Three Door Cooler- Chapter 1 Intro and The Gatorville General Store

This is a series of a book I have written. I would love to get feedback on this if you could. It is a special treat to anyone who reads this, since this is not yet published. This is however will be on the blockchain, so there is my copyright. I will start with a chapter a day or every other day, etc. Keep looking for this and together; Steemit Community, you will have helped me make this a success.

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Intro & The Gatorville General Store

Have you ever had that I’m out of my element, I am a fish out of water, na-not feeling it, overwhelm your mind? I am having that right now. It was not what I wanted in the beginning, but I’ve been told you’ll adapt. Ok, goes like this; I am Heather, a chef from the Big Easy on the rise with a business that I started from nothing, only hoping to increase my regional market. If anyone has been to New Orleans; it’s pronounced Nawlins for us natives. Not New Or-leens. Jeez, sounds like a sneeze, Gesundheit. It is the birthplace for Jazz, the Europe of the South, with our French and Spanish influences carrying tons of culture. One thing this place is famous for is our food. Many come to visit just to eat! I think that’s just awesome. Many great chefs come study here and move on to start up restaurants to only win James Beard awards and Food and Wine Chef of the Year recognition.

I am not really a chef. I didn’t go to culinary school. I wanted to, but having a journalism degree, did not qualify me to get a scholarship. I wanted to be a food critic and maybe have a food magazine. Well, no surprise, that didn’t happen. I became a caterer instead. I just so happen to like the outside, I like looking at the daytime through windows, not seeing the inside of a kitchen’s stainless steel walls and hovering endlessly over a 12 burner gas stove. I mean to say, I am not one for restaurants.

I do work with food. I am a 17 year experienced caterer and developed a food line that I hope will really take off to the national level. Like anything else, I started from the bottom, working farmers markets, doing my R & D there, then I spoke to someone at the market about getting into grocery stores. I thought, great, others can eat it, I have a bigger market and I don’t have to fight the elements. This now brings me to six years down the line and several grocery stores later, with my small business that has potential for growth, the only way to go is up.

So it’s early in the year of 2014. What a year it was, ice storms, floods, rattlesnakes, wildlife, etc. I’ll get to all of that soon enough. We, meaning my partner K and I were on the hunt of looking for a cooler to keep my products cold. We purchased an old Coca-Cola convenience store vending cooler, but that conked out the second time using it. Out 300 buck-er-oos. Not really that bad of an investment, considering we bought a Snapple cooler, the same size and held on to it for 9 months. Spent almost three times the cost of the Coke cooler. So a K found a Craigslist ad for a cooler in rural Mississippi. Attached to that ad was a general store with a gas station for sale. I was really interested in only the cooler, I forget the price, but K was persistent on looking at this general store. Just take a took, no harm in that. We drove up days after an ice storm occurred, still the air was a little warmer, but up here, you freeze your nether regions. The lady over the phone said she wasn’t going to be here at the store and to call when we would get closer. Actually, she didn’t want to be there at all and was trying to deter our visit that day. We went anyway, right at dusk, when the roads all turn to a grey asphalt and match with the deer on the road. Dark as the night, and getting darker.

We found a flashing bent sign, like the ones you see on a used car lot. K and I pulled up to the store onto loose pea gravel, exited the car and were greeted by the fugliest of greens I’ve ever seen on a front door. We pulled open the door, no glass on the door, no windows around except for the one in the front with iron bars on the facade. We were meeting Tanya, at least that is what she wants to be called. Tanya was average height for a lady, in her mid 40s and had olive skin tone, long, dark hair with a silver crown and glasses, marble green eyes. She wore a camouflage flak jacket, beige T-shirt and grey sweatpants. She had someone in the store, an older heavyset lady with a cane, asking for cigarettes. Her daughter, who looked like she stepped off a tractor, opened her Mom’s purse and pulled out a zip bag of change and proceeded to pay for the goods. She poured out the loose change on the counter in front of Tanya, for her to count out exactly. The older lady had an emphysema cough, but who could tell, since it was cold and flu weather. She excused herself and went to use the bathroom. Entering again another fugly green door, matching the front door perfectly, this time with a drawing of an outdoor scene, tree I think, right under the word Restrooms with an apostrophe between the m and the s. That’s plural to most people who do not know grammar.

K and I were having a survey of the store while this was happening. We saw the walls to be OSB boards, painted white, dingy grey painted concrete floor, fluorescent lighting, 2 long shelves, 4 all together, with limited product sitting on them. On the back wall was a large walk in cooler, holding beer and nothing else. Adjacent to that was a handwashing sink and 3 compartment sink, like the ones in a restaurant. Plenty of counter and cabinet space, Deli paper wrap, toaster oven and a wall of cigarettes. On the side wall was a Coca-Cola 2 door cooler and next to that the 3 door cooler, like the one we saw advertised. Behind the 3 door cooler was a half of hallway with metal shelves,housing foods and toiletries. Down the hall was another door, grey like the floor and at the jamb were 2 slots, painted a glossy hunters’ green with a 2x4 board of the same color to secure the door from the other side entry. We decided to go through the door, missing out, while the heavy set lady visited with Tanya, and lighting a cigarette from the pack just purchased. Instantly the store smelled of fresh cigarette smoke.

Once we entered the room, we witnessed a grey room with the same OSB walls and concrete floors. The front and side walls had window units, one that fit the window with bars on them and the other, a cut out in the walls. The rear wall was paneling painted a crimson color, in between, an ancient hood vent with an ansul system. Part of the paneling had what appeared to be a burned, possibly from a stove. We were told that this side was once a diner. I thought, even better. Now, room for a commercial kitchen and the zoning is still in place. Anyone who knows, opening a restaurant, knows the bureaucracy about zoning, permits, etc. It’s not always a cakewalk. Again, back to the side room, was a bathroom with a rusted hot water tank, hooked up to PVC and propane leading out to the rear of the building. Next to that, a sink and vanity on its last leg. Outside of the bathroom was a 10x5 space for dry storage. So, lots of space here and a grocery store with a built in customer base. What could possibly go wrong?

K and I went back into the store, this time Tanya was alone, making her way back from outside smoking herself a cigarette. K said how much for the store and she said she would go down on the price if we were interested, “as is”. I said, well, we don’t want to make any decisions first without seeing some books of the sales, etc. While we were conversing, in walks a short, skinny guy gunning for the walk in cooler. He grabbed a 24oz beer, paid for it and opened it quickly and took a swig. Tanya said, “Joe, I told you a bunch of times, not to open the beer in the store and drink it.” She handed him a brown bag and told him about us and how we may be the new store owners. He grinned, with no teeth and told us his name. “I’m Joe, but people either call me Little Joe or Papa Joe. I answer to both.” I don’t remember much of our conversation, only knowing that he was well known in these parts. He left and we started back our talk with Tanya. She said she would have something for us in a few days. We left shortly after that on our way back home.