Carole and Mike Harvell stand among old windows and columns in their architectural salvage business, Appleton Mercantile Co., on Saturday in Old Appleton, Mo. (Fred Lynch)
Carole Harvell said the conversations in Old Appleton are as essential as the commerce.
“We don’t know what a lot of things are until somebody tells us,” she said. “We’re constantly learning. Somebody will bring something in, usually an old-timer who remembers what they used on the farm or in their home, and ask, kind of testing us, ‘Do you know what this is?’ Then we have the younger generation, who are curious and like to ask what things are and what they were used for. So we’re bridging the gap between generations.”