She was born and raised in Bynum in the 1940s and '50s. When she was a young girl, life in the little Chatham County village revolved around the cotton mill that operated on the sloping banks of the Haw River. The small houses scattered on the hills were occupied mostly by mill workers and their families, and by the folks who ran the businesses that provided food, supplies and gathering places for them.

"There were, let's see, five general stores operating when I was a kid," said Collins, who still lives in Bynum. "Over the years, one by one they all closed. The General Store probably would have closed too, but it was the town's post office as well."

Still, keeping the store afloat became increasingly difficult, especially after a new bridge built over the Haw about 10 years ago took motorists around, rather than through, Bynum.

And when longtime postmaster and store operator Jerry Partin retired in 2006, it was clear that Bynum was going to lose its last remaining local store, post office and gathering place.

Except that the community refused to let that happen.

A group of residents joined hands to save the Bynum General Store. They did that by forming a nonprofit community organization called Bynum Front Porch, which has taken over the lease and pays the utilities. It has transformed the store into a community center, where people congregate to play music, hold potluck dinners, throw birthday parties, hold meetings and otherwise gather.

This year, Bynum Front Porch is celebrating the Bynum General Store's 75th anniversary. On Friday the group kicks off the 10th annual Bynum Front Porch Music Series, which puts some of the area's finest roots musicians on an outdoor stage under the stars next to the store every Friday evening from May through August.

The music series, like the rest of the events Bynum Front Porch puts together, is a celebration of a truly small town way of life that has been all but lost in many places. And the General Store is the focal point of that way of life.

"If people don't have a place to gather," said Debbie Tunnell, a member of the founding board, "a community loses its ability to commune."

Music series

For decades, the General Store was, well, a classic general store: wooden floors, front porch, Coca Cola in glass bottles, old-timers sitting around a potbellied stove playing checkers. And because that's where the mail was, it was the one place everybody went.

But it was not a lucrative profit-making enterprise, especially after the bypass bridge over the Haw was built.

"We all knew it was a losing financial venture, and had been for a long time," said Bynum resident Luke Barrow. "Jerry kept it open basically for humanitarian purposes. It was the place to get together. That was one of the reasons it didn't make any money, actually - people hung around all day and didn't buy anything."

Molly Matlock, who is now the executive director of the ChathamArts arts council, fell in love with Bynum and moved there in 2001. A folklore scholar who had done work researching traditional music venues, she hit on the idea of starting a music series at the General Store, partly in hopes of generating more business for it.

"Tift Merritt lived near Bynum, and actually she and Jerry Partin had had the same idea," Matlock said. "They weren't able to put it together, because right around then her music career started to take off. Afterward, Jerry was kind enough to let me think it was my idea."

She organized a series and put out a call for musicians.

"I said we couldn't pay, but we'd pass the hat," she said. "I contacted musicians I knew and said, 'You might laugh at me for even asking, but ...' And we got so many responses we were able to book an entire year.

"Tift played a concert at the store that drew 500 people. That gave us a lot of visibility and gave the series a big boost."

The music series was successful, and it did help the store fare better, but it wasn't enough. Partin finally decided to retire in 2006, closing the store, and the Pittsboro post office planned to relocate Bynum's postal services to Pittsboro.

"This was a big deal in a small community," said Luke Barrow, who first moved to Bynum in 2000. "This is a place where everybody knows each other. We know each other's kids and dogs. You don't find that much anymore. That's what drew me here, and that's what keeps me here. The General Store was a big part of that. People rallied because we knew we'd be losing something important."

'Are we going to do something?'

A group of perhaps a dozen people gathered to brainstorm ideas about how to preserve the General Store.

"Debbie Tunnell called a bunch of us together," Matlock recalled. "We met in my living room. She brought a big bottle of wine, and so she got us a little liquored up and said, 'Are we just going to talk about doing something, or are we going to do something?' That's where Bynum Front Porch was born."

The building's owners, the Williams family of Bynum, gave the effort their blessing, and the original group pooled its money together to pay the rent and utilities.

"We didn't have any thought at the beginning of being a nonprofit," Collins said. "We were just a bunch of Bynum citizens who wanted to keep the store going.

"But it came about that it made sense to operate as a nonprofit, so we organized that way. We asked ChathamArts to take us under their wing, and they did that until we felt the time was right to become independent."

At the same time, Collins and others made a pitch to the postmaster to keep their Bynum addresses and ZIP code. After some effort, they succeeded, having a post office box kiosk erected next to the Bynum ballfield.

"It may seem trivial, but as this region becomes more Cary-fied and large communities gobble up smaller ones, it meant a great deal to us to keep our Bynum ZIP code and address," Barrow said.

'Gift of open arms'

Bynum Front Porch holds numerous fundraisers to pay for rent, utilities, upgrades and other needs. The space is available for parties and other functions free of charge for Bynum residents and for a small fee for non-residents. Every other Saturday an open bluegrass jam is held.

Organizers have built a permanent covered stage and upgraded the electrical system for the Friday night music series. They've added an indoor stage for inclement weather. Last year's series set records for attendance and earnings.

"We're getting bigger and better," Collins said. "Things have changed, but we're still working to keep the community together. It's still a close-knit community even with the changes."

The music series, which opens Friday night with a show by the Boys of Carolina, is still a pass-the-hat affair. And, Tunnell said, most importantly Bynum, whose best-known resident is probably the one-of-a-kind folk artist Clyde Jones, has retained its distinctive charm.

"I fell in love with the people of Bynum," Tunnell said. "Bynum has the gift of open arms. It has such a wide variety of characters: There are the ones who will tease you. There are ones who bring you cakes. Clyde still does his community watch, making the rounds on his lawn mower to check in on everybody.

"There are great people and great stories everywhere, I know. But Bynum is special."