Country stores dawned in America during colonial times, allowing pioneers to stock up on supplies and socialize with distant neighbors. Often replaced by big-box retailers, only a precious few remain. One of them still thrives in Covington today.
Stepping into Patrick’s Feed and Seed seems to make time slow down, even for just a little while. Stacks of animal feed bags greet you, their current prices chalked onto huge antiqued blackboards that hang over the counter. Like a barn, the ceiling looms high above, and dozens of quilts line the walls. Thousands of colorful cotton fabric bolts coax you to learn how to sew. Handmade wooden shelves are lined with jams, pickles and honey from small local businesses. At one end of the building, a well-stocked candy department begs for more than a glance, especially at Christmastime.
Patrick’s is a Newton County fixture. Established in 1948 by E.L. (Pat) Patrick, it is as familiar to longtime residents as Floyd Street or the iconic courthouse on The Square. Pat’s son, Gary, has worked in the store since childhood. He and his wife, Jan, now own the business at 10285 Covington Bypass. Gary enjoys sharing the stories that built Patrick’s Feed and Seed.

“Pat was born in 1917 and grew up on a farm, but he wanted to have his own business. He worked hard at a grocery store. He wouldn’t take his 30-minute lunch break; he would go help the butcher instead,” Gary said. Eventually, the young man was hired as a butcher at another store and invited to become the manager. “He figured if he could manage a store, he could run one,” Gary said. Pat stocked his new store with a variety of groceries, dry goods and toys. One hot-selling item in those early years was sugar. “They would get a boxcar full of 50-pound bags of sugar and sell it to the moonshiners, along with empty gallon and half-gallon jars,” Gary said. “Well, the feds came around and said he had to start reporting any sugar sales over 50 pounds and take down the names and addresses of anyone who tried to buy more, so instead of reporting his customers, he just quit selling sugar.”
Cheese was one of Pat’s favorite foods, and Gary explained how his love for it began.
“When Pat was around 9 years old and they gathered the first bales of cotton, they put it on a horse-drawn wagon to sell in town. It was Monroe or Rutledge, I’m not sure. They would stock up on supplies, and if there was money left over, Granddad would buy a big block of cheese. He told the boys they could eat as much as they wanted on the long ride home, but they had to save some for their mama and sister,” Gary said. “Well, one year, the cheese was extra sharp, and my dad loved it so much he said he was going to eat it all. Granddad said he would get a whipping if he did, but he didn’t care. So Pat ate all the cheese, then got a big whipping, and Granddad asked if it was worth it. My dad said ‘yes’ and then got a second whipping for sassing his father. After that, he said, ‘If I ever get rich, I’m going to have all the cheese I want.’”
I’m astounded when I think of how many people this little store has touched.
Jan Patrick
“I worked with Dad for 29 years,” he added, “and I never remember a day that he didn’t have cheese and crackers for lunch, with a slice of fresh tomato when it was in season.” Patrick’s still sells the type of cheese that won young Pat’s heart—a rich, crumbly cheddar in sharp and super sharp flavors. Each portion is weighed on an antique scale and wrapped in white paper, just like in the olden days. “It’s better than anything you can buy at the grocery store,” Jan said. “We sell more than a ton of it each year.”
Jan has helped at the store since she met Gary when they were Chemistry students at DeKalb Tech. “We met in September 1971. The day we met, it was time for lunch, and I’d never seen him before. I told him if he was going to lunch with me, he better hurry up,” she said with a smile. Jan thought it was a bit odd that Gary would never tell her where he worked. She finally got frustrated with the situation. “You’ve always got money, so you either work, or you’re a drug dealer,” Jan said. “That’s when he told me he worked at his family’s feed store.” Gary explained why he was reluctant to tell her about his job. “I was proud of the business, but I thought she was a big-city girl, and I wanted to impress her.” Little did he know that Jan was a country girl at heart and hoped to marry a country boy. She grew up in Macon and was already familiar with feed stores. “My grandparents had cows, and my family had chickens. I used to collect the eggs,” Jan said. “I grew up gardening and loved the farm.”
After college and marriage, Gary and Jan used their chemistry degrees to work in the corporate world, Gary at Coca-Cola and Jan at Emory. They lived in Decatur but drove to Covington on Saturdays and at Christmas to work at the store. Their daughter, Amanda, also helped out there from the age of 6, when she would count apples and oranges for holiday fruit baskets.
“When Amanda was around 11 or 12, she worked every Christmas,” Jan said. “She told her daddy that she wanted a raise. He said no, so she said she quit. We had a lot of teenage boys working for us then. She told Gary, ‘I work as hard as those boys do. I’m as good as they are, and I’m as smart as they are.’ And her daddy gave her a raise that day.” Amanda worked at Patrick’s through graduate school and is now a teacher, wife and mother of two.

Married for 51 years, the Patricks run the store with comfortable precision, each bringing their expertise to each area of the business. Gary admits their chemistry experience still proves useful when dealing with insecticides and fertilizers, but he is happy to delegate the quilt department to Jan entirely. Gary pointed to a line on the floor between the general merchandise and the quilting area. “She can work both sides of the store,” he said, “but I’m not allowed to cross that line.” Once an avid cross stitcher, Jan delved into quilting when cross stitching’s popularity waned. “Evelyn Poore taught me how to quilt,” she said. “She was a wonderful quilter. Once I learned how, I never looked back.” Jan added the quilt shop to Patrick’s in 1994 when she realized friends had to travel an hour or more to the nearest quilt store. She has made upwards of 400 quilts; all but two of Patrick’s displayed quilts are the result of her handiwork. At one point, she was making a new quilt every week. Now, Jan offers quilting classes at the store. “I’ve taught around 200 people so far,” she said. “It’s a five-week course with 30 hours of instruction. One man I taught does the most beautiful art quilts I could never do, intricate work that I can only sit back and admire.”
People worldwide were able to admire Jan’s quilts when 10 of them were featured in Dolly Parton’s movie “Coat of Many Colors,” which was filmed primarily in Covington and Conyers. A set designer learned about Jan’s impressive artistry when her assistant visited Patrick’s to buy burlap bags. The next day, the set designer met with Jan and arranged for her quilts to be used on set, along with the store’s scales, seed buckets and price board.

“In the movie’s final scene, where Dolly’s father goes into the church for the first time, there’s a quilted cross hanging over the piano,” Jan said. “That was mine. I had 21 quilts in the sequel, ‘Christmas of Many Colors,’ too.”
The Patricks praise many of their former young employees, listing their current occupations like proud parents. “Among the kids who’ve worked here, we now have a dentist, three or four physician’s assistants, a veterinarian, a banker, a lawyer and lots of teachers,” Jan said. “We’ve had kids go on to every branch of the service except the Space Force. It’s a good first job where they’re kind of protected. We don’t let customers mistreat them.” Gary quickly interjected: “But we will fuss at them when they need it.”


Gary recognizes the community loyalty that has allowed Patrick’s to survive and thrive.
“Our customers have made the business,” he said. “People love going back in time, reliving memories when we weigh things on old scales and write the price on white paper bags. Our policy is just being nice to them and giving them something good to take home.”

Jan has an answer for people who ask when they plan to retire.
“What would I do?” she asked. “I’d be miserable. I love what I do. I love my customers. I’m astounded when I think of how many people this little store has touched. I guess when I stop being astounded, that’s when it’s time to quit.”
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