Echoes From The Attic and Poems, Jack Bahm Cash Store, Tangipahoa Parish, Louisiana
Submitted to the USGenWeb Archives by Don Johnson, Feb. 2001
Typed by Belford Carver
Written by by Edna F. Campbell
Copyrighted by Edna F. Campbell
With special thanks to her family for permission to use her works.

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OLD STORE PASSES ON TO NEW HANDS

"There definitely will not be any changes in the Jack Bahm Cash Store," said Billy 
Lipscomb, who took over ownership Monday of the old-fashioned store on North Cate 
Street.  Lipscomb purchased Bahm's store for $26,000.  Lipscomb, who said he 
clerked for Bahm from the time he was 13 through 23, said he is going to keep the 
store just like it is.  He wouldn't have it any other way.

"Mr. Bahm and I have always been good friends.  In fact, he has known me since I 
was born, and I often came into the store while I was working out of town to chat 
with him.  He is a most interesting person and remembers everything.  Taking over 
the store is a challenge.  It is an attraction.  People come in just to look 
around."

Lipscomb, a native of Hammond, is married to the former Berenda Thomas, and they 
are the parents of two children, Leslie, 10 and Lyndra, 7.  Both Mr. and Mrs. 
Lipscomb graduated from high school in Hammond in 1959.  Lipscomb's late father, 
Willie Lipscomb, was an employee of the Hammond Post Office.  His grandfather was 
C. W. Lipscomb.

Bahm, who opened the store in 1919, said he is still going to hang around.  "I am 
going to give advice; you know, they say free advice is not much, but I'll do what 
I can.  Time has caught up with me; I am now 84 yearsold.  I enjoy living and hope 
to keep on.  I'll hold on to my desk and typewriter and help any way that I can." 
Bahm will be the counselor for the firm for the rest of his life, if he chooses, 
said Lipscomb.

Time has stood still for the veteran grocer.  He started his business as a fancy 
grocery at 109 N. Cate.  The building was originally an old warehouse for an 
adjoining store.  Although all of the markets around him installed new fixtures 
and changed to modern methods, Bahm went merrily on his way, content with the old 
way.

In the grocery building, with a floor space of 36 by 118 feet, he spent the span 
of his working years behind the same counter and, for the most part, doing a large 
part of the work.  In recent years he has added more employees.

During the depression years Bahm took a drastic step by dropping all credit 
customers and opening the store on a strictly cash basis.  He recalls when he 
would go to New Orleans to purchase his merchandise and have it all shipped to 
Hammond by rail.  He keeps in his files old freight bills and invoices on the 
opening days of his store.  He has catered to customers of three or four 
generations.

Scattered at random in the one-room space are items of varied use.  Among these 
are old-time coffee mills and grinders for customers who prefer preparing their 
own blends.  There are wash boards, tin stoves, coal oil lamps and many other 
almost outmoded pieces hung among a collection of harnesses, saddles, rakes, hoes, 
brooms, dog chains, and stake-out chains.  Placed along the aisle are plow tools, 
harrows, roofing, barbed wire and nails.  Not to be omitted are garden and flower 
seeds, a drawing card for numerous customers through generations.

(From ECHOES FROM THE ATTIC, VII, 1973, by Edna Campbell)

(Pic of inside the store)

(See also Part III "Turn Back on New Things, Time Stands Still for Veteran 
Storekeeper" and VIII "Always Fought for City" for other articles on Jack Bahm's 
store.)