Knox’s General Store was one of three grocery stores in Wadena, a town of nearly 350 residents located in rural Fayette County in Northeast Iowa.

One of the other grocery stores was Herwig’s Locker. Their main business was butchering livestock for area farmers. They did sell some of their meat in the store and carried some grocery items to serve their locker customers. You walked down steps to get into the locker and the store space was very small.

The actual locker was just through a door in the back of the store area. The butcher did his mysterious things beyond that door and I did not care to go back there. Sometimes the store smelled of burning string hanging from a home-made stand behind the small meat case. The string was white and was used to tie the wrapping paper around the meat a customer had purchased. The string came on cardboard cones and unwound as it was used. It did not smell nice when burning but I was told that it covered up the odors from some parts of the butchering process. It was not a smell you could forget [More on this later – burning string to cover up the smell from renters smoking marijuana in an office over our business – can’t forget that smell either!].

[And another day we can talk about: The locker had a movie theater in the upstairs of the building. There was an explosion in the locker. And more to come including watching the locker roof coming down from way up in the sky. Love Wadena! You could not make it up!]

The other grocery store was Heiden’s Grocery Store which was across the street from Knox’s. Fred Heiden owned this business and he had one employee. The store was made of brick and had two main spaces both fronting the street. One side may have been a clothing store, but Fred used it for storage. His grocery store was basic, and you paid halfway to the back on the left side as you were coming in the front door.

Fred did not keep a large amount of goods. One day his hired lady came to Knox’s and asked Dad if she could borrow a can of peas. Of course, he said and got it for her. She explained that a customer was waiting. They only had one can of peas left and she said that Fred did not want to sell the last can in the store. I was there and after she left Dad explained that Fred wanted to be sure they would get the new peas in the same place on the shelf. He was matter of fact and I realized that as Fred’s friend and long-time small-town business owners, he understood exactly. It is obvious that it has stood out in my memory for many years. Did I mention that you have got to love Wadena!

With three grocery stores in one small town, it would seem natural that some competition would naturally occur. Strangely, my Dad never talked about competition with Fred. They did not hang out together and I can’t say I remember either of them walking to the other’s store. But you knew they got along and neither showed any jealousy or upset over their business practices or pricing. It was what it was and that was that.

However, Dad was not happy with Ray the locker man. As I heard it, at some point, Dad and Fred and Ray had agreed that all three would close on Sunday mornings so they could all attend church. My Mother played organ at the Wadena Presbyterian Church and Dad liked to make the coffee before church and furnish the cookies. Coffee, cookies, and church were important to him. Plus, he liked to drive the elderly ladies to church as they had no other means of getting there. Simple enough?

Apparently, at some point Ray realized that he was missing business from those coming into town on Sunday morning for church. So, not wanting to keep Dad and Fred from having to miss church he decided to open on Sunday mornings as a favor to Fred and Dad. But he did not tell them. Dad said it was pure greed and was an attempt to steal Fred and Dad’s customers. And Dad not minding confrontation went down to the locker and explained cause and effect, greatly focusing on the effects which were not nice. Ray took umbrage – something you could take back then – and that was the end of that get along/tolerate/happy-days-even-if-I-ignore-you any kind of relationship. I could no longer go to the locker which was ok as I did not like the smell of burning string. And that was that.

Ray was always friendly to me and Dad eventually closed his store and went to church and enjoyed his coffee and cookies until he could no longer attend. Fred had died earlier, and his store became a restaurant and is now the Wadena Library where my Mother was librarian until her passing. She played organ at the Wadena Presbyterian Church for 50 years.

The Knox General Store was our storage for years and eventually was the Thomas Valley Inn – a popular restaurant. Today it houses Barney’s, the home of the wonderful and amazing Barney Burger! They no longer have the walk-in cooler.

The locker is still running. I do not know if they still burn string.