Greentop is twenty times bigger than the store that started out as a service station trading guns. The Hopkins boys were from down the road a few miles from my family, and my dad knew them for the whole community got drafted during WWII. One day we went into the old location and he saw them for the first time probably since the war. They started another small gun shop in Mechanicsville with the Hopkins name which is now out of business per the web, but the current Greentop was opened by investors. They rely on buying a lot of collections when old codgers die and their widows don't know what they have and want them out of the house.

Interesting, Jerry, about the history of the store. We lived just outside of Mechanicsville, and did business with the gun shop there. I remember it as DeGoff’s. Does that sound right? Pop bought my Mom a nice little 20 gauge Citori there that still sits in my safe, destined for a great nephew or niece someday… hopefully not too soon.

Greentop was started in a service station on Rt. 1 when it was the old two lane U.S. highway near Ashland. Now Richmond has blown up like all cities to move out to what was wilderness. Not too far from Yellow Tavern where our General Jeb Stuart was mortally wounded.

DeGoff's was a nice little old style gun shop. They carried traditional muzzleloading supplies as well as hard to find handgun caliber ammunition. I was sorry to see them close.

DeGoff’s was packed full of stuff like Clark Brothers was twenty years ago .

Things change…but seldom get better.

Be careful. There could be Yankees on this forum.

Ya reckon :whistle::rotf::rotf::rotf::rotf:

Speaking of which...to show how things have changed: I went to high school at Lee-Davis, home then to the Confederates (School Song -- Dixie). While attending art school at VCU in Richmond, I lived on Monument Ave., and walked by the many statues of Confederate honorees. All now gone. I'm not "stumping" the issues here, or promoting any side, as I know there is still a great deal of pain surrounding all sides of the war among Americans, but things have changed in my home state.

A change I do strongly decry, however, is the one that replaced the wonderful woods and swamps where I hunted squirrels and deer near my home of Williamsburg, is now Busch Gardens...and a heck of a lot more people than when I wandered the hills and bottoms with gun in hand.

Orange, Virginia.
Back in the day, we used to play Woodberry Forest, and I won a state wrestling championship there, when Hector was a pup.
Beautiful country.
I don't get back to Virginia enough.