Abiquiú general store owner was ‘Northern New Mexico icon’
Karl Bode was also expert on local geography, culture and history
For four decades, visitors to Bode’s Mercantile and General Store in Abiquiú could rely on owner and manager Karl Bode to sell them gas, dry goods, hunting apparel and things they probably didn’t know they needed until they met him.
The extroverted Bode, a horse lover and raconteur extraordinaire, also was an expert on the local geography, culture and history of the area.
“He was a Northern New Mexico icon,” said friend Richard Bock, adding Bode used the e≠ort he put into washing windshields and checking motor oil levels to get to know people who stopped at his store.
Bode, 90, died of natural causes Dec. 22 at his home in Abiquiú, family members said.
The general store, just o≠ U.S. 84, celebrated its centennial birthday as Bode’s last summer. Karl Bode’s father, German immigrant Martin Bode, had purchased the store 100 years earlier.
Karl Bode, who was born in Abiquiú, began working in the store as soon as he was “old enough to count change,” said his sister, Elizabeth Allred.
He served a stint in the U.S. Army in the early 1950s, and then returned to the land he loved and began working in the store alongside his father.
Family members said he was more than just the guy behind the counter. He was a mentor, adviser, conservationist, historian and translator. He also spoke fluent Spanish.
“My granddad Martin was like the Bürgermeister of Abiquiú, and Karl inherited that role,” said Karl Bode’s sister Charlotte Paetzold, who also lives in Abiquiú.
He was the first to respond if a local or visitor needed a job, had a flat tire, ran out of gas or maybe hit a cow with their car, she said.
Bock said Karl Bode’s attention to each customer’s needs paid o≠ by building up the store’s reputation.
“Karl always said it was that personal touch that mattered the most,” Bock said.
Bode’s niece Susan Allred remembered her uncle, who had a love for nature and animals, taking in “dogs that were dropped o≠ or showed up at his door.”
The store stood at the center of his world, and he, in turn, provided much of the heart and soul of the community around it, his sisters said.
“Abiquiú was his home, that was it,” Elizabeth Allred said. “He never left. He never showed any desire to leave.”
Bode retired in 1994 and sold the store to Dennis Liddy, who still runs it.
In his remaining years, Bode spent much of his time caring for his ailing wife, tending to his horses and other animals and picking blueberries — which he shared with anyone who wanted some.
Susan Allred said her uncle was “part of the fabric of the Abiquiú landscape. He knew the history of Abiquiú. He knew the people who had come and gone before him.”
Paetzold said her brother had a penchant for telling stories that, while basically true, sometimes included a few “embellishments.”
For example, when a frog infestation overran the area years ago, he told visitors there were “so many frogs hopping around that drivers would run over them on the road and they’d go ‘squish, squish, squish.’ ”
Only there was no squish, she said with a laugh.
Bock, who had Karl Bode over for dinner just two days before his death, said he will miss his friend’s sense of humor and compassion.
“There should be more people like him in the world,” Bock said.
Bode was preceded in death by his wife, Lilian Hill, who died in 2006. The couple never had children.
The family plans a memorial service for Bode at 10:30 a.m. Saturday at the Saint Thomas the Apostle Catholic Parish in Abiquiú.