{"id":211254,"date":"2025-04-09T10:46:54","date_gmt":"2025-04-09T14:46:54","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/gardenandgun.com\/?p=211254"},"modified":"2025-04-09T10:46:59","modified_gmt":"2025-04-09T14:46:59","slug":"the-power-of-a-small-town-hardware-shop","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/gardenandgun.com\/articles\/the-power-of-a-small-town-hardware-shop","title":{"rendered":"The Power of a Small-Town Hardware Shop"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>The front of one of my favorite shirts says Small Towner. The thing is, it\u2019s kind of a lie. I\u2019ve never lived in a small town. In fact, I\u2019ve lived most of my life with Uptown Charlotte on the horizon. If the shirt was honest about where I\u2019m really from, it would say something like Suburbanite<em> <\/em>or Neighborhooder. Don\u2019t get me wrong. I love my neighborhood, and I\u2019ve had a good life here in this North Carolina city, but my heart\u2019s always yearned for a smaller place, a slower pace, and a community that feels like family. When I think back, I figure a part of that dream started more than thirty years ago with a trip to <a href=\"https:\/\/www.renfrowhardware.com\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Renfrow Hardware<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n<!-- Promo shortcode start --><div id=\"nlf-1c\" class=\"gg-promo topic-tots\"><div class=\"grid\"><div class=\"left\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/gardenandgun.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/promos\/talk-of-the-south-v1.jpg\" alt=\"stairway\"><\/div><div class=\"right\"><form id=\"nlf-1\" method=\"post\" class=\"form\" action=\"https:\/\/gardenandgun.com\/newsletters\/\"><input type=\"hidden\" name=\"gg_form_submit\" value=\"nlf-1\"><div class=\"hed\">Stay in Touch with <em>G&amp;G<\/em><\/div><div class=\"dek\">Get our weekly Talk of the South newsletter.<\/div><div class=\"action two-items\"><div class=\"input-left\"><input type=\"text\" name=\"email\" class=\"email-input\" value=\"\" placeholder=\"you@example.com\"><input type=\"hidden\" name=\"group_id\" value=\"97139188\"><input type=\"hidden\" name=\"shortcode_form\" value=\"nlf-1\"><input type=\"hidden\" name=\"subscription_384\" value=\"on\"><input type=\"hidden\" name=\"prev_page_id\" value=\"211254\"><\/div><div class=\"gform_footer\"><button class=\"g-recaptcha button button-primary after-email\" data-sitekey=\"6Lc-hRkaAAAAAI84hbB81Jl48pGievR_C_UgHdnY\" data-callback=\"on_submit_nlf_1\" data-action=\"submit\">Sign Up<\/button><script>function on_submit_nlf_1(token) {document.getElementById(\"nlf-1\").submit();}<\/script><\/div><\/div><div class=\"captcha-terms\"><p>This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google <a href=\"https:\/\/policies.google.com\/privacy\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Privacy Policy<\/a> and <a href=\"https:\/\/policies.google.com\/terms\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Terms of Service<\/a> apply.<\/p><\/div><\/form><\/div><\/div><\/div><!-- Promo shortcode end -->\n\n\n\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.instagram.com\/renfrowfarms\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Renfrow Hardware &amp; General Merchandise<\/a> is a 120-year-old store in downtown Matthews, North Carolina\u2014a small town on the outskirts of Charlotte. My mom, an avid gardener, used to take my brother and me there as little kids to look at the seed selections, most of which were housed in big mason jars that lined deep wooden shelves. I remember walking through the old screen door, hearing the slap of it closing behind us. I remember the smell of fertilizer and weathered wood, the way the original floor creaked beneath my feet. I always lost interest in the seeds my mom was showing us\u2014and the drawers of shiny nails, bolts, anchors, and rivets\u2014when I remembered the old Coca-Cola cooler and the chickens clucking in the coop out back. There was always plenty to entertain a kid there. But the main things I think of when I recall those early visits to Renfrow weren\u2019t all the things we could buy. I think of the people.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-large\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1100\" height=\"733\" src=\"https:\/\/gardenandgun.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/04\/Renfrow-EA-Decker-Photography-1100x733.jpg\" alt=\"A hand holds seeds\" class=\"wp-image-211257\" srcset=\"https:\/\/gardenandgun.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/04\/Renfrow-EA-Decker-Photography-1100x733.jpg 1100w, https:\/\/gardenandgun.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/04\/Renfrow-EA-Decker-Photography-300x200.jpg 300w, https:\/\/gardenandgun.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/04\/Renfrow-EA-Decker-Photography-768x512.jpg 768w, https:\/\/gardenandgun.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/04\/Renfrow-EA-Decker-Photography-1600x1067.jpg 1600w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1100px) 100vw, 1100px\" \/><figcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">Seeds at the store.