Spring And I Meet Bicycle in Comer

My dear friend, and partner in crime, Spring Bruner, owns a photography studio in downtown Prattville. She was scheduled to do a bridal shoot at an old plantation home just outside Eufala, Alabama, and asked me to tag along. I often accompany her on these escapades because the two of us together can find all kinds of trouble.

We left town just before 3 oclock, and made our way down state. Soon, I began to casually look for a convenient store to buy something to drink. After another 30 miles, I began to get a little concerned. We were traveling deeper and deeper into no man's land, and I needed a Mountain Dew. With Spring's help, we eventually spotted "The Day and Night Grocery" - check out the picture on my page. It looked like an old abandoned building, so we kept riding. Eventually, we arrived at Springhill Plantation House in Comer, Alabama. It was spectacular: a beautiful place for a wedding.

The two of us got out of the truck and walked around the grounds. Spring was looking at different places to take pictures, and I was snooping around the house, trying to find an open door and a restroom! I did stumble on to the groundskeeper and asked about how to get to the closest convenient store.

Phil, the groundskeeper said, "It's only about 500 yards up the road. The Comers run that store."

"The Day and Night Grocery?"

"Yea...you know it?"

"That place is open for business?"

Phil looked at his watch. "Sure. This time a day, it'll be packed."

I had serious doubts about that! Spring and I had just passed this establishment thirty minutes ago. I didn't look like it had welcomed a customer in thirty years.

She and I loaded into the truck and drove up the road. Phil was right. That place was packed...must have been 4 or 5 big trucks in the dirt yard surrounding the store. I walked inside, found the Pepsi cooler, the kind that sits horizonally and slides open from the top. I grabbed my Mountain Dew and headed for the food aisles. Wire racks held several different grocery items. The concrete floor even looked weathered by age. I looked and looked through the racks of food, but couldn't find candy bars anywhere. Finally, i gave up and went to the counter to pay for my drink. The counter was one of those old timey waist-high gun cabinets with the glass plate front, and the sliding glass doors in the back. All the chocolate candy was in there! I asked for a Kit Kat and plopped my drink on the counter top. The lady behind the counter asked me, "You aren't from Comer, are you?" I thought this was the coolest little mom and pop shop I had ever seen, but when she recognized me as an outsider....that just took the cake. I was sure 'nough in the country.

Spring was standing beside me, and often comes to my aide when we are together. She knows that I am prone to say anything, and balances my sarcasm with kindness. She jumped in,"We aren't from Comer, but we do live in the country."

That lady...I later learned her name was Rosalind Comer, ancestor to the Comers who founded the town....looked at me with suspicion. "Where do YOU live?"

I mean, there were two of us standing there. Why did she want to know where I lived? I answered her with pride: "Slapout".

This man who looked like Methusela's brother sat on a little stool beside the door. When I answered Rosalind, that little man came to life!

"I know Slapout. I was the janitor at the high school there in 1967." (My mother graduated from the same high school in 1967, but I was too shocked by his sudden excitement to make the connection at the time.) "There was a little grocery store there and when people would come in to buy their groceries, the owner would always tell them that he was slap out of that."

I told the man that the store was called the Boy's store because a band of brothers owned and operated it. I also explained to him how I lived about a mile down 111 from that very store.

The Comers and Spring listened to the little old man and me carry on about landmarks and funny things for several minutes. I don't know which of us had more fun. Them listening to us, or me and the old man comparing stories. Imagine it: I had left my little home town of Slapout (also known as west Egypt), traveled south for an hour and a half (to some place better known as south Egypt), found Methusela's brother, and discovered that he knew exactly where I lived...knew as much about my home town as I did!

On a whim, I decided to have my picture taken with Methusela so that everyone back home would believe that I ran into this man way down in BFE. I had my picture taken with the Comers too because the town was named after them. I never pass up an opportunity to schmooze with celebrities!

When we left the building and returned to the plantation, I thanked Phil for pointing us toward the Mountain Dew. I began to tell my story and he cut me short...

"I see you met Bicycle."

"Bicycle? The man's name is Bicycle?" I looked at Spring. This story just kept getting better. Folks back home were not gonna believe it!

"Well, I don't guess his real name is Bicycle, but that is what everyone calls him because he rides up and down these county roads all day on that rickety old bike of his. He hangs out at the Day and Night this time of day to visit with the town's folks."

"You've got to be kidding me. Bicycle? Sounds like Radio, that guy on the movie who pushes his grocery buggy around town."

This world could not get any smaller until....

I return home to Slapout and call my mom to tell her the story of Comer's grocery and Bicycle. I am at the point in the story where I say: "I was a janitor at the high school in 1967." My mom interrupts my story.

"Bicycle?"

OMG...how did she know...OMG...she went to school here in 1967....

"You KNOW BICYCLE!" the pitch in my voice roused the dogs across the street. I mean, how bizarre is this story???

"I remember him. Is he still alive? It's been forty years and he was old back then...used to ride all over the place on his bicycle...had no teeth."

"Well, mom, apparently he still rides around on county roads. He has just moved to the other side of Egypt to do it. He does, however, wear dentures now."

To all my readers: I know this story is hard to believe....I know it is! Think about it, though. How could I make it all up?