WILLIAMSBURG, Mo. - Walking into Crane's Country Store is like walking into Callaway County's past.
Crane's has been around since 1899 and moved to its current location on Old U.S. 40 in 1926.
When visitors walk inside, they are immediately surrounded by history. Old signs, including an old Mobil one, help create that impression throughout the store.
Fourth-generation owner David Crane can recount many of the different types of people who walk in and out of the general store.
"You get people off the interstate who are looking for a place to go to the bathroom and get gas," he said. "When they come in, we hope that they are amazed that there's still a functioning general store, and we tell them about our history. The other day I was talking to a guy from Ontario, Canada, and someone from Maine and people who just drive through and stop and find us."
Crane said even Batman was one of the many tourists who made a stop in his store.
"One year at William Woods, they had Val Kilmer speak for their commencement, and he came and stopped at our museum and signed a picture for my mom," he said.
Crane tries to help people with local information when visiting the area.
"You try to be the community center and the source of information," he said. "I went to Westminster, and I know what's offered in Fulton and the things you can do in Callaway County. So when people ask me, 'Oh, what can I do around here?' I tell them everything."
Crane's 83-year-old father, Joe Crane, can regularly be found sitting in a chair by the checkout counter.
"It's a family operation, and there's very few general stores left," Joe Crane said. "General stores were where people came together on Saturday nights. They were the community gathering place, but that's all changed."
Just to the left of Joe Crane's chair in the center of the store, you can see part of that tradition still going strong. There's a group of five men sitting in a circle, chatting the day away. They are surrounded by various knick-knacks from different eras of Callaway County, including old-school rubber football helmets.
"Do you think they had concussions back then?" one of them asked ironically.
This group meets every Thursday at lunch time, and they call themselves The Liar's Club.
"We talk about what we remember," Jim Blacklock said. "And what we don't remember, we make up."
Many of the men have been coming to Crane's nearly their whole lives.
"This is the cultural center," Blacklock said.
One of the group's members, Stan Putthoff, said he brings his 12-year-old grandson to Crane's on a yearly basis.
"My grandson lives in Milwaukee, and he comes to spends a week with us every summer, and I take him fishing," Putthoff said. "We will always come out and have lunch here at Crane's Store."
Putthoff said his grandson has come to visit for the past five years.
"The first thing he asks me is, 'When are we going to Crane's?' because this is the best place to come in, get a sandwich, get a soda, get a bag of chips," Putthoff said. "I'm comfortable with bringing my grandson here. I know that it's a safe place and that the conversation is going to be appropriate for a 12-year-old."
Everyone in the circle is holding a sandwich. Crane's has been making sandwiches for more than 60 years, and its "one meat, one cheese" sandwiches are well-known in the area.
"It used to be one-meat, one-cheese for a dollar from the '50s until about the mid (20)00s, and finally the cost of beef, chicken and bread increased so we had to go up to $2," David Crane said.
Blacklock added, "You see a lot of commercial truck drivers come in here and grab their sandwich and go."
Blacklock said Crane's will get a number of visitors amazed a general store like this still exists. Sometimes people will ask to have their picture taken.
"We had one woman come up to us and say, 'Well, we really don't have stuff like this in California,'" he said. "I asked, 'Are we really that much different?' We're nothing special, but we are."
Crane's County Store is located at 10675 Old U.S. 40, Williamsburg. Visit it online at cranes-country-store.com.