<\/figcaption><figcaption class=\"image-credit\" style=\"text-align:right;\">photo: EA Decker Photography<\/figcaption><div class=\"caption\">Seeds at the store.<\/div><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>Certain places have a feeling, a rush of warmth and peace when you go in them, and it never has to do with the building. We would be in the store only two minutes or less before a friendly face would appear and ask my mom if she\u2019d like any help with the seeds. What I witnessed next was usually a meeting of kindred spirits cloaked in talk of flower varieties and gardening tips. It seemed like a foreign language to me, a black thumb even at five, but before I knew it, we\u2019d be surrounded by a whole group of plant aficionados, only a couple of whom worked at the store. The rest were farmers and gardeners from all around the area it seemed, people like my mom who knew the store would have what they needed. Not only the best supplies, but the camaraderie and advice, too.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-full is-resized\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"600\" height=\"450\" src=\"https:\/\/gardenandgun.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/04\/front-counter.jpg\" alt=\"People gather at the front counter of a store\" class=\"wp-image-211258\" style=\"width:840px;height:auto\" srcset=\"https:\/\/gardenandgun.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/04\/front-counter.jpg 600w, https:\/\/gardenandgun.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/04\/front-counter-300x225.jpg 300w, https:\/\/gardenandgun.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/04\/front-counter-278x209.jpg 278w, https:\/\/gardenandgun.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/04\/front-counter-570x428.jpg 570w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 600px) 100vw, 600px\" \/><figcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">Chatting at the front counter.<\/figcaption><figcaption class=\"image-credit\" style=\"text-align:right;\">photo: courtesy of Renfrow Hardware<\/figcaption><div class=\"caption\">Chatting at the front counter.<\/div><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>Those trips to Renfrow shaped my view of what life was like in a small town, an education in the value of spontaneous community and the feeling of instant belonging\u2014even in a place I visited only a few times each year. Even so, those early visits never felt like an introduction to town life, but rather a return to a familiar place after having spent a long time away. That might seem like a strange statement for a city girl to make, but here\u2019s the thing\u2014my family comes from tiny West Virginia coal towns; a blink-and-you\u2019ll-miss-it farming community near Burlington, North Carolina; and a little sound-side town outside New York City where my family owned a large nursery. I\u2019ve always believed that we carry our ancestors\u2019 lives within our own.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The other weekend, I told my kids we were going to Renfrow because I needed to pick up some local honey. It\u2019s true, I needed the honey, but really I just needed to go. I wanted to walk across those old floors and find something new, but I also wanted to feel the history of the place, a place I feel a part of.&nbsp;<\/p><div id=\"div-gpt-ad-2744995\" class=\"ad-container in-line-ad mobile inContent\" data-ad-size-mapping=\"inContent\" data-ad-path=\"\/68000349\/in-between-modules\" data-ad-sizes=\"[ [336, 280], [300, 250], [300, 50] ]\" data-ad-channel=\"\" data-ad-type=\"In-between Modules\" data-page-terms=\"flagged\"><\/div>\n<div id=\"div-gpt-ad-5506828\" class=\"ad-container in-line-ad tablet inContent\" data-ad-size-mapping=\"inContent\" data-ad-path=\"\/68000349\/in-between-modules\" data-ad-sizes=\"[ [336, 280], [300, 250], [300, 50] ]\" data-ad-channel=\"\" data-ad-type=\"In-between Modules\" data-page-terms=\"flagged\"><\/div>\n<div id=\"div-gpt-ad-4420760\" class=\"ad-container in-line-ad desktop inContent\" data-ad-size-mapping=\"inContent\" data-ad-path=\"\/68000349\/in-between-modules\" data-ad-sizes=\"[ [336, 280], [300, 250], [300, 50] ]\" data-ad-channel=\"\" data-ad-type=\"In-between Modules\" data-page-terms=\"flagged\"><\/div>\n\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-full\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"600\" height=\"390\" src=\"https:\/\/gardenandgun.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/04\/storefront.jpg\" alt=\"The front of a hardware store\" class=\"wp-image-211259\" srcset=\"https:\/\/gardenandgun.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/04\/storefront.jpg 600w, https:\/\/gardenandgun.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/04\/storefront-300x195.jpg 300w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 600px) 100vw, 600px\" \/><figcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">The storefront.<\/figcaption><figcaption class=\"image-credit\" style=\"text-align:right;\">photo: EA Decker Photography<\/figcaption><div class=\"caption\">The storefront.