My grandparents ran a small mom and pop country store called Cuzzins. We spent summers with them when we were young and the bus would drop us off there after school. We always ate a snack and watched TV at the fireworks counter. Nutty bars and a small coke were my favorite, healthy, I know! We used to drive each other on the handtruck up and down the aisles of the store. We played in the cooler in the summer and as we got older we would help do things around the store. My grandma taught me how to run the register and make change probably before I was 10 years old. My brother and me would use empty boxes to make cars out of, we would draw all the necessary parts for driving on the inside and hold them under our arms and run!! My fondest memories of childhood are here. It wasn't all fun and games, we worked there too, stocking drinks cases and the shelves, dusting the shelves, sweeping and sweeping and sweeping. Unfinished pine floors are always dirty... especially when everyone in the small town comes in daily, sometimes many times a day. It was the hub of Mountain Rest. Usually your day started and ended there. Everyone knew everyone else's business, but in the good way, when neighbors help neighbors, and the store owner lets the customer run a bill until the end of the month when they can finally pay it up. There was no shame in running the bill and no worry about getting paid, a man was true to his word and paid on time. My grandpa's wallet was so big he could hardly sit on it, and he paid us, too much really, for our work there in the summers. What I got there was so much more than money, it was a solid foundation. An appreciation for hard work, honesty, and love. I loved being there, I loved being in the family that owned it. As they aged and were no longer able to keep up with the demands of the store, my grandparents closed shop but still lived in the back part of the store, where they always had lived. The first place we took Blake after leaving the hospital was to Cuzzins to see my grandparents. The shelves were empty, the store dark with fewer lights on. It was sad and happy all at the same time. Sad at what the store had stopped being in our small town, happy for my grandparents to see the next generation of our family coming along. I wish my kids could have experienced all I did at Cuzzins, but unfortunately, things don't last forever.... only the memories do.
