In my youthful outlook, the bucket of Ralston breakfast cereal served to six hungry kids on winter mornings always had a granular resemblance to the black barrel of animal feed in our family's garage.
Our acreage menagerie was nearly a food chain. At one time or another, we were feeding horses, cows, dogs, hamsters, gerbils, rabbits, chickens and even a wayward goat a sister named Zeppelin.
We bought our feed mostly at Meiser's Feed Store, on east Tecumseh Road. We were going there anyway to get eggs straight from Wilbert and Bertha's chicken houses.
The Meiser chickens were king from 1957 to 1983 when they were sold. The feed store, opened in August of 1968, stayed open but will close its doors for good Saturday. Brothers David and Wayne Meiser and their cousin Jerry and other family members operated the store for 40 years.
"We've enjoyed our customers but we're just wore out," says Wayne. Those loyal customers are not taking it lightly. Two and three generations of families have bought feed and seed, hay, tack, baling wire, veterinary supplies and other necessities.
"We had one say they're going to hire a lawyer to make us stay open," says Wayne.
Three factors figure into the store's closing. The brothers, both in their 60s, want to enjoy some years of good health while they can; fuel prices have made it more costly for customers to travel to the store and for them to buy goods; and the county's rapid development.
Cleveland County's cattle producers are few and far between. Land that once was grazed by cattle has been transformed into rooftops. New homes surround the family's quarter section of land and more are coming. Where once they sold two truckloads of baling wire, they now can't sell two pallets a year.
"We're just wore out, too," said David. "It's a lot of manual labor and we're not sure how much longer we can do it.
"We're going to move some fences and clean the place up. We'll keep running cattle on the land but we won't be selling feed."
At one time, Wilbert or "W.C." ran more than 10,000 chickens. David got out of high school early to deliver eggs to grocery stores, hospitals, restaurants and boarding houses. The feed store was a separate operation.
In their egg-selling days, work begin about 5:30 a.m., seven days a week. The chickens had to be fed twice a day and water troughs cleaned and disinfected in four large houses.
When they opened the feed store, they weren't competing against national and regional retailers who are open seven days a week and who can buy in such quantities that the retail prices they charge are lower than Meisers can buy at wholesale.
"You just can't compete with that. They run ads and sell stuff cheaper than we can order it," David said. "It's been a good living up until the last few years."
Besides their business, they've watched east Tecumseh Road change from farmland to acreages. Directions east from I-35 have always been cumbersome. Ironically, the missing mile from Porter Avenue to 12th Avenue linking them to the interstate is now nearly complete.
"That would have really helped. That dead mile has been a sore thumb for us," David said.
It's been a good 40-year run but the brothers are ready to step back from 60-hour work weeks and spend more time with family members who are mostly their neighbors.
"I know we'll miss it," said David. "But how long can you do stuff and not get tired out?"
Andy Rieger 366-3543 editor@normantranscript.com
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After 40 years, Meiser's Feed Store closing for good
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