If you go back to the April edition of Today in Mississippi, you will find my April Fool’s Day story about Jack Elliott’s “Moon Man of Kilgore Hills.”
Although we never found the Moon Man while we were driving around the backroads of Clay County that day, we did run across something else I found interesting — the Tiny Store at the Hodge Homestead.
We were wrapping up our tour of the hills near Enon Church (listed on Google as being in Cedarbluff, MS if that helps) when just around the next curve, Jack pulled over to a little building that looks like someone may have built for the kids to stay in while they waited for the school bus. But Jack told me, “No. This is the Tiny Store.”
The Tiny Store is an application of the old saying, “which came first, the chicken or egg.” Only in this case the timeline is clear. Treva Hodge got some chickens several years ago. Shortly thereafter came the eggs. Then by necessity came the Tiny Store, so Treva could have a place to sell her eggs. The only problem — it was impractical to sit out there all day waiting for the occasional customer to come along. So, Treva implemented the honor system. You get the number of eggs you want out of the egg basket, and then you put the amount listed on the price list in the honor box.
There are other items in the Tiny Store. Hand-crafted bread bowls and some yard sale type things. Same deal. On your honor, you pay the price marked and take it home with you.
Another business I ran across that uses the honor system is Sciples Mill in Kemper County. Back in his day, Edward Sciple took every Saturday and all of hunting season off. The rest of the work week he was at the mill. When he was there, he could take care of customers who came along to buy a bag of corn meal, grits, or flour.
But now that his son Eddie Sciple is running the mill, it’s just flip-flopped. Eddie likes to keep sporadic hours during the week but puts in a hard day grinding corn every Saturday morning. But in either case, there would be long stretches when no one would be at the mill to help people who dropped by to buy something. So, Edward instituted the honor system. He stocked a long wooden box just outside the door with all sorts of his grist mill products and then put a cigar box in it for customers to leave the amount owed.
I asked Edward one time if the honor system worked. He said, “Yeah. Because I never keep up with what I put out there to sell in the first place.”
Honesty is the best policy, I’ve been told. And in a few cases, it frees up your weekends and gives you more time during hunting season.
