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Mellon's Country Store

Photography Atmosphere/Mood posted on Nov 14, 2009
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Description


You go back several decades when you visit Mellon's Country Store just north of Mountain View, Arkansas. Depending on your age, you'll either see a lot of things you've only seen in old photos or movies, or you'll experience a flood of memories from your childhood of things you thought were long forgotten. But there they are once again just like they used to be. The decades spent flash away in a wink of an eye. It can be quite overwhelming. Of course it's even better when the store is actually open and you can go inside. Last Saturday night by the time Julia and I had arrived everybody had lone since gone home. So I pulled my truck up front, climbed up on the bed and set up my tri-pod for a shot. But even in closed darkness the store's rustic charm of the past permeates your mindset. Little things that back in the day meant so little literally jump out and slap you back to an earlier, slower time. Like all the soda pop bottle tops in the parking lot that used to be the standard "pavement" around old country stores. The bottle opener was always on a post out front. Then there's the checker board on the left front porch with old wooden chairs on either side patiently awaiting the next morning's game between two old-timers, the old spoke-wheeled wagon, the decades old gas pump where you had to wind the handle on the side, the Phillips 66 sign, and of course Coca-Cola signs everywhere. And that's just the outside. When they're open, your footsteps are loud on the old wooden steps as you walk up to the front porch. Opening the door you hear a tiny bell ring above you, and time slows down as you walk across and remember the hard, wooden but extremely creaky floors. Off to one side there's an old horizontal soda pop cooler where you had to slide the top door sideways to reach down for your "pop". And of course that famous Coca-Cola logo was painted on the side. The list goes on and on. . . . This is a 6 second exposure, ISO-100, f/4, with a 17mm focal length. There aren't many stores left these days like Mellon's Country Store in Mountain View, Arkansas. I was so glad I got to take my father there before he passed away. He was absolutely blown away, and could have stayed there for hours. Last Saturday night I could still see him sitting on that old wooden bench on the front porch, procrastinating departure, just like he did not so long ago. marshall

Comments (8)


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boobunny

2:16PM | Sat, 14 November 2009

What a cute little place. I like that it is a nighttime photo. Great shot.

MrsLubner

2:45PM | Sat, 14 November 2009

In the early 50s when I was very young, there were still many places like this around. I went to a candy store that was on the railroad tracks where the soda machine often hung on to the bottle tighter than you could pull it out and a bottle opener on a string hung on the post next to it. It has been so sad to see places like this, where families shopped (not just mom) together. Great shot.

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Dreamingbee

2:52PM | Sat, 14 November 2009

amazing - this is a shot ..!! what a place - i feel back in just another time ... fascinating!

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kbrog

3:03PM | Sat, 14 November 2009

Excellent shot! I remember a few from when I was younger, but it was alway when visiting. I grow up in the suburbs. I grew up in the 60s. :)

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xpersona

3:27PM | Sat, 14 November 2009

Very beautiful and interesting work.

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Sea_Dog

6:11PM | Sat, 14 November 2009

What a wonderful old place. You've captured it well both in words and picture. Great job.

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Hubba1

11:42PM | Sat, 14 November 2009

Are thease places still around? Wow, an awesome find and shot :)

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HappyDance

9:47AM | Sun, 15 November 2009

Big, I love the memory of your Dad even more than the photograph and I"m pretty taken with the photo. I don't think it could look any better in daylight. The night time photo seems to suit the idea of it being from another era superimposed here in time instead of way back in the middle of the last century. I am sure you Dad loved spending that time with you. It sounds like you had a special relationship. And the picture is just a means to an end... to recall. I guess that's one of the things a good photograph can do. Be our time machine to things we've experienced- happy and sad... On another note- will you and Julia just get one site already so you don't have to keep posting and pulling photos from one another's site as you decide who's going to do what! Geez! LOL.


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