The Old Country Store of Lorman, Mississippi - in Business

Old Country store, April 29, 2019 (Moto G5 digital file)

In the previous article, I posted pictures from the 1980s and 1990s of the Old Country Store in Lorman, Mississippi. Fast forward many years to 2019, and the Old Country Store Restaurant serves southern cuisine. My friends and I ate there on a Thursday in May of 2019 and had an excellent luncheon (big BBQ ribs!!). I did not try the famous fried chicken, but my friends attested to its culinary qualities and kilocalories.

These black and white frames are from Kodak Panatomic-X film exposed with the 50mm Distagon lens on my Hasselblad 501CM camera. The 50mm lens on the square format gives a similar view as a 27mm lens on 35mm, so in effect a wide-angle view. Click any frame to expand the view. I braced the camera body on a ladder or shelves and took long exposures.

The old adding machines and cash registers are gone, but I was surprised to see the remnants of an IBM punch card machine in the room with the faded business cards stapled to the wall. Some of you old-timers may recall when 80-character punch cards were used to submit programs and data to mainframe computers. When I learned FORTRAN programming in the 1970s, I used punch cards.

Currently unused church, McDonald Road, Lorman, Mississippi

There is not much left to the community of Lorman, My friend, Martha, told me that early in the 20th century, there were stores, a post office, and a rail junction. Her uncle used oxen to bring timber to the junction. Now it is all gone. But the Old Country Store is the spot of good news. This is a success story, a part of our cultural heritage still in use. Try the lunch there! And take a camera.

From the Archives: the Lorman Country Store, Lorman, Mississippi

Lorman Country Store, Leica M3, 50mm ƒ/2.8 Elmar lens, Kodachrome film

Lorman is a small town - really just a hamlet - south of Port Gibson on US 61. Lorman was known for its old-fashioned country store, which had been in continuous operation from 1875 until 1996. In the past, US 61 passed directly in front of the store. Today, the new 4-lane road is a short distance to the east, and the old store is not subjected to heavy traffic right in front.

Waiting for a ride, 1990 (Olympus Zuiko 35mm shift lens)

In the past, the store housed a post office and sold all the necessities needed by a small farming community. By the mid-1980s, the store was still open, but most visitors may have come to see the museum of antiques, old adding machines, books, and stuff. It was pretty interesting. But finally it happened, bad news: in March of 1996, the Vicksburg Post announced that the store had been sold and that all the contents would be disposed at auction. My photographer friend and I drove to Lorman a day or two before the auction. The proprietor generously let us take pictures inside during its last day of operation.

The photographs are all from Kodachrome film exposed with a Nikon F3 camera with 50mm ƒ/1.8 Nikkor AiS lens. In the interior, I used a Vivitar flash with a cardboard diffuser.

The frames above are from Kodak Tri-X Professional film (the ISO 320 emulsion) taken with my Fuji GW690II camera with 90mm ƒ/3.5 lens (the "Texas Leica"). I used a tripod. A wider-angle lens would have been useful, but I did not have one at the time for 120-size film.

This has been a quick look at the Old Country Store. As of 2019, it houses a restaurant - photographs to follow.