S.D. Dixon Clover Farm Store in 1989. Hazel Robinson collection.

a dry cleaning depot, a drug store, a jewelry store, a toy store, a card shop, a shoe store, a china shop, a hardware store, a decorating shop where you could purchase wallpaper and paint any colour you wished mixed by the stay: as well as a place to buy fuel, gardening tools, housewares- the list is endless. What Sheldon did not have in the store, he would put in the order book and pick up in town on Tuesday. Sheldon ’s reputation as a butcher, coupled with the excellent beef grown on his brother Vance ’s farm, brought customers from near and far.

The store was the Tim Hortons of North Tryon, as well as the local Bulletin Board Residents dropped in for a chat with Sheldon and his stafif to pick up the mail or get a stamp, to see the milkman, to get caught up on the latest local news- the new babies, the deaths, the engagements, and, yes, often the gossip- to wait for the school bus, to share a few jokes, to pick up the daily paper, to meet new and old residents, ormaybe to talk to a tourist who was just passing through. If only the store counter could talk, it could spin many yarns.

Sheldon Dixon sold his business in 1986 to Gerald and Heather Kierans. The store closed in 1990 leaving the community without a grocery store for the first time since John Muirhead opened his doors in the 18005. The Kicran’s have converted the building into apartments.

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