KISTLERS STORE was owned and operated by Mr. Ray C. Kistler and his wife Mildred. Kistlers carried an extensive line of items including cattle feed, shoes, dry goods, an assortment of   candies, cookies, bread, ice cream, cold soda pop, luncheon meats, and live chickens. Kerosene was sold in bulk inside the store, just bring your kerosene can. Located nearby was the vinegar barrell where you pumped what you wanted into your own container. Following the retirement of Mr. Arthur Largen, Ray Kistler was appointed as Postmaster and his store housed the U. S. Post Office. There was also the "gossip bench", or, some people called it the "liars bench". It was a bench on the outside of the store; a place where the men of the village would spend time talking about the fish that got away or embellishing the sizes of the ones they caught, success of the previous nights coon hunt, how many bushels of corn per acre were produced by the neighboring farmers, or perhaps would engage in some off color jokes. No subject was off limits. It was a delightful place and educational to a young boy, but perhaps not the kind of education that would be approved by their mothers. . The gossip bench moved inside by the heating stove during cold weather.   A village store still operates out of the building that once housed Kistlers. Adjacent to Kistlers store, but in the same building, is the old Ritchey bank. I do not recall that the bank was operational during my lifetime. It was used for a variety of other purposes, including living quarters at one time. The building that housed both Kistlers and the bank remains in remarkably good condition and is pictured here. The school bus also stopped at Kistlers to pick up village youngsters who attended high school at Midway. The bus pictured here may not be one of the actual bus, but it surely is our   driver, Paul Crow, standing closest to the bus door. Kistlers is more vivid in my mind than the other stores, probably because it remained in business throughout my time in Ritchey, and beyond, and the others closed before I left the village. That does not diminish the historical significance and community contributions made by the other establishments.

  LARGENS STORE was owned and  operated by Mr. Arthur Largen, his wife Myrtle, and as I remember they were in partnership with Mr. Grover Laurance. I do not know the extent of the partnership. Largens carried much of the same line of merchandise as is described for Kistlers, minus the live chickens. In addition, Largens sold gasoline and motor oil. Following the retirement of Mr. Arthur Largen, I recall that the store was operated by Mr. Grover Laurance of Ritchey for a short time and then successively by a young man and then by a family who came from other towns. A small living area was built in the rear of the store for the latter two operators. Largens was the home base for the village boys "kick the can" game that occurred frequently, always at night. The overhang at Largens was lighted and well suited for our game. The essence of the game was that a can was placed at home base and kicked into the street; the person who was "it" retrieved the can and returned it to the base while the other boys scrambled in the dark to their favorite hiding places. These hiding places were in any number of trees in the downtown area, on top of the shed behind Largens store, on top of Dinks garage or any other place providing good shelter. If the boy who was "it" found one of the other boys and could get back to home base and kick the can before that boy did the same, then the new boy was "it". If one of the boys in hiding kicked the can before any of them were found, then the process started anew. You were required to yell "kick the can" anytime the can was booted into the street. The object was not to be "it". If you were "it", a long night was in store. This also seems to be an appropriate place to mention the annual HALOWEEN ritual of overturning as many outdoor "privy’s" as possible. One of the favorite targets was the Largen’s Store privy located behind the building. You could bet that the "outhouse" would be moved to the front door of the store sometime during the night. More than likely, the same boys who moved it there during the night also were the ones who moved in back to its rightful place the next day. Also adjacent to Largen’s was the town pump where many people in the village obtained water for the household, including my own family. I have made many trips to the town pump.

 YORK’S STORE. York’s store was owned and operated by Mr. Curt York and his wife Gertie. I do not remember as much about York’s Store as I do about Largen’s and Kistler’s, probably because it closed early in my youth. Again, this store carried much of the same merchandise as the other two, but as I recall, the shelves were more sparsely stocked. My memory tells me that this store also housed the U.S. Post Office for about a year. I am not sure. This store was located in a two story structure which had living quarters upstairs. I do not believe the Yorks lived there. After the closure of York’s, the property was used as the village beer joint, which was short lived at that location. That facility moved to the Ritchey crossroad on Highway 60 where there was more traffic. It survived there for a number of years. This is not a good picture of York’s, but the only one available to me.