<\/div><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>I let my kids browse the aisles, pick out some seeds, and chat with their own kindred spirits\u2014another set of siblings looking to plant a winter garden. I stopped to read an old newspaper article framed at the end of one of the aisles, about how the Renfrow family\u2019s cotton gin operation at the hardware store was changing with the advent of horseless carriages. The sentiments were familiar. My grandpa used to tell me how he helped his own grandpa, a sharecropper, load his cotton in a carriage to take to their local gin.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Right as I was finishing my read, an older man stopped and looked over my shoulder. \u201cWasn\u2019t that long ago,\u201d he commented, and we got to talking about where his people were from and about our shared love for ancestry. A few of his stories involved the store, which he\u2019d been visiting since the late forties. I asked him to tell me more about the history of Renfrow.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The details are a little fuzzy, but the store dates to around 1900, when a mining engineer, Thomas Jefferson \u201cCaptain\u201d Renfrow, opened it not far from the gold mine he also operated. The mine was successful, and with his earnings, Renfrow purchased farmland and later became a cotton ginner and broker. Because of its convenient location, the store became a central meeting place for farmers to buy supplies and gin their cotton and for families to purchase groceries, clothing, and seeds. For the next eight decades, the Renfrow family owned and operated it. In 1984, the family sold it to a friend, David Blackley, who has lovingly cared for the store to today.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>At the end of our recent trip, I took a few pictures of my kids with their sodas and seeds in front of the old Coca-Cola cooler, and then snapped a few shots of the store. On the way home, as my kids chattered about the new friends they\u2019d made and the seeds they\u2019d purchased, I was thinking about the book I was writing called <em>Sing Me Home to Carolina<\/em>, a book set in a small, quirky Carolina town. Suddenly, I knew that the heart of the fictional<strong> <\/strong>town had to be the hardware store, just like the hardware store that had always captured my heart.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Maybe I\u2019ll always live in the city. Maybe I\u2019ll never uproot and move to a place where my family can walk to school or to the library, but I realized as I was driving home that day that I didn\u2019t need to live in a small town to be a small-towner. Every time I visit Renfrow Hardware, I already know I belong.<br><\/p><div id=\"div-gpt-ad-2847901\" class=\"ad-container in-line-ad mobile inContent\" data-ad-size-mapping=\"inContent\" data-ad-path=\"\/68000349\/in-between-modules\" data-ad-sizes=\"[ [336, 280], [300, 250], [300, 50] ]\" data-ad-channel=\"\" data-ad-type=\"In-between Modules\" data-page-terms=\"flagged\"><\/div>\n<div id=\"div-gpt-ad-8467054\" class=\"ad-container in-line-ad tablet inContent\" data-ad-size-mapping=\"inContent\" data-ad-path=\"\/68000349\/in-between-modules\" data-ad-sizes=\"[ [336, 280], [300, 250], [300, 50] ]\" data-ad-channel=\"\" data-ad-type=\"In-between Modules\" data-page-terms=\"flagged\"><\/div>\n<div id=\"div-gpt-ad-1225643\" class=\"ad-container in-line-ad desktop inContent\" data-ad-size-mapping=\"inContent\" data-ad-path=\"\/68000349\/in-between-modules\" data-ad-sizes=\"[ [336, 280], [300, 250], [300, 50] ]\" data-ad-channel=\"\" data-ad-type=\"In-between Modules\" data-page-terms=\"flagged\"><\/div>\n\n\n\n\n<hr class=\"wp-block-separator has-alpha-channel-opacity\"\/>\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-image\">\n<figure class=\"alignright size-large is-resized\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1000\" height=\"1500\" src=\"https:\/\/gardenandgun.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/04\/0-733x1100.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-211261\" style=\"width:163px;height:auto\" srcset=\"https:\/\/gardenandgun.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/04\/0-733x1100.jpg 733w, https:\/\/gardenandgun.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/04\/0-200x300.jpg 200w, https:\/\/gardenandgun.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/04\/0-768x1152.jpg 768w, https:\/\/gardenandgun.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/04\/0-800x1200.jpg 800w, https:\/\/gardenandgun.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/04\/0.jpg 1000w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1000px) 100vw, 1000px\" \/><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n<p>Joy Callaway lives in Charlotte, North Carolina, with her family. She is the international bestselling author of <em><a href=\"https:\/\/bookshop.org\/a\/1939\/9781400244331\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">The Star of Camp Greene<\/a><\/em>, <em><a href=\"https:\/\/bookshop.org\/a\/1939\/9781400244317\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">What the Mountains Remember<\/a><\/em>, <em><a href=\"https:\/\/bookshop.org\/a\/1939\/9781400234400\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">All the Pretty Places<\/a><\/em>, <em><a href=\"https:\/\/bookshop.org\/a\/1939\/9781400234370\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">The Grand Design<\/a><\/em>, <em><a href=\"https:\/\/bookshop.org\/a\/1939\/9780062391643\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Secret Sisters<\/a><\/em>, and <em><a href=\"https:\/\/bookshop.org\/a\/1939\/9780062391612\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">The Fifth Avenue Artist Society<\/a><\/em>. Her forthcoming book, <em><a href=\"https:\/\/bookshop.org\/a\/1939\/9798892422475\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Sing Me Home to Carolina<\/a><\/em>, comes out June 10 and was partially inspired by Renfrow Hardware.