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The 86-year-old man eyed the festivities and friends flitting past, occasionally raising his left arm stiffly into the air to greet them before returning it to balance on his cane. When they wandered over, he talked. He smiled. He pulled at his maroon suspenders, clinging to brown dress pants. But he didn’t get up.
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Cletus Hanson, 66, and Francis Lappier, 86, both of Winona, sit at the bench outside the Fremont Store Sunday enjoying an ice cream during the store’s celebration commemorating its 150th anniversary. Hanson’s grandfather lived just across from the street from the general store and remembers stopping by for a Pepsi-Cola often. "I sat here 65 years agoo--right in this spot," Hanson said. (Photo by Kate Weber of the Winona Daily News) |
Lappier had as rightful of a claim to the bench as anyone else, the conviction of history on his side, of sitting, some 81 years ago, on the exact same bench.
His reticence to move and move on is the same attitude that’s kept the Fremont Store here for 150 years and counting. And that attitude birthed a community that returned Sunday for the store’s formal birthday celebration. Or, as some called it, an extended family reunion.
The guest register had more than 200 entries by 1:30 p.m., and that didn’t count the children. Attendees swapped stories and mused over an imposing array of themed merchandise: Fremont Store shirts in several sizes, hats in yellow, brown and camouflage, postcards and calendars and beverage coolers and magnets. Former Congressman Tim Penny spoke. Martha Johnson, the current store owner, was overwhelmed at times by the memories and the number of people lining up to greet her.
She was also relieved by the brisk merchandise sales.
“It sure isn’t profitable,” said Johnson, who took over the store’s operations after her son Don Johnson died in 2004. She smiled. “If it wasn’t for my Social Security, it wouldn’t be open.”
Before Don, who purchased the store in 1979, and his wife, Pauline, came Frank Root, a prankster to the end, who teased the boys about the girls and the girls about the boys. Before him came Neil Bain. Before him came Hans Selvig, and John and Murray Kelley, and Orrin Kelley. And L.C. Rice.
Rice built the store and two-room hotel in 1856 along a territorial road that led to a new land grant office in Chatfield. That was the year the maverick surveyor and explorer John C. Fremont announced his candidacy for the fledgling Republican Party and, as the story goes, spent a night in the hotel while on the campaign trail. Fremont lost to the politically savvy James Buchanan, but Rice and others were so taken with the man that they decided to name the store after him.
While the store was a well-stocked grocery for decades, providing cream and candy and Coca-Cola in 6.5-ounce glass bottles, it eventually became far better known for the wit of its shopkeepers than its supply of dry goods. Nowadays, Johnson said, people mostly just come for the company and the gossip.
Johnson figures she’ll continue running the store until she wins a million dollars. And maybe even then.
While there aren’t meticulous records of Minnesota grocery stores, the Fremont Store appears to be the oldest continuously run grocery in the state.
Seated on the bench with his friend Cletus Hanson (who had first sat on it a mere 65 years ago), Lappier peered into his plastic cup. The remainder of the ice cream had melted. He set it down, tugged at a green farmers cap slung over his head that read “When You’re Irish — It’s Hard To Sing With An Empty Glass” and then patted the bench.
“This bench is about as beat up as we are,” he remarked. “Yep, it’s pretty beat up.”
He looked out at the power substation across the street, which used to be a small pasture that housed a few milking cows, and waved his hand in the direction of the old schoolhouse.
“This was our hangout back then,” Lappier said. He looked around at the crowd. “I guess it still is.”
Brian Voerding can be reached at (507) 453-3514 or at brian.voerding@winonadailynews.com.
Jonathan wrote on Aug 3, 2006 5:29 PM: