Step back in time in Minkler
The makeshift placard on the counter at the Minkler Cash Store reads “Reserved for Honorary Acting Mayor” for a reason.
Minkler doesn’t have a mayor. Or a police or fire department. Or any houses that you can’t see from the front of the store.
And it doesn’t seem to have an affinity for the 21st century either. “They all say that this place is a step back in time, and it is. Things don’t change very much,” says Sylvia Ashcraft, who owns the Minkler Cash Store and the currently dormant craft store across the street.
That just happens to be all of the commercial property in Minkler, flanking each side of Highway 180.
“I feel just as big as the next guy,” says 87-year-old Ashcraft, who has owned the property since 1970. “I have seen a lot from this store in my time.” Following a stroke that has limited her mobility a bit, Ashcraft sits in a rocking chair in the store with her headphones on listening to music while she waits for one of the store regulars to stop by with a new story.
Her daughter, Mary Novack, now handles the bulk of the store responsibilities.
“Anytime we bring up selling or closing the store, the people come out of the woodwork,” says Novack. “Nobody wants to see it go. There is a lot of history in here. It’s like a slice of Americana.”