Kathy Dierker of Still Pond Market in Still Pond, Maryland.

Kathy Dierker’s Still Pond Market, which sells everything from diapers to shotgun shells, is the Grand Central Station of Still Pond, Maryland. On Thursdays, folks come in to buy the Kent County newspaper. There’s the faithful morning-coffee crew and those who pull up on their lawn mowers to get gas. Even the ghost of Kennard Jones, a former owner who was also Still Pond’s butcher and postmaster, shows up from time to time flicking lights and pushing inventory off of the shelves. “It’s a riot to work here,” Dierker says. “Right now, we’ve got a guy buying a hot dog and some worms. Where else can you do that?”

Photograph by David Deal.