Let's head to the mountains, where producer Clay Johnson discovered two antique stores that share the heart of one old town.

- [Clay] This is a tale of two old stores that share the heart of one old town.

Thompson's Store and M. A.

Pace General Store sit less than 200 feet apart in Downtown Saluda.

Together, they represent touchstones to the town's past.

- To have these two stores so close together in the same town and be so old, I think it's great because it's what people come here for, is to see the history, and it's what makes us Saluda.

- [Clay] Thompson's was established in 1890 and is the oldest grocery store in North Carolina.

- It started as a fresh market stand just on the side of the road, and then they built these buildings, and they were here for the railroad workers.

So, upstairs used to be housing for the railroad workers overnight, when they would stop in, and then they'd have food down here for them.

- [Clay] The store has evolved over the years to meet modern tastes while preserving pieces of its past.

- A lot of people who come in and say, "I remember going to these kinds of grocery stores with my grandfather," and now they can experience that with their children.

You can come here and get candy cigarettes with your kids and a glass bottle of soda and some peanuts, and you can't really go into an Ingles or a Publix and do that.

It's not the same experience.

- [Clay] Thompson's added Ward's Grill in 1960.

- [Joshua] It's been a staple of Saluda ever since.

- [Clay] It's a diner style menu serving up sandwiches, burgers, milkshakes, and more.

But it's not just the food that draws the diners.

- I have one gentleman who remembers being six years old, sitting on this bar stool, and we've never replaced 'em, so that's the original bar stool, and he sits there and drinks a milkshake just like his dad did, and, you know, it's people's history, and you're losing that in a lot of your big cities.

- [Clay] Darryl Russell eats here almost every day.

- I've made a lot of sandwiches in here.

[laughs] - [Clay] There's even a sandwich on the menu named for him.

- It's a hoagie roll with roast beef, with provolone cheese and cheddar cheese, with mushrooms, with gravy on the side, and you dip your sandwich in the gravy.

- [Clay] Just down the street from Ward's Grill and Thompson's is M. A.

Pace General Store.

It was founded in 1899 and is owned and operated by Saluda's mayor, Tangie Morgan.

- We try to keep it updated without modernizing it too much, since we love the history of our town.

The store's been here since the 1800s, and we don't wanna lose that.

You know, we embrace that, as you can look around the store and see the history of our town.

- [Clay] There's a scale from 1901.

- [Tangie] It actually weighs to an ounce.

- [Clay] A cash register from 1914.

- But this thing still works, believe it or not.

- [Clay] There are still some green stamps in the drawer, and in the back, there's an old potbelly stove that people sit by in cooler months to keep warm.

- [Tangie] People play checkers on this checkerboard all the time.

- [Clay] The store is dripping with memorabilia.

- There's things in this building that I see, like, that my great granddaddy would've touched.

We have people come in year after year that say, "You know what?

I remember as a kid coming here and getting ice cream," or, "Coming here and getting a little bag."

We still have the little brown bags with the candy, the penny candy.

They say, "You know, my grandmother used to bring me in here," and then they bring their kids and their grandkids.

We try to find things that's kind of old fashioned that you can't get just anywhere.

You can't get it at Walmart, you can't get it at Dollar General, you can only find it here.

- [Clay] Even if it's just a feeling.

- [Tangie] We always say, you know, you may come in a stranger, but you leave out a friend.

- [Clay] And maybe that's a piece of the past that's being saved, too, at both Pace's and Thompson's.

- [Tangie] These are landmarks, and we're lucky to have 'em.

- Historic Thompson's Store and Ward's Grill are located at 24 East Main Street in Saluda, and it's open Tuesday through Sunday.

The M. A.

Pace General Store is located just down the street at 60 East Main Street, and they're open daily.

For more information, including hours of operation, you can find them on Facebook.