Carriss's General Store

While we were staying at the Bourbon Cabin in Mount Eden, KY we happened upon this general store, Carriss's Grocery and Snack Bar built in 1915, while driving into Louisville.

Mr. Husband and I looked like a couple of touristy city folk gawking at the place but the owners were kind and let us take pictures.

They have a bunch of old timey (and dusty) stuff decorating the top shelves.

I was particularly in love with this mid-century rocket shaped penny candy dispenser.

This was the most amazing thing to me to see! A huge metal wood burning stove heater (called the Warm Morning) right in the middle of the store! 

The back portion of the store is a grill selling hamburgers, fries and such.  We unfortunately had already eaten lunch before stopping by.  We did buy a big sack of homemade coconut candy drops and a few regional favorite sodas/snacks :Big Red, Ski, Ale-8-one, and Grippo's pretzels and potato chips.

The owners told us they had been featured on an episode of  American Pickers, which I tried to find on Youtube but couldn't.  However, I found something far better!

A United States Information Service film from the late 1940s titled "Country Store".   A country store in Kentucky called Edgar Skelton's Country Store, which happens to be known today as Carriss's Store!!!!!!!  You guys don't know how stoked I was when I stumbled on this video.  It shows the interior of the store which is fairly unchanged as is the outside.  It shows folks sitting around the pot belly stove (a previous model than the Warm Morning).  Also the house the family lives in next door is still there today.  And it gets even better!  Near the end of the video when the townsfolk go to church....They Go To Salem Baptist Church!!!!!

The film is just enchanting to me. It talks about the beauty of the area which is still amazing today and the reason we vacationed there.  I did some extra sleuthing and discovered that this film was made as Cold War counterpropaganda for Russia, but I'm not going to let that get me down.

I should have known there was something extra special about this place when it had a golden bust of Elvis in it!
And another extra bit of neatness,  Both Carriss's and Salem Church are listed on the National Register of Historic Places: Carriss's Grocery Store Salem Baptist Church
Visit Carriss's Store: 7 Southville Pike Shelbyville, KY 40065 502-738-5163
Next stop on this Kentucky Fried Vacation...Paris!