<br><br><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Garden &amp; Gun<em>&nbsp;has an affiliate partnership with&nbsp;<\/em><a href=\"https:\/\/bookshop.org\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\"><em>bookshop.org<\/em><\/a><em>&nbsp;and may receive a portion of sales when a reader clicks to buy a book.<\/em><\/p>\n<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>How Renfrow Hardware in Matthews, North Carolina, shaped one novelist\u2019s stories<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":93,"featured_media":211256,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"apple_news_api_created_at":"2025-04-09T14:46:58Z","apple_news_api_id":"818d9d4b-d6ab-402a-bd87-1f62e9679965","apple_news_api_modified_at":"2025-04-09T14:47:05Z","apple_news_api_revision":"AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA==","apple_news_api_share_url":"https:\/\/apple.news\/AgY2dS9arQCq9hx9i6WeZZQ","apple_news_cover_media_provider":"image","apple_news_coverimage":0,"apple_news_coverimage_caption":"","apple_news_cover_video_id":0,"apple_news_cover_video_url":"","apple_news_cover_embedwebvideo_url":"","apple_news_is_hidden":"","apple_news_is_paid":"","apple_news_is_preview":"","apple_news_is_sponsored":"","apple_news_maturity_rating":"","apple_news_metadata":"\"\"","apple_news_pullquote":"","apple_news_pullquote_position":"","apple_news_slug":"","apple_news_sections":[],"apple_news_suppress_video_url":false,"apple_news_use_image_component":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1784],"tags":[29653,74,29991,30280],"authors":[30552],"issue":[],"recipe-type":[],"class_list":["post-211254","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-arts-and-culture","tag-art","tag-books","tag-culture","tag-whats-new","authors-joy-callaway"],"acf":[],"apple_news_notices":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO Premium plugin v25.4 (Yoast SEO v25.4) - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>The Power of a Small-Town Hardware Shop &#8211; Garden &amp; Gun<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"How Renfrow Hardware in Matthews, North Carolina, shaped one novelist\u2019s stories\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/gardenandgun.com\/articles\/the-power-of-a-small-town-hardware-shop\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"The Power of a Small-Town Hardware Shop\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"How Renfrow Hardware in Matthews, North Carolina, shaped one novelist\u2019s stories\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/gardenandgun.com\/articles\/the-power-of-a-small-town-hardware-shop\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Garden &amp; Gun\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/gardenandgun\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2025-04-09T14:46:54+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2025-04-09T14:46:59+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/gardenandgun.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/04\/Eighties-1-1600x932.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"1600\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"932\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Gabriela Gomez-Misserian\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@gardenandgun\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:site\" content=\"@gardenandgun\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/gardenandgun.com\/articles\/the-power-of-a-small-town-hardware-shop\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/gardenandgun.com\/articles\/the-power-of-a-small-town-hardware-shop\/\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"Gabriela Gomez-Misserian\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/gardenandgun.com\/#\/schema\/person\/e6cca540eec31439cf98cf9427370a13\"},\"headline\":\"The Power of a Small-Town Hardware Shop\",\"datePublished\":\"2025-04-09T14:46:54+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2025-04-09T14:46:59+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/gardenandgun.com\/articles\/the-power-of-a-small-town-hardware-shop\/\"},\"wordCount\":1206,\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/gardenandgun.com\/#organization\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/gardenandgun.com\/articles\/the-power-of-a-small-town-hardware-shop\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/gardenandgun.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/04\/Eighties-1.jpg\",\"keywords\":[\"Art\",\"Books\",\"culture\",\"What&#039;s New\"],\"articleSection\":[\"Arts &amp; 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