Little store grows big

BRANSON MO NEWS:

It’s hunting season all right, with shoppers out in force seeking gifts that will bring a smile on Christmas morning.
Folks who love the outdoors may be the easiest to please. A gift of lures or tackle is a winner for the fisherman on your list. Anything an angler needs is available at our locally owned fishing stores.
Not only that, tackle from Northwest Arkansas companies like Arkie Lures, War Eagle Custom Lures, PJ’s Finesse Jigs and others are a bonus when it comes to shopping local.
There’s one shopping memory I’ll never forget. It was years ago, the first time I stepped through the door of Bass Pro Shops in Springfield, Mo.
This was back in the 1970s and I was a pup, 20 years old, working summers at Table Rock State Park marina during college. I worked the morning shift, 6 a.m. to 2 p.m. Dick Meier and I held down the fort, pumping gas and selling minnows to the campers and locals.
Dick was one of the top bass fishermen at Table Rock. He showed me how to rig a plastic worm and how to walk a top-water plug across the surface and took me fishing for those big Table Rock bass. In my eyes, Dick was the coolest guy on the planet.
Every morning he’d show up at the marina in a crisp, collared shirt, overalls and wearing a Bass Pro Shops ball camp. Dick was my mentor, so I had to have a Bass Pro Shops cap, too.
One day I asked Dick where he got it, and he gave me directions to the Brown Derby liquor store in Springfield, Mo., the humble headquarters of the now mega huge Bass Pro Shops.
I walked into the store, too young to buy alcohol, but eager to shop …