An article in today’s Statesville Record & Landmark (HERE) tells of the recent demolition of Ed Murdock’s produce stand in Troutman near the Old Mountain Road intersection. It brought back memories of growing up with the Murdock family, going to church with them and having Ed’s mother as a neighbor for many of my early years. While Mrs. Murdock still lived there, I well remember Ed, the ultimate entrepreneur, selling flocked Christmas trees from Mrs. Murdock’s yard on Main Street and spraying them all different colors in her basement. 
If you’ve never heard of a flocked Christmas tree, click HERE. They would be white or green or blue or even pink and include sparkly speckles to catch the light. At the time, it seemed like the coolest kind of Christmas tree you could ever have.
I was pretty young at the time, but I always thought of Ed (actually I thought of him as Mr. Murdock) as the kind of guy who could always come up with interesting ways to earn money. As the news article says, in his later years, he set up the little produce stand in Troutman and became an icon of the community. Everyone you knew stopped by the stand from time to time to pick up some produce and conversation. I even stopped in a few times while I was running a real estate office in Troutman. It was truly a unique experience.
The produce stand is gone now, but Ed’s spirit lives on in those who like to think and work independently and make their own path in life.
![Po - [Explored]](http://static.flickr.com/7225/7260527994_23e4e5f04b_t.jpg "Po - [Explored]")
The funny part about the colored Christmas trees was Mr. Murdock mixed his paint in his mother’s washing machine. Didn’t take long for that Ostwalt temper to flare up.