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Show r Before she could say her in her Oct wu to count ABCs, family's grocery change learning Brittainy score. Sitting in her grandfather's lap between the candy counter and cash register; she carefully would place each coin in his wrinkled hand voice, declare "23, 30, 73, $1. and, in a childlike sing-son- g "You had to count it bock perfect," recalls Brittainy, now 13 and a. cashier at Ott's Grocery in eastern Kentucky. "Pawpaw part-rim- e wanted both me and my sister to know how, I guess, so we could help him in the store someday." Brittainy represents the fifth generation in a family owned and operated business that spans at least 120 years and stands along Highway 80 as die steady hub of die small community known as Swiss Colony about six miles west of London, Ky. This store is a landmark A family groceiy for 5 generations by MARTA W. ALDRICH Fapft American Profile Oct's Grocery in a small white frame hnlMing, amrinues to thrive; brimming with groceries, styptics, conversation, and memories. "Theyve raised most peoples children around here," says Arvel Reed, who runs a local auto salvage yard and comes in twice a day for a "bull session and a cup of coffee." "Its a good place to loa" adds Kenneth Bender; 70, who was bom a half mile away and remembers buying sugar and mill flour at Otts as a child. Over the years, Ott's Grocery has served as a feed shop, hardware store, post office, and unofficial information centre. It was the place you went to hove your baby weighed on the store scales, your dry's collar engraved or; if you were a child, to trade in your empty pop bottles for a few extra pennies. You could buy a fishing license, gingham doth, a pair of boots, or a cold bottle of pop. It also was a good place to talk about hunting, politics, Kentucky basketball, or last Sundays sermon. Surviving three moves, the current store building opened in 1932 and has watched Highway 80 go from a dire toad to gravel and now fburlane blacktop. "This store is a landmark around here," says Beverly Bender, who runs the business today with her brother; Rick Ott, and their mother; Jean Oct. Everybody knows where Ore's Grocery ia." founded the store in about Beverly and Ricks 1881 soon after immigrating from Switzerland. Paul Ott had been a silk weaver in the old country, but he and wife Elesa opted to open a grocery and dry goods store here as Swire Colony became a haven for other immigrants. Locals called them Vattie and Muttie, which is Swiss for father and mother. great-grandpare- |