Updated May 29, 2010.
Interviews are from THE ISLANDERS. A publication produced by the Knotts Island Junior Historians at the Elementary School under the guidiance of Faye Freeman. These interviews are from Volume 1 of 1987.
Casey Munden. Interviewed by Suzanna Flannagan & Brandy Futrell. Story written by Suzanna Flannagan. Casey Munden age 79, recalled having one of five stores on Knotts Island. Suzanna Flannagan and Brandy Futrell interviewed Mr. Munden about the store he owned on Knotts Island. We (Mr. Munden and his father) had a store right across the road here, old J.E. Munden Store. (Comment - John Munden: The store was located where the dump is now.) I guess that started about 1910 or 1912. Later on after he (Mr. Munden's father) built the first part of the store, he added another part to it. It had three cent, five cent, and ten cents counters in there. Everything in that part of the store was sold for a nickel or a dime and it consisted of bread cutters, and little pans to cook cakes in, with different figures in them, and such stuff as that. Nothing there sold over ten cents. He use to go to Baltimore Bargain House, I believe it was in Baltimore, to buy that stuff. They didn't have it locally here in Norfolk at the time, and he also went there to buy dry goods to make dresses, aprons, bed sheets, and stuff like that out of them. The women on the Island would flock down here when he would get a new shipment in to find out new designs and to see if anything has changed. Must of been somewhere in the early 20's and late 30's; he had that store. We went down at the corner where the "Y" (intersection of Rt. 615 and Knotts Island Rd.) is now was my little store. I bought that as a garage; had no floor in it. I had to put a floor in it to turn it into a grocery store. I can't remember what year that was. I operated that until I went to the Ford (automobile) Plant. Then I came back to work about 1936 and my daddy remained working at the store operating it while I was at the Ford Plant. About the time I came back from the Ford Plant the road was torn all to pieces. They were getting ready to surface it. It was just impossible to get across in an automobile. That was in early 37, I think, when the Ruritans completed the hard surface. I closed my store down about 1948. Supplies were hard to get during World War II. I had electricity there but it was man—made electricity. I bought me a power plant of my own, Delco System. I had a big icebox that kept butter and stuff like that cold. We didn't have any meat cases back in them days. We didn't display what we had. The freight boat ("Currituck") used to come in here in the early days. She made two trips a week in here. I think we went to Norfolk on Wednesday night and got on Friday morning with our supplies. Supplies such as flour, lard, and stuff like that. Back in them days you didn't have fresh milk, biscuits, and stuff like that. That's how we got our supplies, this steamer that came from Norfolk. They had a dock at the South End of Knotts Island, a pier there. They had some freight agent there bringing stuff from the pier into the shore where we could get to it with our horse and wagon. We had about three or four stores at that time, I think. A freight boat was coming in here, and after the road was finished, they had about four stores over here. You could go to town in your own car or truck to buy your supplies and bring them back in them days. That's when we started getting canned milk, meats, biscuits and fresh milk back in them days. Well, we sold mostly canned stuff, most everyone over here had a cow and they killed their own hogs for their own meat. They had their own gardens, so about everything they bought was can stuff, a little lard, a little coffee, that was about it. The steamboat broke down one morning and that kept us from getting to Norfolk to get our supplies. Then they fixed the steamboat and it was ready the next morning to come back. Stores back in them days, everything was cheap. You could probably buy a whole weeks groceries back in them days, for three or four dollars. It weren't no paper bags you could put them in. It was a big box that this stuff was shipped down here in. Sometimes you would get big boxes full of meats, coffee, lard, candy, and items like that. The Munden family had for many generations operated stores on the Island. While none of the Munden stores operate today on the Island, Mr. Munden's nephew runs a store in Virginia Beach, Virginia.
