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stay quite active. Sometimes he gets here as early as S а. m., sometimes it’s 5:30 or б, " Jimmy said. Jimmy himself takes over the cash register until about 9 a.m. when he leaves to manage the cow-calf operation at the family farm near the old site of Rudasill’s Mill on Route 621. He returns later in the evening when the farm work is finished and stays till the store closes at night.
In the in-between hours, Myrtle and June Clark man the counters while Mr. Burke settles in his special chair next to the stove. “He really enjoys meeting people,” Jimmy reported.
The old store has changed little since Charlie Hawkins built it with lumber from Hawkins Mountain about 80 years ago. The dark wood floors are scuffed with the heel marks from farm boots worn by generations of farmers and orchardists.
The counters are the same glass counters that held penny candy in grandma and grandpa’s day. The shelves now stocked with denim garments once held a selection of wearing apparel for the entire family.
Today, the Falls’ inventory reflects the changing times that take Rappahannock residents to shopping centers in neighboring counties to buy the week’s groceries and outfit the kids for school.
They carry all the necessities—the canned goods, sugar, flour, milk and eggs that disappear first when the cupboard runs bare. They stock hardware, a few paints, denim jeans and overalls and a complete line of boots and men’s shoes.
Country merchandising has changed drastically over the years and is still changing, according to Myrtle. It is difficult to secure all of the merchandise needed for a small store to serve a very rural community because everything today is geared to the large and super chains.
“We cannot afford to purchase or nor do we have room to store such large quantitites of stock and most wholesalers do not want to handle small orders or break up shipments,’’ said Myrtle. “The little man, private enterprise, has a time hanging on.”
Though it was before their time in the business, in years
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