Hubby's Store

Hey everybody. Today I am going to write about "Hubby's" General Store.

The house that the late W.L Meekins Sr. was raised in Wanchese (on Roanoke Island) was positioned right across the street from Hubby's General Merchandise. Hubby was one of Joe's (WLM SR.'s dad) best friend. They presumably grew up together on the island and living so near, it is remembered that Joe would walk across the street to talk on a daily basis.

There are many fond memories about Hubby's store from Joe's grandchildren who remember walking across the street as children to buy candy. There is one Island fable, that Hubby was in love with a girl name Roanna, but was always afraid to ask her to marry him. They continued to be good friends throughout life, but never married. Because of Joe's friendship with Hubby, the store held sentimental value for W.L. Meekins Sr.. He made sure to remember the store with a painting somebody found at a thrift store in the area. You can see it below:

The store is remembered to have the same kind of feel you might see in Cracker Barrel. Many old signs and artifacts that beckon back towards days past. The smaller pictures in the corner are actual pictures taken by the Meekins. The B/W picture was taken in 1962. The actual name of the store was H.L. Davis General Merchandise. The color picture was taken many years after Hubby passed and the store was not maintained.

W.L. Meekins Sr.'s daughter explained that she remembered going to the general store with her grandpa (Joe) to get kerosene. Somehow she ended up with the original kerosene pump from the store, which she later restored to give to her father for a gift. This kerosene pump resides in the front of the office, right when you walk in.

I did some research on the pump and from what I can tell, that it was a Texaco pump and is actually a collectors item these days. If you open up the tank you can still smell the scent of kerosene.

Here is a similar Texaco pump:

Here is the exact Texaco pump:

In my brief search of the interwebs, I found next to nothing about Hubby's store. Hopefully some newspaper articles about the store will be uploaded to a database somewhere eventually. For now we will have to settle for this bit of history and this pic I found of an old sale of a matchbook on Ebay.

Something we can learn from this little story about Hubby's s store is that we should let our personality shine. Who we are has the potential to positively impact those around us. Hubby's store and friendship has had a lasting impact on even Joe Meekins' grandchildren who experienced the store many years ago and only while on vacation.

Need a survey? www.meekins.net