Preston Jones. Interviewed by Junior Historian Club. Written by Brandy Futrell. Today there is only one store on Knotts Island. Just fifty years ago there were as many as five grocery stores on this small island. We interviewed Preston Jones, 68, who helped establish the store that now remains on Knotts Island. Preston's grandfather, John Jones, started the Jones' store. The first store in the Jones family was on the corner of Cason’s Point Road and Old Road. Later they built another store across the street on the other side of Cason’s Point Road. Preston built a new store, Jones Grocery and Supply, in 1966 on the corner of Old Road and Back Road. This store remains in operation today. Preston shared these memories of his days at the stores. I was practically raised in a store from my childhood up. My daddy (Herman Jones) was in business. I started when I was big enough to work. My granddaddy (John Jones) and my uncle (Paul Jones) first owned the store, and my daddy worked with him. My granddaddy died in 1925. My daddy went in with my uncle and they were in business. In 1937 I bought my unc1e's part, and I've been in business myself since 1937. At that time things were kinda hard. To get our groceries we had to get them by boat. There wasn't hardly any cars or trucks like there is today on the road. My daddy used to haul them from the South End to the store by horse and cart. That's when they had a boat - ("Currituck" steamboat) come, and it would go to Norfolk. He would go, but I wouldn't. He'd stay overnight, buy his supplies, and come back the next day. Then he’d put them in a cart and haul them to the store. We sold about anything that anybody wanted. They d1dn't get off to go shopping like they do today, so we carried anything that anybody needed to wear or use at that time. We sold what you called yard goods for people to make their dresses. We sold it by the yard like you see them in yard good stores today. We sold cotton, we sold laces, we sold anything people could practically need; we sold it at that time. Men's clothing--any kind of clothing anybody needed--we sold. Cause people couldn't get off to get it. For the home we sold carpets and rugs, curtains, and things like that. But we d1dn't sell any furniture unless someone special wanted some and didn't want to go to Norfolk. We would get it for them. Preston remembered that most people paid for their purchases with cash. Some people, however, would bring products to the store and trade them for groceries. Most of the time money was scarce and most of the time they paid for it (purchases) with cash. Hardly ever saw a check or credit card--you didn‘t know what they were in those days. There was very little cash at that time because people at that time made most of their living on the water. Nobody ever commuted to work like they do today. Most would work on the water and they would make enough here in the wintertime to run them through the summertime. There was very little that they bought from the stores at that time. They would buy probably sugar and coffee and necessary stuff. As far as their eggs and meat, they raised their own pigs and chickens. They would bring their eggs to the store and trade them for whatever groceries they needed. If they d1dn't need the groceries, I would buy them for about ten or fifteen cents a dozen. We had ice at that time, we didn't even have electricity over here until 19--, I think it was 48, and we had to have ice to keep our things on and a lot of times we didn't have that. We used to buy rats, muskrats, rabbits, anything that we could buy and make a nickel on. We would buy and sell it. I've seen that store down there lined up with nothing but rabbits. People would go and hunt rabbits and set rabbit boxes and bring them to the store. We would buy them and resell them. A rabbit at that time, they would bring anywhere from twenty-five to thirty—five cents. Muskrats would bring in--the meat--would bring three to five cents. There was no self service. We had counters all around the store and nobody was allowed behind that counter; only the ones that worked there. If you wanted anything, come to the store and say I want a penny piece of candy. You (store clerk) went in there and got it yourself and give it to the man (customer) yourself. If I were working I would get it and give it to you. You didn't do it yourself and if you were caught behind the counter and your daddy and mama was there, they would paddle you right good for being behind the counter. Nobody was allowed behind that counter. People a lot of times would come to the store on their horse and cart. They would tie their horses to the porch post there. We had cans nailed around the porch post to keep the horses from gnawing the porch post. The prices then, you'd be surprised! You could take five cents at that time and go to the store and buy enough candy to last you the whole day. The first drinks I could remember was called cola and then Coke-a-Cola. That was five cents and they came in the same size bottle as today. Then Peps1—Cola came out. I think that come out in 19 and 38. They were twelve ounce bottles and that was five cents. Then we had another one come a little later--all different flavors of drinks called Nehi. It (the bottle) would come up to little children's knees and so they called it Nehi. That was five. When people wanted sugar, it wasn't packed like today; it was loose. You'd take a scoop, put it in a bag on a scale and weigh it. There was no prepacked stuff like there is today. The only thing I can remember that was packed was your coffee. Of course we had a coffee grinder. You could grind it yourself or you could just pack it. Sugar came loose and so did lard and beans. Everything was practically loose except your canned stuff. At that time we did not have any adding machines, calculators, or anything like that. What we did, we did with a pencil on a paper bag or something and added up the grocery list. One thing that I want you children to remember if you ever want to go in the grocery business, there are five things you want to remember: Learn how to add, multiply, divide, and subtract, and learn your multiplication tables. If you learn that it will always stick to you. Kerosene at that time came from Coinjock. They would bring it over in a boat and we would take it off their boat. Kerosene and gasoline at the time sold for ten and fifteen cents a gallon. You didn’t sell it to them by the dollar's worth. You sold it by the gallon. We had this little hand pump. It had a glass bowl up there, and it showed how much you wanted. You would pump it up and watch the glass. You would pump till you had a gallon, then you'd stop. Every Monday and Thursday my brother and myself would deliver ice on Knotts Island to every house. They had iceboxes they would keep their ice in to keep their milk and so forth cool. The block (of ice) weighed about three hundred pounds. We cut it any size they wanted, any where from seventy-five to one hundred fifty pounds, cut it off and sell them that much. We didn't sell any guns. I sold ammunition. I've sold shotgun shells for fifty cents a box. My daddy said in l9l8 they stopped the sale of ducks. I don't remember that. I remember my daddy saying he could sell ducks. People killed lots and lots of ducks and would bring them and sell them. We would ship them up to New York and Baltimore. That's the time they were rare and hard to get up there. They would put them in barrels and ship them to New York. I think they stopped that in 1918. At that time you might not think this is good, but at that time the Northerners wouldn't eat a duck when he was too fresh. I've heard them say they would hang them out until they would start to green a little bit and that‘s when they said they were good.