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Nagy’s Grocery

Nagy's Grocery about 1950
Nagy’s Grocery about 1950, Cherry Tree Bottom.
Alex Nagy Sr. and Jr.
Alex Nagy Sr. and Jr.

Alex Nagy Senior seemed loved by all and a pleasure to do business with. One time, however, my dad, C.B. McCormack, haggled with Mr. Nagy over how much fat there was on the meat and Mr. Nagy took Dad into the refrigerator and said: “Now you see this, I have to pay for all that fat!.” Every Nagy customer got a free holiday cake at Christmas time. Ann Crawly, from Monaville, put everyone at ease as she totaled up our purchases on the cash register. The ingenious application of grease on the front windows at Halloween made the candle wax (in lieu of soaping the windows) was effective against us Halloween hoodlums. Mr. Nagy had outsmarted us.

Nagy’s Grocery was also our school bus stop. It was a place that gave forum for gossip, flirting, and learning more about the birds and bees. A popular, catchy rhyme was “Dum, de Dum Dum, PREAGNET!” Of course this inspiration came from the popular TV series called” Dragnet.” We were all shocked to learn one morning that the ambulance at the Myrtle Herald residence (just two doors from the bus stop) was in response to a self-inflicted gun wound. Sometimes I would arrive just in time for the bus in order to avoid a girl who had the fortitude to call me on the phone and ask me to go on a “Dutch date” to the theatre. She was certainly ahead of her time.

Buddy Linville would send me to Nagy’s to get a nickels’ worth of baloney. Using his thumb and index finger, he would show me how thick he wanted it cut. “Ma” Linville with her pipe and “Pa” Linville with his mule and sled bring back reflections of “Dog patch” characters. Kids loved to hang out with “Ma” Linville, if only to play with reoccurring new litters of kittens. Sometimes we would just sit in the porch swing with “Ma.” Another treat was to ride on the mule drawn sled as “Pa” Linville drove his sled to Whites Addition to work on his garden. We thought it was real neat when Buddy Linville hung a sheet on our garage. After it was dark, he showed a movie for the large gathering of kids. I don’t even remember what the move was about or whether it had sound.

25 thoughts on “Nagy’s Grocery”

    1. There aren’t very many of us Cherry Tree people left to respond, Trevor. Please identify how you fit into the Nagy family. The Nagy family and the store was an important part of Cherry Tree history.

        1. I’m sorry to hear about Philip, Trevor. He gave me a few pictures to add to the web site and had planned to contribute some more but for some reason didn’t get to do that.

          1. Bob Piros keeps track of the site. I created the site to preserve once upon a time Cherry Tree -once a thriving little community.

        2. Does anyone remember a Julie Nagy back around 1966 or so I was living there with grandma Elsie while my dad frank was overseas in the air force

          1. Hello Deborah, my e-mail is
            mountain46@earthlink.net.
            I’m your Dad’s cousin. There
            is a photo of your Dad on a horse
            in the Cherry Tree Gallery on the
            first page.
            I recall Julie as being the only daughter.
            There were 3 boys in the Nagy family.
            I left C.T. in 1964.

          2. Deborah, Julia is now
            Julia Noone, she posted a comment
            on the Cherry Tree Memories page
            in January 2018.

    2. We also went to Nagys . I think i remember a son by the name of David or am i wrong!!! He was maybe 2 years older than me i am 72 now. Also a brother but his name not sure.

      1. Webb, just wondering where you lived in C.T.
        Also David was born in 1945 & he married
        Gloria Dingess in Sept. 1967.
        He was a School Superintendent in
        Page County,VA.

    1. As a kid I used to hang out at the Linville residence and everyone loved Ma Linville. They moved from Cherry Tree to Whitman Creek a few doors from my Aunt and I visited them a few time while visiting her. Ginny also had a sister named Ethel who was a nurse. Right? Then there was Thelma Mae who I think was a granddaughter. She was a grade or two ahead of me. Thelma Mae was at a high school reunion some years back. I think she was living in Indiana. Do you have any pictures of the Linville family to share? I’ve always wondered about the family as the years have come and gone.

      1. Virginia Gale Frye

        I’ll try to find some pictures. Ethel was a nurse aid. Thelma does live in Indiana.My mamaw passed away about 1953 and papaw around 1966 or 1967.

        1. That will be good, Virginia. BTW, my mother’s name was also Virginia. When you locate any pictures I’ll give you my e-mail address so that you can scan them and attach to a e-mail. What were your grandparents’s names? I only know them as MA & PA.

          1. Virginia Gale Frye

            My Papaw was Everett and mamaw was Rosezena they called he Zena.I still live in Logan, WV.

  1. Bertie Butcher,jr.

    I was friends with the Nagy boys . we used to play baseball together. I remember watching the world series ( yankees and pittsburg) in there home and there grandmother feeding us. Great times

    1. Bertie: I remember when you lived in the house belonging to Willie Gore before you moved across the alley. That lot abutted our backyard. I rescued a duck form the creek bank and submerged a tub in which Diana could the ground. While I was gone to scout camp your Mother told my parents that the duck was keeping her baby awake. Would the baby have been you or a sibling? Anyway, when I came home from scout camp poor Diana was in the refrigerator. My parents tired to be good neighbors. By the way, I did not eat any of Diana duck. 🙂 I remember your grandparents very well. Do you have any pictures of the family or the hosue in which your lived to add to the web site?
      Robert

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