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In front of Oglesby were baskets of fresh bell peppers, potatoes, onions and cucumbers. A few steps away are heads of cabbage on a metal rack, dozens of tomatoes in boxes and a pickup bed full of watermelons. A man and a woman in a pickup pull into the gravel driveway in front of the tent.
“How y’all doin’,” Oglesby greeted them as the woman, Nancy McNiece of Fulton, climbed out of the truck to inspect the produce spread on the table. Oglesby and his daughter, Teresa Edwards, assist McNiece before she leaves with a bag full of tomatoes and cucumbers.
After the sale, the 6-foot-5 man nicknamed “Slim” reflected on why he spends six days a week providing fresh produce at affordable prices in his roadside stand.
“It’s just something I like to do. I like good, fresh produce myself,” Oglesby, an Auburn resident, said. “I try to keep pretty fresh stuff. If I get what I would use myself, then it would be no trouble to sell.”
Oglesby, who turns 74 on Aug. 17, has become a familiar figure with his “Slim’s Market” east of Tupelo. The “market” includes the outside produce stand and a building with an auction room and a thrift shop.
“Ordinarily, I’m out here everyday except Monday when I try to get grass mowing done and stuff like that,” he said. “I’m not making a lot of money out here. It supplements whatever else I’m doing.”
Familiar sight
A native of Hickory Flat in Benton County, Oglesby and his produce stand have become fixtures in the Skyline area. He said he’s been setting up roadside stands for about 40 years in various locations. Oglesby is assisted by family members in the produce stand and the auction business.
“I used to be in the old Mayfield building. I did real good there,” said Oglesby, who lived in Union County and Verona before moving to Auburn about 20 years ago. “I was also under the tree that was noted for having a produce market for a lot of years. Ole Clint Dickerson had that spot. I was in that spot after Clint.”
After a fire destroyed the produce stand, Oglesby moved about a mile down the road to a building at the corner of Highway 178 and County Road 1147.
The building houses an auction room that can hold at least 100 people. Auctions are on Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday night and Sunday afternoon.
“I’ve been auctioneering for 28 years,” he said. “When I have an auction, I make produce available.”
Oglesby doesn’t grow the produce he sells. He makes weekly trips to Birmingham to restock his stand. “I buy a lot of it from the farmers,” he said. “Sometimes I’ll buy a little bit over in Pontotoc. They have a little wholesale house over there.”
Providing fresh produce for customers has its challenges, Oglesby said.
“I’m at a low point right now,” he said Friday of how much produce he had available. “We were supposed to go to Birmingham to pick up some more, but my son had problems with his truck and we didn’t make it. We’re going over there Monday, so come Tuesday morning I’ll be back up.”
Lots of talking
When visitors see the sign in front of the building and stop at the stand to buy produce, they know they’re at “Slim’s Market.” Oglesby said the “Slim” name is better known than his real name.
“That’s been my nickname for years,” he said. “People will know Slim, but they don’t know James Oglesby. You know what I’m saying?
“I’d go to an auctioneer association meeting, and they didn’t recognize me until I told them I was Slim,” he added. “They just had my real name down there. It’s not an alias. It’s just a nickname.”
The stand attracts between 30 to 40 people a day. Oglesby estimated. He stays busy during the downtime between customers with work inside his building.
“People who don’t have a knack for this stuff get bored,” he said. “The people who like this kind of stuff don’t get bored. Boredom is kind of a negative feeling, and I try to stay positive as much as I can.”
When he isn’t selling tomatoes or watermelons, Oglesby said he likes to start a conversation simply to find out more about the people who buy from his stand.
“I like interacting with people, talking to them,” he said. “It’s something I enjoy. I talk to people and see what kind of feedback I get. My wife says I talk too much. Well, I say 80 percent of doing business is talking.”
Contact Neighbors Editor Bobby Pepper at (662) 678-1592.
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