Rattler’s Grocery Store: the center of the universe

The Poplar Bluff museums have tales about us, our family and our history. I want to tell you some of those tales found within their museum walls.

You can tell when you discover the center of the universe. That’s the feeling you get when you walk into the Rattler Grocery store. It is located in the cultural center of the Garfield Street Historic District. Across the street, is the formerly segregated Wheatley School, as well as the historic Mt. Pleasant Church.

Rattler’s Grocery Store is run by the father-son team of Rex Rattler and Rex Jr. Rattler carried on the tradition from his father Taft Rattler. Before his family, the store was called Pete and Flora’s Grocery, and earlier known as Carter’s grocery.

This African American-owned business goes back almost 100 years in the same location. You can feel it when you walk in the store. The cliché “everyone knows your name” is true here. Everyone knows your father and grandfather too.

It is still run like a neighborhood store that operates on a handshake. There’s a barber chair in the back with an antique cash register and radio. Patrons run a tab and can “sit a spell” while Rex prepares a meal for you in the back room deli. No one is in a hurry.

Rex has a business degree but he stated, “I wish I had the opportunity to ask my father how he did certain things. Dad had that practical application of wisdom that you just cannot find in a textbook. He knew things they didn’t teach in school.”

The store has always provided necessities for the local community during good times and bad.

It was a candy store for the school kids and provided refreshments after church. The small store supports the cultural events occurring across the street at the Wheatley School and is still the center of the universe for the neighborhood.

Historic photographs of Carter’s Grocery, Pete and Flora’s Grocery and Rattler’s Grocery are on display at the Wheatley Historical Preservation Association Museum. The museum is located at the Wheatley School at 921 Garfield. It is open by appointment by contacting Rattler across the street at Rattler’s Grocery 573-872-9090. Tell them Mike sent you.

Mike Shane is a veteran, Poplar Bluff resident and board member for the Poplar Bluff Museum.