From the time that I was five until I reached eighteen, my parents owned a mom and pop grocery store in a small town in Southern Oklahoma. It was an aging, box-like structure that featured a large wooden awning supported by two metal poles. At the westernmost edge of the awning, sat two Skelly gasoline pumps that faced the street.
Five feet north of the entrance, next to an antique kerosene pump, my grandfather had built an old wooden hitching post. During the 1950’s many of our customers rode horses to town and secured their animals to the post while they shopped.