DINK’S GARAGE: Automobile repairs, tires, and gasoline could be obtained at Dink’s, the only garage in the village. Largen’s also sold gasoline. At either place, you had to hand pump the gasoline from the storage tank below ground to the glass enclosure at the top of the pump. Then gravity fed the gasoline into your cars fuel tank. Dink was an avid baseball fan, and during the season you could go to Dink’s and listen to the ball game, especially if the St. Louis Cardinals were playing. Harry Caray was the announcer. And there were educational opportunities at Dink’s. If you looked closely, you could see "spirit containers" placed not so inconspicuously around the walls of the garage. Let your imagination tell you why one corner of the metal building was seriously eroded by rust. While Kistler’s had the gossip bench, you could hear the same stories at Dink’s, and from the same people. When boredom set in at Kistler’s, the same village men moved down the street to Dink’s. The building housing Dink’s Garage is still standing and appears today very much as it did fifty years ago.

 RALEIGH’S ICE HOUSE:   Raleigh’s Ice House was located on the main street of Ritchey. In my memory this was a yellow building about six feet wide, eight or ten feet long , and six feet high. It was a re-sale facility for ice that was delivered to it by truck from an ice manufacturing plant in another town. The ice was delivered in three hundred pound blocks that had been serrated for easy separation with an ice pick into smaller 50 pound blocks. Raleigh would also make additional separations into twenty five and twelve and one half pound blocks if that was all you needed or all you could afford. Most homes used ice boxes for food refrigeration. There were few electrical or fuel powered refrigerators in the community. Since most homes did not have running water, buckets for drinking water were common place, and during the Summer it was not unusual to see a large chunk of ice floating in the family water bucket.

FELIX’S BLACKSMITH SHOP. During the 1940’s (and surely before that) and into the 1950’s Ritchey was the home of Felix’s Blacksmith Shop. The building no longer exists and it is my belief that the property is now owned by the adjoining First Baptist Church. It was a popular and busy place. During my childhood, the blacksmith shop was just one of the places that a boy would visit often. While you might get an education visiting Dink’s Garage or listening to the men talk at the gossip bench at Kistler’s Store, the blacksmith shop was more fascinating. Felix would heat horseshoes to a cherry red in a coal fed forge, shape them with a hammer and anvil to fit a horses foot, douse them in water to cool, and then nail them to the hoof’s of the horses that the farmers had brought in for that service. I have observed the process dozens of times. Felix, the blacksmith, also performed complete wagon repair functions, including repair and replacement of wagon wheels, spokes, single and double trees, tongues, and axles. He did all of this with great care and pride in his craft.

BILL’S BARBER SHOP. Bill Adkins was the town barber. The shop was located behind Bill’s house which was adjacent to Kistler’s store. For the price of a haircut you could learn the latest news in Ritchey and the surrounding area. Cost of a haircut was twenty five cents.

CINEMA ONE. Sometime during my youth, an operator brought the movies to Ritchey. The movie was always a western, plus a serial to encourage you to return the following week. Initially the operation was set up on the school grounds but later moved to a lot between Dink’s Garage and what once was the Ritchey Hardware and Lumber Company. At this later location, the operator would string a canvas curtain between the two buildings at the front and between several buildings at the rear. Seats were canvas folding chairs. I do not remember the price of admission, but it probably was less than that of a haircut at Bill’s Barber Shop. For me it didn’t matter. First, I probably couldn’t cover the cost, whatever it was, and secondly, movies were viewed as sinful by my mother's religious beliefs. But those were insignificant issues for a boy who didn’t see much beyond Ritchey and the surrounding countryside. I took my place along with other village boys in one of the nearby trees, atop Dinks Garage, or the upper floor of one of the buildings across the street. I am sure that the operator knew that we were there but probably reasoned that it was less trouble to tolerate the situation than to correct it.

The Ritchey Hotel was standing but I do not believe that it was operated as a hotel while I lived in Ritchey. I remember a family or two living in it. For some reason, I also remember a wake within one of the families living quarters, but do not remember who it was. The building was bought by Floyd Davidson, either in the late 1940's or early 1950's.   The top floor was disassembled and at least part of the lumber was used to build a house on the same property which was initially occupied by one of the Davidson’s sons, Eugene. That house was later bought by Art and Delores (Freeman) Crandall and to my knowledge they still live there. The bottom floor of the hotel was moved to Sarcoxie, Mo and was added to the funeral home where it is still in use today.  I assisted in both the razing of the top floor, where my job was to remove nails from the used lumber and in moving and adding the ground floor of the hotel to the funeral home.