Store Story [Bakerton] Skeeter & Dot

Store story. Bakerton couple lace love, sales in old-time store.
Martin and Dottie Welsh have a little bit of everything in store.

By JUDY JENNER.
Bakerton, W. Va. — Martin Dineen Welsh was nicknamed “Skeeter” because “I was more or less a midget… I didn’t grow very fast when I was a kid.”

No matter. The Bakerton native married an equally short woman — Dottie, a native of nearby Millville, and the couple work and grew together in a number of ways, other than height.

“Working together… that’s the only way to make it go,” Skeeter says. From behind the tiny post office stall at the general store that’s been a family affair since 1939.

Dottie’s elsewhere in the store, waiting on a customer, one of a steady stream that keeps them busy six days a week from morning until night.

From the outside, the little store looks typical to those that dot the countryside of rural America. But inside, there’s an immediate tip-off that this one’s different.

It’s not only that the place is immaculate and obviously has a little bit of everything. It very nearly has everything. Merchants miles away will often advise a disappointed customer, “You might try Bakerton… if anyone has it, they will.”

Skeeter laughs at the reputation.
“Well, I did make one man happy because I had the hog rings he needed… but someone else asked for a bathtub stopper a few weeks ago and we looked all over, thought I had them, but we were out.”

Every inch of space in the long narrow building is utilized: country hams, minnow buckets, lanterns, rifles suspended from ceiling hooks, hovering about Snoopy watches, grass seed, bicentennial collectors spoons, belt buckles. Reading material ranges from Woman’s Day to the National Enquirer and the munchie items would rival any restaurant: hot pizza, hamburgers, hand dipped ice cream cones, fresh toasted nuts, slushes and popcorn.

Each has a history, even if the purchase was just a whim on either Dottie or Skeeter’s part. Like the popcorn machine– they both enjoyed the aroma and taste of fresh popcorn while on a shipping trip. Dottie copied the name of the machine down and eventually made the purchase.

“Oh, we sell a lot of popcorn,” she smiles. “And the aroma goes all over the community… it smells so good.”

Business is booming for the couple and its to be expected. The population around Bakerton, located between Shepherdstown and Harpers Ferry and closer to the latter, has doubled in recent years. Skeeter estimates there are now about 150 households. There’s also been an increase in the number of daytime visitors, attracted by a mammoth limestone quarry, filled with spring water, and abandoned years ago by Martin Marietta Cement.

“They come from all over to swim there… Rockville, Silver Spring,” says Dottie.

When Martin Marietta moved out, Skeeter says he thought it would be a real gamble to stay in the family business. But he and Dottie expanded the store, originally built by his father, and the gamble paid off.

Dottie took over as postmistress and since there are only B9 cubbyhole boxes, her workload has more than doubled with new “general delivery” residents.

Skeeter says he’s “proud to have Bakerton grow the way it’s grown.” The division into five-acre lots, “will keep it rural” and he says of the new comers, “I’ve met them all… oh, I have days when I look up the road and think I see the old faces.”

He also talks about retiring in a few years, when he turns 60, but his ideas about retirement include converting another building into an antique shop and apartments.

He says he’s nearly retired from his second occupation, that as a private detective. It seems incongruous, but Skeeter pulls out badges, gun permits, certification as a special agent, and launches into escapades of his “Moonlighting hobby-career.”

“Old father time creeps up on you and you don’t keep as active as you were,” he smiles.

The couple’s other interests seem vast. They collect stamps, coins, and guns and have turned many local people on to similar hobbies. Last year they designed a quilt that would incorporate a map of Jefferson County with a boy (for Skeeter) and a girl (for Dottie), historic scenes of the area, and the state bird and flower. It’s uilted in the blue and gold colors of West Virginia and will soon go on exhibition locally.

“We’re hoping to win some blue ribbons with it,” he says.

The couple doesn’t have any children, although a niece helps them out at the store along with two other young people. The new “baby” in the family is a white poodle.

Skeeter’s soft blue eyes gaze dreamily from behind the delicate-looking wire glass frames. He talks about antiques and his love of old books.– “Oh my, send me out in the woods, and I’ll stay there and read a good book.”

He’s a fisherman, who feels equally at home whether it’s holding a line in the Chesapeake Bay or a local creek. There’s a recent catch of 22 catfish waiting to be cleaned in the back room, but before he goes, he reaches for the mail for a young customer.

“Hi there. How are you?” he asks the little girl, and somehow, you get the feeling that he really means it.