I bought my first television from Vernon Baker in 1965 and packed it along with the rest of my belongings into my 57 Ford when I left Floyd to start college and a career in journalism.
Baker had bought into the business, then called Harris Furniture, two years earlier. His store occupied the building on Locust Street next to the Amoco Station.
The Amoco station is long gone. Soon, Harris & Baker Furniture will join the Amoco Station, Rakes Chevrolet, Thomas (later Skyline) Ford and many other businesses in the dust bin of Floyd history. After several months of trying, and failing, to find a buyer for the business, Harris and his wife will sell off the remaining inventory and retire.
I walked the streets of Floyd Wednesday and thought about the many businesses that were once part of the town: Moses Restaurant, Rutrough Drugs, Western Auto, Ben Franklin. My mother and I lived in an apartment over Hobacks Furniture Store on Main Street. Hobacks is gone. So is the building. The employee parking lot for The Bank of Floyd sits in that location.
Sears once had a catalog outlet in the building on Main Street now owned by Baker and occupied by his furniture store. Of course, Sears once had a catalog. No more.
A few long time businesses remain: Farmers Supply, where Janice Yearout-Patton greets customers by their first names; C.W. Harman’s Farm Supply Business, Ingram’s, Wills Ridge, etc. Turman-Yeatts, the last surving new car dealership in Floyd, is now aprt of the Harvey Automotive empire.
Many of Floyd’s newer businesses serve the area’s growing artistic and musical community and reflect the changing town: Oddfellas (upscale dining), Cafe del Sol (gourmet coffee), Harvest Moon (health food) and Bell Gallery & Garden (photography, arts and crafts) among others. Floyd has more web designers than gas stations.
The Floyd Country Store is a mix of old and new. The new lunch counter brings back memories of Giles Lee Rutrough’s lunch counter and soda fountain at his drug store. Locals can grab a bite to eat while tourists buy t-shirts, CDs and yuppified Carhartt "country" clothing. And, of course, there’s the Friday Night Jamboree.
Some say change comes slowly to a place like Floyd but our community has changed more in the last four years than it did in the 40 years I was gone. A new public restroom serves visitors (when it is open), wider sidewalks with alcoves give musicians a place to play on Friday nights. Renovated storefronts line both Main and Locust Streets. The Village Green occupies the old Farmers Supermarket location and the Village Square will soon open in the building that once housed Vernon Baker’s furniture store — where I bought my first TV set 43 years ago.
Chinese food restaurant, please. Anyone else?
I wonder if anyone else has had this or a similar experience with Vernon Baker. When I first moved to Floyd eight years ago, I participated in the trash dumpsters cleanup day. At the end of the day, I was excited to have won of the prizes awarded — a 25 dollar gift certificate at Harris and Baker. I went to the store five weeks later to use my certificate. Vernon Baker told me that the certificate was no longer valid, even though it had no expiration date. Mr. Scrooge, in my opinion. You may have nostalgic memories of buying your first TV there, but I felt as though the Harris and Baker name should have been cut out of the t-shirt I was given at the cleanup event, as it cost him nothing since he would not honor the gift certificate he had donated.
I hate to see a longtime business like this disappear, but it’s easy to see why finding buyers for the business would be challenging with all the economy gloom and doom circulating.
The furniture industry has largely moved overseas, and the quality of furniture has gone down the toilet over the last decades. If you want real furniture, you’re almost forced to shop for antiques. Everything else is synthetics covering cardboard, staples, and chipboard…and mostly imported! Even the brand names we used to think of as quality sell junk now.
Once upon a time, furniture was expected to last twenty-five years or more. Now most of it is throwaway, because styles change every five or ten years and people redecorate and replace that often. They don’t make it to last (and it doesn’t!).