Blaine Store, Township of Belmont. Was a general store for many many years. In the 50's and 60's you could buy food, animal feed, nails, and appliances here. Later became mostly groceries and lots of beer and soda sold. I remember penny candy when I was growing up. For many years it was the place the older folks gathered to gossip and play cards. Now is closed :(

I used to go to Blaine all the time my aunt worked there when I was young and I used to go get a whatcha ma call It candy bar all the times. Love it there. Love the wood floor

There are a few less trees around the store now but it hasn't changed that much. My grandfather Gilbert deBruin owned the store from 1959 to 1972 when he retired. I vaguely remember being in the store as a tyke with my grandfather or grandmother at the till or behind the meat counter in back.
Yes, that wooden floor - with all it's creaks - was memorable and the Pepsi cold chest across from the counter. Every time I went into the store into my teens (long after my grandfather sold it) I had to get a soda - they were all glass bottles - out of that Pepsi cold chest, usually a Squirt.
For a few years the last owner turned it into a small restaurant. Last I heard it was no longer any business and in need of some TLC.

My friend Karen Young and her family ran Blaine Store before they moved to Stevens Point around 1958. They lived in a spacious area above the store, where footsteps came with sound effects from the old wood floor. There was a wood-burning stove for heat. I remember even before those years, when my parents took us to Blaine to get our cucumbers weighed at the Pickle Station across the street. Another high school friend, Judy Bowker, lived on a farm across the road, and the Porter Family lived on that intersection as well. My parents were members of the National Grange and went to meetings and square dances at the Grange Hall that still stands down the road from the Blaine Store.

Asberry Acres a Methodist Church camp was a couple miles north of the store. I went to the camp a couple years in the late 60's. One of the highlights was to hike down to the store and get some candy and a bottle of Pepsi. The old returnables. Now my cousin Gary Williams live in Almond, a couple miles down the road from the store. The old store may be closed, but it's still there and the memories.

Sign in lower left corner of photo says "Blaine Store" and also has a large Pepsi logo on it.