Memories of Sharp's Grocery

Writing about the demise of Mitchell’s Barbershop got me to thinking about other wonderful places from my childhood. One in particular stands out in my mind. Let me tell you about it…

The community that I grew up in on Maloneyville Rd., didn’t have much in the way of stores. The biggest places around us was Hillcrest Nursing Home and the Knox County Penal Farm, both, which were located about a mile from my parent’s house. The only stores in our area was the House Mountain Market which was about 3-miles away, the Midway IGA which was also about 3-miles away, and Sharp’s Grocery which was about a mile and a half from my house. I know that sounds like a lot of places but trust me; the area where I lived was very country back then. Mrs. Sharp was the lady that ran Sharp’s Grocery. Her actual name was Hazel, which my mother used when she referred to her, however, us kids only called her Mrs. Sharp. She and her husband, Fred, owned Sharp's Grocery.

Mrs. Sharp was a very happy lady. She was always laughing and cutting up. I loved going into her store. While she and my mother would chit chat and gossip, I would browse the candy racks that were filled with all kinds of sweet treats; bubble gum, pixie sticks, candy cigarettes, candy bars, and my favorite, candy wax harmonicas. In fact, I loved those wax harmonicas so much that I once stole one from Mrs. Sharp’s store. I only made it halfway home before I blew a note into it and my dad looked in the rearview mirror at me. “Where did you get that?” he asked. “Mrs. Sharp gave it to me,” I lied. “No she didn’t, you are lying” dad shot back, glaring at me in the mirror. I wanted to keep denying it but my guilty conscious got the better of me. I broke down and started crying. Dad slammed on the brakes, turned around and headed back to the store. He marched me into the store and made me confess to Mrs. Sharp of what I had done. I felt so ashamed. It did teach me a very big lesson though and for that I am thankful. I have never had the desire to steal anything from a store since then.

Sharp’s Grocery also had lots of sandwich meats and cheeses that Mrs. Sharp would slice to order for you. Whenever we could afford it, we would stop in and order a pound of sliced bologna, you know, the kind that had the red ring wrapped around it. We would buy a pound of American cheese, the good kind that you can hardly find anymore, not that crappy processed stuff. The closest thing I have found is Land-O-Lakes brand and it is EXPENSIVE! Every now and then we would be able to afford sliced Corned beef too, yum, yum!

Probably what we bought the most of at Sharp’s Grocery was Coca-Colas. If we had any extra change, you can guarantee we would walk, run, drive, or ride our bikes to Mrs. Sharp’s to get a cold Coke out of the Coke chest. I can remember many a hot summer day that I would search through the couch cushions, under car seats, and anywhere else I could think of, for some change to buy a Coke. As soon as enough money was collected I would peddle my bike to the store and buy one. The bottles were returnable back then and I would save them up and take them for the deposit and buy more Cokes with the money that I had. I guess that’s the closest I have ever come to knowing how a drug addict feels. Mrs. Sharp also used to let me keep all of the Coke caps that were discarded in the cap dispensers that attached to the side of the Coke chest. At one time I had thousands of those things that I kept in a cardboard box. I would put them in the spokes of my bicycle wheels and use them for other things as well.

Sometime in the early ‘80’s, the Towne & Country Market (now the Bread Box) moved in a quarter of a mile up the street at the corner of Maloneyville Rd. and Tazewell Pike. Lots of folks quit going to Sharp’s Grocery after that. I’ll go ahead and admit that I started peddling my bike past Mrs. Sharp’s on my way to the Town & Country. They made delicious hot dogs and sold them really cheap. I was also struck on a young lady that worked behind the deli counter and had to try and impress her with my hot dog eating abilities. Yeah, pathetic I know.

I don’t remember when Sharp’s Grocery finally shut the doors but it was a sad day in our neighborhood when it did. Now when you drive by the old dilapidated building, you would never know that it used to be a bustling little store where families like mine would spend most of their paycheck. It used to have "Sharp's Grocery" painted in red letters across the store front. Now it has been vandalized with graffiti spray painted on the outside. There also used to be the obligatory Coke sign hanging outside, a couple of gas pumps in the front, and a huge orange Union 76 sign standing in the corner of the parking lot. All of those are gone now and replaced with weeds and scraggly bushes. When I took these pictures I wanted so badly to clean the place up, slap a coat of paint on the walls and restore the sign overhead. Just so I could relive a moment of my childhood. My youngest daughter was with me when I snapped the pictures and she thought it looked kind of creepy. Oh, if she only knew how it used to be. I suppose one day the old store will be torn down and probably replaced with apartments, condos, or a subdivision. I hope I'm not alive to see that day.