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the traffic on Route 522. Then he fixes himself breakfast and opens the store by 7:00 a.m. He closes every night a little after 7:00 p.m.
When Reager suffered a heart attack seven years ago, he considered closing the store. His doctor, however, advised him to keep it open because it gave him something to do. “It employs my mind,” said Reager.
“I’ve been used to it; I just kind of look forward to it somehow.” His second wife died in 1965, his only brother in 1977. So he enjoys the company of his customers. “I stay by myself.” At the store “I meet people.” They can tell you things you’ve never heard of, and you can tell them things too.”
Reager’s customers are not always so pleasant. “Mean people stop by sometimes,” such as robbers. One night around closing time in 1967 a thief entered the store. He first beat up Reager, leaving him to bleed on the floor, and then stole $400. Reager was able to phone the rescue squad, which took him to the hospital. He wasn’t seriously hurt.
Another time Reager lost $700 to thieves, one of whom phoned Reager (whose phone is in a back room) while the other pocketed the money up front. Reager also has had to change the locks on all his doors after discovering that someone had a skeleton key and was occasionally dipping into the cash box.
Reager was bom in 1908, the son of Charles Clement Reager and Ora Reager, formerly Ora Kiens of Amissville. She was a teacher at the old one room schoolhouse near the Methodist Church in Huntly. At that time Charles Clement Reager lived with his aunt in Pickle Hollow, also known as Black Rock and Mine Hollow. Across Route 522 from Chester Gap (a mile or so behind the Blue Ridge Grocery) Pickle Hollow was named after the first family who settled there.
After marrying Charles, Ora moved into Pickle Hollow where they lived until Henry (the Blue Ridge Grocer) was 11. Reager recalls many scenes from those early years in Pickle Hollow. According to him, Jeff Pickle, a legendary member of the Hollow’s founding family, could eat 40 roasted ears of com. Also, he was so strong he could lift up and drink out of a 50 gallon barrel of whiskey.
Reager will startle an unwary listener by proclaiming “I was killed once.” What? He explained that as an eight-year-old he was once thrown from a horse and left unconscious to the ground where he bl£<f fot a coumd
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