just about any type of drink...all in glass bottles. Everybody knows that sodas just taste better from glass bottles, don't they? I settled on a favorite from my past, an Orange Crush Grape soda. Ahhh, just the way I remembered it. There wasn't any elder person running the store though. A young man, college educated, was minding the store. He said it had been in business for 101 years. Now, they mostly sell clothing and equipment for construction and mining customers and a few guns. "Can't hardly get any guns anymore," the fellow said. He had a laptop computer to check on orders for guns and everything else. They have kept the old Texaco sign outside even though no gas is sold here anymore. I finished my grape soda and bid the fellow farewell. He warned me to look out for the coal trucks and to be sure to stop by again. I knew I would. Can't beat a soda in a glass bottle.
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