Bond's Store (with photo) - by Don Conner, Floyd County

When I was about ten years old (1948), I rode a bicycle almost every Saturday 3 1/2 miles to S.D. Bond's store in the Laurel Branch community of Floyd County. I would buy groceries, put them in burlap sacks, balance them across my bicyle and head home. It was about a five hour trip for me.

On the road to Bond's store was the Paul Belcher farm. To pass it I rode down a long hill (it was a gravel road), but just past Paul's place the road went uphill just enough that I had to get off and push the bicycle up and around a curve.

Paul had a dog that, when he saw me coming down the hill, would chase me all the way past the house, nipping at my heels. I tried all kinds of things, such as throwing gravel in his face, to break his habit, but nothing worked.

Plastic water pistols were a new thing back then, and my uncle J.W. bought me one, telling me to squirt Paul's dog in the nostrils and it would stop him from chasing me. Well, it took me two trips to Bond's store before my aim was good enough on the moving bicycle to hit him squarely in the nostrils, but I got him good. He hacked and coughed something fierce.......and he never chased me again.

Don Conner
Djconner19@cs.com