this photo isn't of the mean man store, but it is a photo of the little store next to it. this photo is from 1996, and now the above store is white, has lots of broken windows, and a front door that doesn't shut. i don't think the neighboring house is there either. why? because 401 was widened some 5 years ago.
back when i was little, 401 was the way we went to raleigh. from our house, we turned down mitchell mill road, went over the little river by mitchell mill state park (i used to always hope we'd stop and get to walk in the woods to see the old dam, which we could then walk down), then past andrea's house (which we always looked to see if they were home), then we'd pass the old house (where melissa and i spent our toddler years), then over the rumble strips (which mom would veer over in to the oncoming traffic lane (when safe) so we could feel the rumble strips coming from the other way), then past the turn where we'd go to the pool when we were little, then down the windy part of mitchell mill road, then over the up bump (which is now a stoplight and not much of an up bump at all anymore), then to the stopsign at mitchell mill and 401. then we'd turn left and look and see if there was water in the river (which there always was, but sometimes you could see the rocks poking out! see, i was a destined to be a geologist). next was the stoplight at perry creek road (and 401). maybe it wasn't a light at all, it may have just been a flashing light. so sitting on that corner (where there is now a walgreens) was what we called the "mean man store".
were there mean men there? i don't know. seems to me, though, that maybe it was in that store that my mama heard someone say "hell" or "damn" or maybe even "shit" which meant that our little ears didn't need to go in that store. maybe even they sold those magazines with naked women on the front, or maybe they had guns. i was never really sure why they were mean, but i do remember that we ONLY stopped there if we were about to run out of gas.
last week, i was driving to raleigh (alone, to work to print) and i noticed the little white centerblock building in the photo above was obviously abandoned. it reminded me of what 401 (and raleigh) used to be like when i was little. no walgreens, no malls (except north hills and crabtree), no subdivisions, no 6 lanes, no starbucks... no prostitutes walking the streets near capital and 440. "mini city" was still booming (and safe)...
was raleigh better then? probably not. is it better now? probably. but in those days, we sure didn't have to worry about water!!!
up next:
the sit down bridge!!!
and by the time we turned onto 401 from Mitchell Mill Rd, I was usually car sick... it was the up bump that did it everytime!
ReplyDeleteMelissa I didn't know it was the up bump that did it! I really didn't. I would also like to point out that you were usually curled up asleep on the back seat by the time we got to Mitchell Mill Road.
ReplyDeleteAnalee, the first word you read was just after the up bump. there was a pepsi sigh (it looked like a bottle cap off of a pepsi). You looked up and said "Pepisi". I remember laughing and laughing. that was when you were an only child!
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ReplyDeleteSorry about the double comment but I didn't punch that button twice!
ReplyDeleteanyway, I've been thinking about the mean man store. I never stopped there, Analee. That store was there when I was a little girl and I remember stopping with Father one time and he wouldn't let me go in. But he did bring us all out a small coke...they were probably 10cents (there isn't a cent sign on this keyboard)apiece back then. We sat in the car and waited! So I've always called that store the mean man store. I guess I just put it together that I couldn't go in because there were mean men in there!