Gale Hutchinson, who co-owns the store with her son Bobby, says the store is just as much about sharing memories as it is about antique glass, cast iron and more.
“I tell people when they come in, we’ve got a little bit of everything,” Gale said. “But we do different things within the store, and they know they’re going to leave feeling like they’ve been seen and heard, because we like to visit with our with our folks.”
Their business started as a Facebook cooking show, specializing in old-time recipes, often made on a wood-burning cooking stove, she said. Gale, or “Mammy” to her followers, would bring out three of her own antiques at the end of the cooking portion, sharing and reminiscing with her viewers.
Credit: Bryant Billing
Credit: Bryant Billing
“I’m going out in the barn, in the house, wherever I can find different things that I think may be of interest,” she said. “And so my son looked at me one day and he said, ‘Mom, why don’t we just open up a little shop with the things you reminisce with?’ And I said, sounds good to me.”
Pappy’s Place is so named for Gale’s husband of 55 years, who passed away in February of 2019.
“I was thinking about (naming it) something else, but our son said, ‘Nope, this is Pappy’s Place.’ I’m Mammy on the cooking show, so Pappy’s Place was just fitting for it,” she said.
The store’s Facebook page has more than 2200 followers, and the store’s claim sales ship all over the United States. However, despite her modest Facebook fame, Mammy doesn’t think of herself as a social media star.
“I don’t think like that,” she said. “Honey, I’m just plain old Gale.”
The storefront at 55 East Main Street was previously occupied by Earthly Essentials, which closed at the end of last year.
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