W
G ree n e Sce n e of the Pa st
hen it comes to local legends, Bobby Watson of Mapletown is definitely one. He was the last owner/operator of Watson’s Store and is still remembered by those who shopped there for his ever-present baseball cap, stogie and big smile. And of course, for that nice cold bottle of Coca Cola pulled out of the water of the old school cooler that he kept filled as long as he was in business. I found this photo of the inside of the store, complete with Bobby and his stogie, on the wall of Connie Barb’s home. That’s her sitting beside him, surrounded by walls of memorabilia and family photos that Bobby collected over his decades of being open for business. Bobby Watson’s life followed the course Mapletown has taken over the years and the changes that came to town, as coal became king and miners’ paychecks kept little country stores like his viable. When Bobby died in 2016, this piece of living history went with him, but his memory of a life well lived in a town that loves him remains. At Mapletown High School he was a top athlete in the 1940s, with four letters on his sweater, according to the story Lori Beth Adams wrote about her neighbor for a local paper in 2006. Bobby spent his high school days working part time in the Watson family store “a little up the road” from the one that now sits empty at the corner of Mapletown and Maple Ridge roads. His grandmother Plezzie Tanner operated the original store and “she sold a little bit of everything.” When Plezzie decided she didn’t want to run a store, Bobby’s parents Robert and Mable took over and Lori Beth reports Bobby remembered closing the store at 5 p.m. to go to dinner and having sister Betty May coming in to keep it open until closing time. In the mid-1950s the
Watsons moved their store to its final location. Bobby had already left for the Air Force and by the time he returned home his family had bought the building and inherited its history and its clientele. There was a post office in the store when the Ceavengers operated it, although the original post office for Mapletown was in an even older store across the road at the edge of the lane that lead into to Charles and later Ewing Barb’s farm. Bobby remembered getting his family mail there from box 13 as kid and when the post office closed decades later, the old brass mail boxes were stored away to make room for the mini-supermarket of goods the Watson family sold to their neighbors and the coal miners who passed through Mapletown on their way to work. The store stayed in the family for the 30 years Bobby did construction work, while wife Virginia and mother Mable kept the doors open. Later, when it was just Bobby, the doors stayed open for neighbors and friends like Connie and her family and whoever might pass by. Watson’s Store was a living museum of what made up old country stores – the old ice cream freezer, the water filled pop cooler, the signs for Salada Tea on the screen door, the newspaper clippings that celebrated high school triumphs, the “Vote Lee Watson for District Justice” sign endorsing Watson’s son Lee when he ran for office. Bobby was known to remove that cigar from his mouth for church at Mapletown United Methodist,
and in later years a rocking chair placed near the door made the store his living room as well. The yellow metal sign on the old screen door that reads “Thank you - Call again.” was something his neighbors heeded and every day was the right time to visit. As the years after the coal boom brought empty shelves, there was always bread, milk, a rack of videos, the
by Colleen Nelson
A current photo of Watson’s Store.
newspaper and cold Coca Cola in the cooler for sale, waiting for any neighbor who might stop in.
If you have an interesting old photo from the area you’d like to share, just send it to: GreeneScene of the Past, 185 Wade Street, Waynesburg, PA 15370. Or email to: info@greenescene.com with GreeneScene Past in subject line. The GreeneScene Community Magazine can even scan your original in just a few minutes if you bring it to our office. We are particularly interested in photos of people and places in the Greene County area taken between 1950 and 1980, though we welcome previous dates, too.
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GreeneScene Magazine •
HOLIDAY #2 - DECEMBER
2018
