Remembering Norma Crouch
~by Bob Gustin
W
hen we moved to Brown County in 1999, I felt a bit like a stranger in a strange land: New job, new house, new neighbors, new community. In a way, that’s just how it is in Brown County. If you weren’t born here, and can’t trace your family roots here for at least two or three generations, you’re always going to be a newcomer to some folks. One person helped ease that transition right away. That was Norma Crouch. Norma died in January at age 82, leaving behind a family and a lot of grateful friends and customers. She ran Crouch’s Market in the Pikes Peak area for more than 40 years, beginning in 1972.
54 Our Brown County March/April 2022
Our new house was about two miles from Crouch’s Market, so my wife Chris and I made it a point to stop by and get acquainted. That first day she welcomed us, going so far as to say that if we had any favorite food items, just let her know and she would try to carry them in the store. Norma, who was the one behind the counter nearly every time we stopped by the store for years after that first meeting, made a difference in people’s lives. What a joy it was to find the market and its bounty in the middle of the forested beauty, 10 miles from Nashville and 18 miles from Columbus. You could pick up all your essential groceries at Crouch’s, along with lottery tickets; home-cooked food; fishing worms; plumbing and electrical repair
