Utica is a small farming community just a hop and a skip from Cambridge and the Lake Ripley area.
The main street of Utica is a four way stop with its businesses on each corner Several blocks either way from the stop signs, and you are out of town. A mile or so down the road is the Utica Community Center grounds which sponsors events from baseball to picnics, to tractor pulls. The rest of the countryside is dotted with rich soil beautiful scenery and well-kept farms.
Ask any native and they will tell you Utica is just the way they want it.
If you are not a resident, there are plenty of reasons to take the seven or so mile trip south on 73 from Cambridge and west on BB.
Are you looking for a good deal on a car? Melton’s is right at the four-way.
Kitty corner across the street is Mitch’s Utica Bar. The full parking lot every Friday night is proof Utica has the best fish fry around these parts.
The third corner houses Encore, a quality furniture refinishing business. Many a broken and scratched piece has been refinished to its original beauty.
The fourth corner houses the country store. Except for the coolers, it could be a model for the general store of the Walton’s or Little house on the Prairie..
A little over thirty years ago, Barney Lambert and his wife, Jackie Sperle, came to Utica, bought the store, and it became Barney’s Country Store. The upstairs was their home. The back yard became a "prairie" with the array of wild flowers and plants to compliment their love of nature and the outdoors.
There is a cement porch across the front of the store. A few steps takes you up to the porch, and the front door. There is no automatic opener. You have to enter the old-fashioned way–turn the knob and push. The cow bell mounted at the top of the door announces your arrival.
Behind the short wooden counter sits a cash register that does not figure the change or plug into a computer. And there is Barney. He is a slight man with a firm handshake. He is neatly dressed in jeans, checked shirt, and cowboy boots. His brown eyes are friendly and look you right in the eye.
Meeting his wife Jackie, is almost like meeting Barney. Her brown pig-tails are peppered with gray, just like Barney’s beard. They are dressed almost alike, except she wears several pieces of Indian and turquoise jewelry-all of which mean something to her and Barney.
They met through a mutual friend and have been married for over thirty years. It was an instant match. To each other and to the store.
Jackie said the store is really the reflection of all of their customers. The walls and shelves are full of things that have been given to them through the years. A framed sketch of the store hangs on the wall behind the counter. There are wind chimes, pictures, and memorabilia, all from their customers. Another open room to the side offers things for sale, all made by their customers and friends. .There are Afghans, quilts, jellies, jams, pickles and home-made craft items.
Barney is most proud of his collage of snapshots he has collected over the years. The first Halloween in business, he took pictures of the trick-or-treaters that came into the store. He took pictures every year since then. Some of the first pictures are the parents of his most recent Halloweeners. Three decades of Halloween history.
During the interview several customers came in the side door. Maybe the cowbell is only for interviewers and first-time customers.
One young woman came in with a smile and lots of hay on her jeans and in the change she dumped on the counter. It was a lot of change. Barney cashed it in-she said thanks-see you tomorrow and out she went.
Another older lady came in. She sat down to rest while Jackie cut her order of cheese from a large cheese wheel on a butcher block near the back of the store. Wrapping it in butcher paper, Jackie handed it to her, taking her change with a thank-you. It was a little bit of change.
Next to the cheese stands the only thing that does not seem like it should be in the store: a seven-foot cardboard bigger than life cut-out of Michael Jordan. It was a gift from their nephew.
And so thirty years passed quickly for Barney and Jackie. The couple decided they wanted to do some traveling and spend more time with family in their retirement years. They put the store up for sale.
There might have been some takers, but they wanted the store to remain a country store. It would take owners that would put their hearts and souls into the store and serving the community of Utica.
But after two or so years of not finding the right buyer, Barney and Jackie made the decision to put the store up for auction. It was to be auctioned off last June, 2008. It was a sad time, yet a time that had to come.
To their joy, the auction never took place. Two weeks before the auction, it was sold to two young men who would put their hearts and souls into the store and Utica.
Barney and Jackie are moved out now, living on the Sperle family farm in Stoughton, planning their future..
They should have no fear for the future of the Utica Country Store. Lynn Peterson and Darren Mossman are making some changes, yet dedicated to keeping their store country .
Maybe some things are meant to be. When sadness hits, positive things can happen. Lynn’s father passed away, and Lynn moved back to Utica, to be with his mom, Helen.
With the auction coming up, he kept thinking about the store. He shared his idea with his friend, Darren Mossman. The idea became reality.
They bought the store before the auction. Darren moved upstairs and runs the store full-time. Lynn is a building inspector for the city of Madison. He has kept his job, but that does not stop him from doing his fair share in the store.
Not a whole lot has changed. That is the way they want it. However, they are renovating some things, including the refrigeration.
The new specialty is their home-made pizza. Two new ovens have been installed. It is a thin-crust pizza, and Darren said it has been very-well received.
They have had customers from other communities, and plan to advertise. Maybe their pizza will become as popular as Mitch’s fish fry across the street.
The Utica Country Stores and its customers will have the best of two worlds: Barney and Jackie’s general store concept that gave them thirty years of success, and Lynn and Darren’s plan to keep the old and introduce the new.
The new things will have to find a place of their own. Barney and Jackie left everything for the new owners. Except for one thing. Michael Jordan.
The Utica Country Store is open seven days a week from7 am to 9 pm. Stop in and say hi to Lynn and Darren. Call ahead for pizza. 608-873-9936. You can use the front door. The cow bell will announce you.
