Old Crabs......says goodbye to Steinhausers
Thursday, July 8, 2004 by Old_Crab | Discussion: WinCustomize Talk
.........miss the old store. Welcome To Steinhausers General Feed & Tack. Built in 1937, or there abouts. The date marker is above the door, but has eroded with time. It was across the tracks in Brookshire and you could watch Southern Pacific trundle through. I could always tell when something was going on in Brookshire by the crowd outside where Old Man Steinhauser would post what he usually considered important news for the community on an old cork board outside the store. Usually. Crime reports (who got caught DWI and if Morris or Jester caught the evildoer) farm price reports who was giving birth who had died most importantly was the menu price and the daily beer flavor in the beer box. He always changed the beer 3 times a week. Sometimes 4. There was a bucket you threw $.50 into to pay for a frosty cold one. If you couldn't pay right then an IOU would do. The store was in a great tin barn like structure with a rusting roof. A long porch with tables and an odd assortment chairs surrounded half the building. Alot of older gents sat outside and drank beer and tamped their pipes and played chess or checkers. And the plants. Cuttings for fruit trees. Starter tomatoes. Seed potato's that stank to high heaven. But it was AC'd. The guys who worked at Steinhauser really appreciated it when hefting heavy grain and feed sacks at the dock. I remember when I first met Old Man Steinhauser. I'd just gotton into the family business and went to pick up some stock feed. I walked up the wooden steps and here came a big old man (6'8'') 320 lb. giant of a man with a hand out that to me looked like a bear paw. I was sure I was about to die from some unwarranted transgression of country code. Instead, he politely introduced himself and asked if I was Old Jess Dickey's grandson. He'd expected me a decade ago to help run the rice farm. Which he reminded me has lain fallow for a decade since Jess had died, and should be ready to produce some bumper crops by now. Inside it was a wonderland of farm implements, farming information, horse tack, and seeds. Work cloths that promised to outlive their owner. Everything anyone needed to run a farm or ranch. The seed bins brimmed with every known type of seed imaginable and I could use a little dipper to scoop out as much or little as I wanted, and put them into a little bag and weigh them myself. Then I'd take the seeds up to the old brass register, (the manual kind with a NO SALE tab) and whoever was working the till asked how much did I get with no questions asked. Old Man Steinhause died about a year ago. Everyone in Brookshire, Pattison, and Monaville came to see the old man off. Good-bye Old Stinky everyone still misses you and your old country way.
His son took over and immediately built a new store out by I-10. The sign simply reads "Steinhausers". Computerized. Sanitary. No porch. No cork post it board. No ice box beer. No chess or checkers. Fancy dress hats and go-to town shirts. I'd only wear that stuff to go to the dance hall in Monaville. Go in and get your business done and leave. Fast and efficient. Loyld Steinhauser Jr. always said that a business is a business and money was the most important goal of any business. He didn't approve of the way the old store was run and operated in the first place. Now I go in place a computerized order, pick up want I need and leave. I quess he's right. Or maybe not. >
His son took over and immediately built a new store out by I-10. The sign simply reads "Steinhausers". Computerized. Sanitary. No porch. No cork post it board. No ice box beer. No chess or checkers. Fancy dress hats and go-to town shirts. I'd only wear that stuff to go to the dance hall in Monaville. Go in and get your business done and leave. Fast and efficient. Loyld Steinhauser Jr. always said that a business is a business and money was the most important goal of any business. He didn't approve of the way the old store was run and operated in the first place. Now I go in place a computerized order, pick up want I need and leave. I quess he's right. Or maybe not. >
Ande
Reply #2 Thursday, July 8, 2004 5:28 PM
Reply #2 Thursday, July 8, 2004 5:28 PM
Can appreciate what your saying OC, but you and I know nothing ever stops the same. It's a pity because in many cases the soul goes out of a place when such changes occur. The character goes, the honesty and trust is gone, values dissappear and some of the peope go. Where do the old men go for a beer now (probably sit at home and lament the loss of what social life they had. Everything has to be fast and efficent these days, but I think at a cost and I am not talking about money.
Do you think WC will end up this way. Will we end up logging on see whats for sale and then log off. I hope not, but remember nothing ever stops the same.
Old Crab I,m sorry for your loss.
>
Do you think WC will end up this way. Will we end up logging on see whats for sale and then log off. I hope not, but remember nothing ever stops the same.
