Ponsford Fire

Tuesday evening as I was all stretched out on the couch watching American Idol ( I like Crystal Bowersox and Casey James).  Far Guys pager went off, the report was "The old feed store next to the Fire Hall in Ponsford is on fire."  Well there is no feed store, but there is an old grocery store.  I lept up and said "Can I go too?  I will get some photos! "

 The Ponsford Grocery Store  in  2009

Granted the old grocery store was a pile of falling down building, but in my mind it is still the grocery store of my childhood.  We could see the flames from the end of our driveway..five miles away cross country.

I was too little to see over the top of the counter..Ray or Bev would lean over and say Hi..they called everyone by name.  We went there once a week, just for the necessities that a farm family needed..sugar, flour, toilet paper, soap, sometimes bananas, oranges and apples, on a really good day..Ice Cream!!

Ray and Bev lived in the back of the store, they had sons much older than me, they were in the upper grades in school when I was little.  On Halloween you had to stop by their back door..for a full size candy bar. I thought I had died and gone to candy heaven with an entire candy bar that I did not have to share with my baby brother, or one that did not have to be sliced into four equal sections and put on a plate on the kitchen table and shared with everyone.

The floors were wooden, they were warped..they had a mind of their own with their hills and valleys.  The aisles were narrow, I do not remember a shopping cart, but there were shopping baskets.  Sometimes I would be in charge of taking something up to the counter, if anything strange was added..my Mother would know. Sometimes she would be short of money..One time she was short and I told her "Just write a check"  Thinking of course that the checkbook was an endless supply of money.  How could you be broke when you have a checkbook??  Sometimes things would have to be put on account..and paid for later when the milk check came.  My Mother never liked putting anything on her account.

The shelves were stocked practically to the ceiling, full of wondrous things that I had never eaten.  Things that I never learned to eat..so therefore I still don't eat them..like boxed breakfast cereal and pancake syrup.

Going to the store was an event, that is where you heard who was sick and on their death bed, who was getting married and who was having a new baby.  News..a side effect from needing a few groceries. 

Sometime in the mid 1960's Ray and Bev sold the store and moved to Frazee.  I believe they moved after their youngest son graduated from high school.   New people by the name of Cullen purchased the store.  They had a girl named Sheila who was a year older than me, we rode the same bus until the route was split. She later became the Homecoming Queen her senior year, not only because she was beautiful..she was friendly too.

There were lots of memories in the flames that rendered this old store into a pile of ash.  No doubt this was Arson..the Natives are restless.

April 06, 2010 

Carsonville Firefighters 

Far Guy 

The local papers reported nothing on this fire..apparently it was not news worthy:(

Update from Holly Anderson about the old store: 

My parents (Dale & Linda Anderson) bought the store from Cullens and ran a grain cleaning business out of it. That's why they called it the feed store in the fire call. When I was little, that is what I remember; climbing on top of piles of brown sacks of wheat seed ready for sale and the sound of the cleaner. The store has sat empty since the early 80s and the last time anyone used it was for the Ponsford Centennial in 1990.

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Update from Chuck Masog: 

I can add some history about the Red Owl store in Ponsford. My name is Chuck Masog. My folks were Bev and Ray Masog and the four of us including my brother John lived behind the store. They purchased it the winter of 1947-48 from Mr Colgrove and ran it until we moved to Frazee in the summer of 1958. John and I went to school at Linnell grade school 3 miles east on MN Highway 225 and Park Rapids High School.
It was primarily a grocery store but we also sold feed, tires, firewood, drugs, Lee jeans, and oil and gas. We sold and delivered bulk gas and fuel oil to farmers, resorts and households. Dad had a 400 gallon tank and pump specifically made to fit our 1952 Ford F3 pickup by Marvin Longforce who owned the garage. We bought and candled eggs from the farmers and sold them to Pederson-Biddick in Wadena

There were five grocery carts and one checkout counter which gives you some idea of the size of the store. The clientele were predominately Indians and farmers but with a nice influx of tourists in the summer from Iowa and Illinois. We also supplied the scout camp on Many Point Lake and I recall making 800 minute steaks which was part of their weekly order and was an all day job for our small meat equipment. Some of the unique items we sold in the store were bulk lutefisk and herring which came in wooden 25 pound pails, and bulk vinegar which came in 50 gallon wood barrels. Popular items in the meat counter were bacon squares (smoked pig jowl) which sat on top of the meat counter unrefrigerated and sold for 19 cents/pound, and pork neck bones. Our entire frozen food section was one open topped freezer that was about 3x4 ft and stocked predominately with frozen juice and meat pies. We also sold a lot of Mennen skin bracer as that was the drink of choice after the 5 beer joints were closed about 1954 because of a shooting that resulted in death.
My folks were good hearted and one could pay cash or charge it. This is not a business model I would recommend to anyone as not everyone paid up.
Dad remodeled the front of the store in the mid-50s and used vertical redwood siding. I saw the store in 2005 and was impressed with how well the redwood stood up over the years. I was also impressed with the how modern the front of the building and signage were, even to this date.
My dad also bought furs and wild rice. Ricing season, which started in last August, was the busiest and most exciting time of the year, with long hours. In the early years, the rice was sold to a processor in Aitkin, MN and in later years my Dad processed the majority of the rice himself on a 40 acre farm about a mile west of town.