A Monday, July 27, 1925 Johnson City Press-Chronicle contained a unique full-page advertisement that caught my attention. The main title said, “Try The Drug Store First.” The premise of the ad was to get patrons to subscribe to the idea that a drug store sold much more than drugs, a concept that carries well over to today. 

Over the years, my parents patronized Beckners’ Jewelers in downtown Johnson City, so I suppose it was only natural for me to buy my wife’s engagement and wedding rings from Buddy Beckner in 1970.

During the late 1940s, I recall seeing young men in downtown Johnson City selling a weekly national newspaper with the curious title “Grit.” These salesmen stood at busy locations, typically the corner of Spring and E. Main streets and along the front of the old City Bus Terminal at Buffalo.

Between 1956 and 1964, I routinely patronized McElyea Shoe Repair and Harness Shop at 127 Spring and Jobe (now State of Franklin Road). The owner, Robert McElyea, repaired my damaged or worn-out shoes while I patiently waited in a chair in my sock feet.

There was a time in Johnson City history when produce stores and stands were bountiful with such names as Burbage, Lowry, Sell, Deck & Noe, Gilmer & Garland, Street & Dougherty, Tittle, B&B, Lacy, Willis, C.W. Lane, McKinney, Tri-City, Garland, Kelly, Bond, Crouch, Miller, E&T, Ben Garrison (bananas) and Hicks (tomatoes).

A lady recently showed me two pre-1915 long narrow tin advertising signs that she found attached to the back of a cabinet that her father built years ago. One contains the words: “Peirce’s Quality Shop, Ready to Wear Garments for Men and Women, Men’s Furnishings, 109 Buffalo Street, Johnson City.” The other one is for “Pedigo Co., Waists That Fit, Shoes, 259 Main Street, Johnson City.”

Williams Grocery, once located at the northeast corner of Unaka and Oakland opposite Stratton School, served neighborhood customers for 28 years. Bob and Myrtle Williams started the business in 1938, taking over the former site of (Elbert) Lowe’s Grocery and running it for 13 years.

In 1948, I was weak and frail after recovering from rheumatic fever that had confined me to bed or a chair for almost a year. Now I was finally permitted to engage in limited outside activities. I soon had a chance encounter behind our apartment with the neighborhood bully whom I will call Billy. This little obnoxious terror quickly branded me as easy prey for his shoving and tough talk. 

East Tennessee has produced a few area residents with a special knack for originality that resulted in clever laborsaving inventions. Some aspiring inventors fostered their unique creations past storms of adversity until they eventually rained profits for them. Others met with overwhelming difficulties causing them and their innovation to drift into obscurity.

In 1986, area resident Dana Love shared with Dorothy Hamill his memories of working in the banking industry in downtown Johnson City. The 88-year-old Erwin native earned his degree from Draughton Business College in Knoxville. After serving in the Army Signal Corp. during World War I, he became interested in the banking business.