The Rorrer Store Weaving Close Knit Threads of a Mountain Community. Life and Times of a Country Store
Creator
Quesenberry, Sherri Rorrer
Williams, Ruby
Rorrer, Billy Ellis
Rorrer, Darlene Meredith
Rorrer, Charles Patrick
Crigger, Hilda
Jones, Betty
Rorrer, Kenneth
In this project, Sherri Rorrer Quesenberry, after reflecting on her family’s history decided to focus on a general store that her grandparents ran. Like other general stores, The Rorrer store helped create a feeling of community where people would meet and visit with each other; would both buy and trade goods to obtain the things they needed for their daily lives- things such as tobacco, grain, kerosene, fatback, salted fish and cloth. Often, and in this case, general store owners would help the community by offering credit to struggling families. Ms. Quesenberry conducted interviews with family members and former customers of the store to present a picture of the community that formed in part thanks to the Rorrer Store. This is among projects created by students enrolled in English 446 (initially English 452), “Appalachian Folklore,” 1981-2019, and in graduate level counterparts English 548 and 648 “Appalachian Folk Culture(s)” offered 17 fall semesters between 1987 and 2009. Minimally contain collector’s introduction and analysis, transcribed informant interviews, and excerpted and labeled examples of oral, customary, and/or material folklore/folklife collected primarily within the Appalachian region. Most include also tables of contents, informant information, indexes (outlines) of interviews, photographs, miscellaneous paper items, and indexes of informants, genres, and geographic locations. Accompanying audio recordings (several minutes to 2+ hours). Transferred to McConnell Library Archives & Special Collections from Appalachian Regional and Rural Studies Center, Fall 2013.