Hardware Store Taps Beat Of Narcoossee Life September 4, 1985|By Katherine Long of The Sentinel Staff NARCOOSSEE — Mama Cat is asleep on top of a stack of newspapers resting on a cast-iron stove. Rosie LaSure is behind the counter, chatting with a customer. Friends and neighbors are sitting on chairs or Kentucky milk cans, talking about this and that and life in Narcoossee. Its a typical working day at Narcoossee Hardware, a rambling tin-roofed building with its front doors open and music playing on the radio. There are hats strung on a long rope from the front of the store to the back, wild shiners swimming in a bubbling tank, aspirin and cosmetics behind the counter, toys on one shelf, plastic worms on another. Feed and tack, watches, alarm clocks, pliers, insect repellent, machinery belts, fencing, dog collars, a taxidermy service -- the store is packed with a hodgepodge of merchandise. Its an accumulation of -- well, youve got to have about everything, Mrs. LaSure said. I carry what the traffic calls for, what people dont want to run into St. Cloud for. In 1948, the building on State Road 15 was one of the centers of Narcoossee life, housing the post office in the back and groceries in front. Since then, chain convenience stores and other businesses have invaded the little community, but Narcoossee Hardware still holds its own as a focal point for community life. Mrs. LaSure, 49, has worked behind the counter for the past eight years, since she and her husband, Charlie, moved out of fast-growing Orlando to the small unincorporated community northeast of St. Cloud. Their original intentions were to buy just a house. They wound up buying the store across the street as well. Its like a regular little country store atmosphere, Mrs. LaSure said. People sit and talk, and discuss world events. Charlie LaSure often opens the store up at 6 a.m. before heading off to work for the Orlando Utilities Commission. Daughter, Kelly, 21, also works at the store. The family cat, Mama Cat -- who earned her name for having one litter of kittens after another -- makes herself at home in the store despite human traffic. Mrs. Lasure, who is president of the Narcoossee Womens Club, has adopted the community in more ways than one. She has a collection of photos of Narcoossee in the early 1900s, when it was served by a steamboat that crossed East Lake Tohopekaliga and a railroad, the Sugar Line, which ran from St. Cloud. The small, thriving community had its own school house, a saw mill, and perhaps as many as five stores. Pineapples, sugar cane and lumber, all were grown or harvested in the area by the English people who settled there, Mrs. LaSure said. Narcoossee also had the smallest active chamber of commerce in the United States, a distinction which was honored in the Guinness Book of World Records, Mrs. LaSure said. From its beginning in 1923 until it faded into inactivity in the 1970s, the Narcoossee chamber had only a handful of members, who gathered regularly to share a tureen dinner complemented by a side dish of swamp cabbage. An acknowledged history buff, Mrs. LaSure knows all this because she keeps the chamber records. Now, the growth that drove she and her husband away from Orlando is beginning to change Narcoossee. It used to be, after 9 or 10 at night, there would be no traffic. Seems like there are just more people now. You cant stop growth. And there is talk of incorporating Narcoossee. Some people say, Were going to become incorporated, and youre going to be mayor. But I dont really think Id like to be mayor.
Posted on: Sun, 21 Sep 2014 18:41:06 +0000
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