Old Crab I,m sorry for your loss.
>
MGiff
Reply #3 Thursday, July 8, 2004 5:38 PM
Reply #3 Thursday, July 8, 2004 5:38 PM
Loyld Steinhauser Jr needs a lesson in how he got to where he is. If it weren't for his fathers "poor" business sense he for sure wouldn't be running the store he is now. Technology is nice but customers know when they're seen as dollar bills and not humans. He will never have the following Old Stinky did. You've lost a major asset in your community, I feel for you.
bordfryr
Reply #4 Thursday, July 8, 2004 7:34 PM
Reply #4 Thursday, July 8, 2004 7:34 PM
Old Crab, have you ever considered writing? Such as short stories, prose, etc.?
You seem to have a gift for painting a mental picture.
You seem to have a gift for painting a mental picture.
Sugaree
Reply #5 Thursday, July 8, 2004 10:22 PM
Reply #5 Thursday, July 8, 2004 10:22 PM
I said good goodbye to my feed store about 20 years ago. You're lucky you had Steinhausers as long as you did OC! 
Alternate Setting
Reply #6 Thursday, July 8, 2004 11:03 PM
Reply #6 Thursday, July 8, 2004 11:03 PM
Its very sad-making - I lost the nice old family run Hardware store that was near me 15yrs ago - I could go in, buy a single nail, of any size, and it would be carefully wrapped in a paperbag for me to take home.
Now its DIY stores that sell only bits of the things I need - but never all of what I need - and its always in standard take it or leave it sizes. I rang a place up once cos I'd put my shoulder out and needed to know if they could offer a cutting service - they said they could, so my wife drove me down to pick up my wood. I got to the counter with it, asked to make use of the cutting service that I'd pre-rang about - they gave me a saw and pointed towards the car-park.
Needless to say they were 'invited' to keep their saw, their carpark and their wood - I kept my money and they lost all my business. ( That upset em, I have been known to buy as many as 5 nails at once if they're wrapped properly
)
Now its DIY stores that sell only bits of the things I need - but never all of what I need - and its always in standard take it or leave it sizes. I rang a place up once cos I'd put my shoulder out and needed to know if they could offer a cutting service - they said they could, so my wife drove me down to pick up my wood. I got to the counter with it, asked to make use of the cutting service that I'd pre-rang about - they gave me a saw and pointed towards the car-park.
Needless to say they were 'invited' to keep their saw, their carpark and their wood - I kept my money and they lost all my business. ( That upset em, I have been known to buy as many as 5 nails at once if they're wrapped properly
)
Old_Crab
Reply #7 Friday, July 9, 2004 2:17 AM
Reply #7 Friday, July 9, 2004 2:17 AM
To: bordfryr nope. I write only when I feel like it. Thought about blogging at Joeusers.com (whatever it is, I have a place over yonder) but who reads it? Here, even if my posts are short lived they'll be read by some, and ignored by others, but eventully they'll be read. Someday.Just think, 10 years, 43 years down the road someone may even go all the way back and wonder - who the hell was Old Crab? Also because I just don't have the time. > 
[Message Edited]
> 
[Message Edited]
_footsie_
Reply #8 Friday, July 9, 2004 9:24 AM
Reply #8 Friday, July 9, 2004 9:24 AM
It IS sad...so many darn super stores edging hometown places off the map...we've this past month lost a family run grocery that's been in town and run by local families for almost 50 years...pushed out by the bigger companies.....no more chatting with neighbors that have gone through the highs and lows of local history...no more of the best cuts of local 4-H kids' champions.....only bland tasting chemical injected crap from who knows where...no more local veggies....
Their son was in a terrible accident....complications arose while still in hospital.....they couldn't hold up under the pressure.....good people. Hard working, honest....he's ok now but the situation ran them into the ground. They hopefully will be able to have a good life now but they took a heckuva hit....and the whole community lost....I think the new owners are going to put up a video dive or something....
not even close.....sad. Definitely.
Their son was in a terrible accident....complications arose while still in hospital.....they couldn't hold up under the pressure.....good people. Hard working, honest....he's ok now but the situation ran them into the ground. They hopefully will be able to have a good life now but they took a heckuva hit....and the whole community lost....I think the new owners are going to put up a video dive or something....
not even close.....sad. Definitely.
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Reply #1 Thursday, July 8, 2004 5:21 PM