Kilgore Mercantile and Music provides a special community hub

BY JESSICA HARKER | jharker@marshallnewsmessenger.com

PHOTOS BY LES HASSEL AND JESSICA HARKER

Almost everyone in the City of Kilgore has heard of Kilgore Mercantile and Music for one reason or another. Whether on the hunt for a perfect Blue Bell Ice Cream sundae, looking to pick up a new guitar or just to purchase freshly ground coffee, the store has a lot to offer.

However, owners Fred and Vivian Gebhardt said that the space not only functions as a business for the family, but also a service; with both finding their own ways to serve Kilgore through their portions of the store.

“This is our home,” Vivian said, “We love it here. The community has been amazing since day one.”

Vivian runs the front portion of the shop, which includes a unique country store and a full ice cream parlor, serving Blue Bell ice cream and Dublin Soda.

“I really wanted to have that 1950s ice cream parlor look, except brand new,” she said, “Like someone plucked it out of the 50s and dropped it here.”

The country store is full of unique toys, gift items, Texas-themed merchandise, canned goods and other items you won’t be able to find anywhere else close by.

Vivian said she makes a point to travel to trade shows in the search for unique items catered to the community here in Kilgore, including the recent addition of fresh full coffee beans.

The store offers coffee beans, which can be ground for customers, as well as chocolate covered coffee beans to snack on.

“Vivian is really good about going out and finding unique items that people want to buy,” Fred said.

Additionally, the ice cream parlor offers a huge range of unique treats to the community, as well as the ability to create our own concoction with what the store has to offer.

Everything from sundaes, to milkshakes, to frappes can be found at Kilgore Mercantile and Music, with a huge range of add-ons for customers to enjoy.

The ice cream parlor and store attract community members from all ages and backgrounds, offering Vivian the chance to make special connections with every person who enters the store.

“We know almost all of our customers by name, and if we don’t know their name we at least know their face, and their order,” she said.

One such group is a few members of the Kilgore High School Hi-Steppers team, who come into the store occasionally to meet with Vivian and get themselves a treat from the ice cream parlor.

“I mean those girls are in high school and they come in and they talk to me and fill me in on all the gossip,” she said, “It really is wonderful to have those connections.”

One of those young women even considered picking up music lessons, which she would be able to do on her weekly visits to the shop, just by

CONTIUNED ON PAGE 12 stepping into the back room.

Fred runs the back portion of the store, which functions as both an instrument store as well as a space for music lessons.

The store offers a range of instruments for sale, including a wide selection of guitars, violins, ukuleles and more. He said he also is sure to keep a stock of all of the instruments any of the high school band students in the Kilgore area could need.

The store also employs a number of teachers who offer lessons in guitar, bass, violin or fiddle, ukulele, banjo, piano, accordion and the drums.

While some instrument stores may be wary about customers taking down their products to use, Fred interrupted an interview to greet a new customer with a free guitar pick, encouraging them to try out any instrument they liked in the open soundproof booths in the back.

“The violin has always been my instrument,” he said, “I have been giving lessons since before we had this store, for years.”

He referred to giving music lessons as his ministry, offering community members, often young adults and children, the chance to not only try their hand at a new skill but also to find confidence, building self-esteem, and much more.

Over the years, Fred has given thousands of lessons to students all over, and continues to offer that and expand it through Kilgore Mercantile and Music.

Not only through teaching music, but by offering a place to play it during the businesses regular Second Saturday Pickers event held at the store.

Every second Saturday of the month from 4 to 8:30 p.m., musicians from all over come together at the store to jam together and play music as a group.

Fred said that the event is very come and go, though many people end up staying throughout the whole thing playing music and enjoying visiting with fellow musicians and music lovers alike.

“We have people go and get food and sit outside and enjoy the music, or people who just are walking by that jump in and stay,” Fred said, “But we also have people who have traveled from all over the state and even from Shreveport to come be here.”

The music session touches people so much that it has even inspired one man to donate over $1,000 to the store on more than one occasion to be sure they can continue the event and expand it.

Fred said that using that money he was able to install a large glass door, which allows the space to open to the full store, and offers more space for musicians and music lovers to gather on second Saturdays.

“He wasn’t from here, but we found out later he was in town to take care of his brother who was very sick,” Vivian said, “Well his brother passed, and he said that his brother really would have loved our jam nights, and wanted to be sure we did something to keep that alive.”

The Gebhardts continue to serve the community through their store, Kilgore Mercantile and Music, and encourage everyone who hasn’t ever stopped in to do so and say hello. The store is located at 105 N. Kilgore St., and is open each Tuesday through Thursday, 11 a.m. to 8 p.m., and Fridays and Saturdays from 11 a.m. to 9 p.m.