Oncken: What's next for Barney's Utica Store?
Three years ago, the owners of Barney's Utica Store in the town of Christiana put it up for sale.
Barney Lambert and Jackie Sperle had worked 13 hours a day, six days a week for 30 years at the little country store at the junction of County B and County W near Cambridge and admitted it was time for a change.
Lots of "lookers" and a goodly number of potential buyers have visited the historic country since then, but so far, the 136-year-old business remains the property of Lambert and Sperle.
It's possible that someone will still discover the store and business as the answer to their dreams of ownership and a rural community, but time is short -- the store is closing at the end of the day on May 31.
On Saturday, June 7, the store, property and everything that's inside will be sold at auction beginning at 10 a.m. and a new era will begin. Maybe it will remain a general store. Maybe an antique store is a possibility. What about a Wisconsin products store? Who knows?
Whatever the next chapter will be for the storefront at the four-way stop in tiny Utica, chances are it will center on history and community.
Lambert and Sperle -- he a city boy from Sheboygan, she a farm girl from Stoughton -- married in 1972. "We had $20 between us.'" Lambert says. "We spent $5 each for the marriage license and judge who married us, and took our witnesses to the Badger Candy Kitchen on the Capitol Square in Madison for sundaes with the remaining $10. It was Valentine's Day."
Lambert was working at a factory in Stoughton and at the Utica Store part time for then owners Katie and Donnie Hougan.
The young couple bought the store in 1978 and in 1979 leased the historic Cooksville general store south of Stoughton. They started the second location because they wanted to make sure suppliers would deliver to them. That was during the energy crunch of the 1970s and they were worried that trucks wouldn't travel to out-of-the-way Utica, Lambert explains.
The two stores had different customers. Lambert drove to Cooksville, while Sperle and some part-time help ran the Utica store. After a few years the couple left the Cooksville operation and centralized in Utica.
Thirty years is a long time to work at one job these days, but Lambert and Sperle never looked at operating their country store as "a job."
It was always about the people and community, Lambert explains. "We consider ourselves at the center of the world and the world came to us," he says. "We have seen children buy candy from us who grew up and have children who came to buy candy."
"It's an incredibly giving and sharing community." Sperle adds. "Our store is our living room and our customers are our family."
When Lambert and Sperle took over operation of the Utica Store, the surrounding area was filled with dairy farms and tobacco fields. Tobacco axes, spears, paper and twine were popular items in the store.
Most of the dairy farms are gone now and the tobacco fields are fewer and farther between. Corn and soybeans are the crops of choice. Many of the farmers or their wives went to work in nearby Stoughton, Cambridge, Deerfield or Madison, and the community lifestyle changed.
They haven't made any major changes in the store during the 30 years they've owned it.
"We did move to opening at 7 a.m. rather than 8 a.m." Sperle says. "People wanted to get milk or other supplies before they went to work or sent the children off to school. We continue to close at 8 p.m."
In 1998 they added a life size cutout of Michael Jordan holding a basketball. At six feet six inches tall, he dominates the back of the store. "He's a member of our 'team.' Sperle says with a laugh. "We say 'Hello Michael' every morning and 'Goodnight Michael' at closing."
Sperle opens the store each morning. Lambert needs a cup or two of coffee to get going and comes downstairs about 9 a.m. And rather than splitting the day into working shifts, the couple pretty much works together except for trips to the bank and to suppliers.
Spending 13 hours together, six days a week in a work situation would not be easy for most couples. In fact, probably impossible.
"We get along pretty well," Lambert says. "We always have."
They were introduced by a mutual friend when Lambert lived in a Madison rooming house.
"Once Jackie came over and cooked spaghetti on a Coleman stove in the hallway -- Oh she can cook!"
The couple admits their lifestyle may be different than most.
"Nowadays everyone seeks instant gratification; our lives has always been aimed at the long term," Lambert says.
Of course, 30 years of being storekeepers, advisors, sympathizers, counselors and listeners to the rural community have become a full book of memories.
But 30 years is just a fraction of what this old building has seen in 136 years. Old photos show there was another general store just across the road to the north.
It eventually burned down.
Over the years the Utica Store has sold everything from Model T tires to ice cream cones and malteds, A side room now full of soft drinks and movies was once an apartment. A garage that sat behind the store was given to the Wisconsin Historical Society and is now part of the Old World Wisconsin historic site in Eagle.
The store has seen it all and still does, as customers continue to come.
Delbert Weum, who was raised on a local dairy farm but went to work for 43 years at Jones Dairy Farm in Fort Atkinson, has been a regular visitor to the Utica Store all his life. He bought $22 worth of gas on a recent day.
Another visitor was Mike Mancheski, who runs the tavern across the street, He bought 76 cents worth of gas pumped directly into his lawnmower.
Mark Jacobson, who farms nearby, dropped in for a few things and remarked that he had been coming to the store all his life and wondered what he would do if it closed.
"The people here have been our family for 30 years," Lambert says, but adds that "now it's time for our own family."
Lambert's 88-year-old mother lives in Sheboygan, and he wants to spend a lot of time with her. Sperle's dad, Claire "Kelly" Sperle, still lives on the farm west of Stoughton.
Barney and Jackie hope the store that has served them so well for so long will acquire a new owner (number eight) and remain in business. But they realize it is time for them to move to the next chapter in their lives. They will take the decades of fond memories along and relive them forever.
Indeed--what could be better?
John Oncken is owner of Oncken Communications, a Madison-based agricultural information and consulting company. He can be reached at 222-0624 or e-mail jfodairy@chorus.net
John Oncken
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Barney Lambert and Jackie Sperle are closing their store in Utica on May 31.
