Not true, say these European shopkeepers: Their places are updating the old American general store cracker-barrel approach, while making hygiene a priority.

The challenge was to tread a line between what Nelson called O’Connor’s “grand pronouncements” and what Alfred Corn called her southern “cracker-barrel humor.”

“Sure, Red, glad to oblige. Hear you been blowin’ off at the mouth at some of the cracker-barrel heroes agin.”