Stories on the pizer

"Pizer" is Ocracoke for porch, and the Community Store pizer is where a group gathered this morning, bright and early, to listen to stories. "Bright and early" was 7:30, so Donald and Merle brought an old fashioned coffee perker and plenty of cups to ensure everyone would be awake enough to enjoy the tales! They also provided a supply of chairs,so all the listeners could sit comfortably. I actually wanted a seat on the bench of the Community Store porch, but that filled up pretty quickly, so I sat on a folding beach chair instead.

Everyone gathered seemed to thoroughly enjoy the stories shared by Leslie Buie (not sure if I spelled that right, apologies to Leslie if I didn't!), LouAnn Homan, and Al Scarborough. The common theme for all the tales was remembrances of stores. Lesllie told the group about the "rolling store", a mercantile on wheels which visited his house when he was a young boy. Ater describing his memories of the marvelous traveling shop, and how its proprietor managed to meet all the needs of his family, including everything from lace to hinges, he told of a more recent (and somewhat frustrating) experience trying to buy the same things in a modern emporium. He concluded his tale with an account of the day he found himself on a back road, where he discovered the old rolling store, rusting and rotting away on blocks. But somehow it wasn't a sad ending to the story. It was just how it ended.

LouAnn told a story of visiting a large department store in downtown Ft. Wayne, Indiana for tea with her mother and grandmother. It was a totally different story, in that it was about a city store rather than a rural "shop on wheels" service. But it still brought the listeners back to a memory of their own, as all good stories do.

Finally, Al Scarborough shared his memories of stores on Ocracoke, which were actually memories of the characters who sat on the pizers of those stores, whittling and telling tales of their own. Al transported me back to Ocracoke in the 50s, and I very much enjoyed the trip!

As LouAnn said, listening to stories on the pizer was a lovely way to start Wednesday. Hope you enjoyed your Wednesday, and made some stories (aka memories) of your own!