Rugby, Tenn. — A walk inside R.M. Brooks General Store is like stepping back in time.
"You don't find much like this anymore," one customer exclaimed.
"It's like a connection with the past, " said another.
Bob Brooks and his wife first opened the store in Rugby during the Great Depression in the 1920s.
"The state workers were coming in, and he thought it was a good business move to throw something up to service the state workers while they were here, "Brooks' great-granddaughter Tiffany Terry said. "So, the store was never meant as a permanent fixture."
But, here we are nearly a century later, and Terry is running the store for a new generation of customers who can still feel connected to the past when they walk in the door.
"People can come back, and I think they appreciate coming into an old store and being like 'I remember this as a child,'" Terry said about some of the antique toys and tools on the shelves. "Being able to show the younger generations what life was really like is really neat."
Most of the regular customers are hunters and farmers, so Terry said she wanted to make sure the food she served was affordable but hearty.
"I didn't want the guys leaving and saying 'she has the thinnest bologna sandwich and she charges way too much.' So, I kind of went overboard and made the bologna sandwich really thick," she said.
The fried bologna sandwich was voted the best in the area.
"Every time I make one I think, 'I hope this is the best bologna sandwich they've ever eaten,'" Terry said.
The food might be what brings customers in, but it's the people and the stories that bring them back.
Terry said she views the store as her ministry and prayers over her customers that they feel welcome when they walk through the front door.