Stuckey's

Last week I was suddenly seized by a nostalgia for Stuckey's. So on Saturday I drove to the Stuckey's that's closest to Durham, the one off the Haw River exit (exit 150) on I-85. I knew before I got in the car that I was destined for disappointment. For I knew what I was going to encounter--or I knew what I was most certainly not going to encounter.

To say that there is a Stuckey's in Haw River--or in nearly any other place in these United States--needs to be qualified. The Stuckey's in Haw River is nothing more than floor space rented in a nondescript structure whose other floor spaces are rented by a Dairy Queen, a Krispy Kreme, and a Wilco. That's a far cry from the Stuckey's stores that used to exist, mostly in the South, stores that were in their own building complete with a distinctive teal-colored roof. On our interminable and fractious family drives between Memphis and New Orleans, up and down the entire length of Mississippi in the 1970s and early 1980s, the Stuckey's stores along I-55 and I-59 were where we would always stop, a precious reprieve from the cramped arena that was the family car. Each store had an extensive line of Stuckey's-brand candies and nuts, but Stuckey's was most famous for its pecan logs, pecan rolls, and pecan divinities. In the back right-hand corner of every Stuckey's was a grill that served hot dogs and hamburgers. There were souvenirs and toys and books; and most delightful for squirmy, bored, and irritated travelers like my siblings and I were games that one could actually play in the car. On the side of each building was an image of a fancy horse-drawn carriage and, under it, the words "Pecan Shoppe," the quaint spelling of shoppe for shop, much like Milton's spelling of hee for he, fascinating me to no end. For a good image of a typical Stuckey's store, click here.

In the 1980s the Stuckey's stores in Mississippi started to close and were replaced by fireworks shops and porn shops. I wondered if any stand-alone stores were left, so I visited the Stuckey's website and emailed the company. Much to my surprise, I got a response the next day. There are a few stand-alone stores remaining, mostly on the east coast, but there is one in Mississippi too, in Hattiesburg near the I-59 exit. I know exactly where it is: it is one of the ones at which we used to stop.

At the Stuckey's in Haw River the nuts and candies are still there, as are the pecan rolls, pecan logs, and pecan divinities. There are still souvenirs: shot glasses with the North Carolina flag printed on them, for instance. There are coffee mugs that say "Grumpy Old Man" and vanity license plates that read "I'm spending my children's inheritance." There are wooden carvings of horse and eagle heads with flared nostrils and hot-and-bothered visages, symbols of at least one vision of America. Oddly enough, there are also Curious George jack-in-the-boxes.