Posted: Sunday, December 7, 2008 12:00 am
When the old Harlan Store came up for sale in 1998, Jim Ridenour jumped at the chance to buy the property and building.
"I thought this would be a great place to live after retirement," he said. "My name's still on my bedroom wall upstairs."
Ridenour, 71, grew up in Harlan. The store was his childhood home, and it included a gas station and a post office. . He left after graduating from Eddyville High School, went into the Navy and then lived in Albany for three years. "I came back because of relatives and friends that live here."
The store, situated at the "Harlan T" intersection, used to be near the heart of the Coast Range community, just west of the school and community hall, and just north of the largest local mill.
Now the old building is just home once again, but the interior still looks like a mercantile, complete with a cash register, old tobacco cans and candy boxes on the shelves.
Built in 1926, the store operated into the 1970s. Ridenour's family sold it after he left the area, after his parents died.
The local son's second stint in Harlan has even included romance. Eleven years ago, divorced, he went to a reunion at Eddyville and hit it off with a former classmate, Shirley Hosler. Now she's Shirley Ridenour.
"We dated our sophomore year in high school. We were in the same class, and our class at graduation had eight (students)," Jim Ridenour said.
Like many locals, the two like the peace and quiet in Harlan. They're not big fans of the rain during the cold weather, but that's life in the Coast Range.
"I don't want to go back to town," Ridenour said. "Someday I'll have to because of my health or something like that."
Kyle Odegard