MUD CREEK COMMUNITY — In 1928 brothers R.F. “Felt” and Jay Lindsey opened Lindsey's Store where county roads 22 and 45 meet in the Mud Creek area of eastern Cherokee County. Earlier this year, the store closed its doors forever — but its legacy lives on.

Former customers may recall details such as the long, glass, candy case, crappie jigs suspended from wires, or the side room where minnows darted in bubbly blue water.

For local residents Billy Godfrey and Jamie Davis, it wasn't what Lindsey's sold, but the tales told on the bench and chairs in the back of the store that they will always remember the most.

“I used to buy a Dr. Pepper and cheese crackers and sit around and talk,” Godfrey said. “We sat in there and discussed everything — politics, farming, football, making a garden — just general discussions. I miss it. I have no place to go now.”

Davis said he has similar memories.

“I used to go there twice or three times a day. I miss it bad,” he said. “Mr. Godfrey and I talked about Alabama ball games all the time. The Lindseys are all Auburn folks and Mr. Godfrey would get 'em all mad.”

Richard Lindsey, Felt's grandson, has many fond memories of the store and its many loyal customers.

“One of the regulars in the store was Arthur Gossett,” Richard said. “He made his rounds throughout the county selling produce in the morning, then came back to the store in the afternoons and told everyone the county news. If the news wasn't exciting, then he would make it exciting.”

Richard, who has served in the Alabama Legislature since 1983, figures the years he spent in the store as a boy had a good bit to do with to the path he chose in life.

“I grew up working in the store,” Richard said. “It's where I learned to deal with the public.”

Godfrey, the area's elder statesman at 92, remembered what times were like when the store was built.

“You didn't have cars too much,” he said. “You didn't go to Centre. You just bought stuff at Lindsey's.”

Godfrey chuckled at another distant recollection.

“Charles Waddell came down the road one day in a Model-T Ford,” he said. “The wheel came off of the car, and it broke one of the store's big windows.”

Jay eventually sold his share of the store to his brother, and Felt's sons, Vann and Ray, helped out. However, it was another of Felt's brothers, Clyde, who usually ran the store.

As Clyde and Felt aged, Vann's wife, Louise, began taking turns behind the cash register.

“I quit working at Alexis school in 1977, and by 1978 I had started helping Clyde,” she remembered.

Louise recalled a few of the many the quirks she discovered as an employee at the store.

“People used to bring in their pennies all the time to get them changed,” she said. “Also, when an ambulance passed people would call the store to find out what was going on.”

Recently it had become harder to keep the business viable. In November 2002, after a tornado ripped off the roof, Louise remembered the conversation about whether or not to rebuild.

“Vann and Ray discussed not reopening it, but they did,” she said. “It took right at three months to remodel.”

When Ray passed away in 2006, Vann and Louise kept Lindsey's open. But last winter, after Vann died, the family decided to end the store's run. They believe its 83 years in business makes Lindsey's the longest running store in the county operated by the same family.

Though the store is closed, the building will still be in use. Richard keeps an office there, and the Lindsey family still uses the back rooms to house paperwork and other materials for their farming and cotton ginning operations.

Looking back now, Louise said she is glad her husband never caved in to her repeated requests through the years to lock the doors.

“I kept asking Vann to close it, but I really didn't want to close it,” she said. “I really miss seeing and meeting people.”