Bicycling Photo Of The Day: Shake Rag, TN

Today's Photo of the Day is a shot of the Shake Rag Store & Bar.

While riding the Mississippi River Trail with a group of cyclists from Memphis (see yesterday's pic), we stopped in front of the Shake Rag Store in Millington to rehydrate and gnaw on some trail bars. I shot the photo because of the unusual info on the marque of the store - a joke listing the population of the "town" at 44 1/2.

Although Shake Rag is a cross roads convenience store that sells alcohol & has a few barstools, there once was a town of Shake Rag; it was a mining community located on the Tennessee River. The town was abandoned in 1905 and was recently listed on the Tennessee Preservation Trust's top 10 endangered sites list for historic properties in Tennessee... but I digress.

I was disappointed that the area around the Shake Rag Store & Bar appeared deserted. I was hoping to learn whether the "1/2" in the population was a child, a dwarf, a dog or something else completely off the wall. (Map: Location of the Shake Rag Store)

Larry