At 8 a.m. Tuesday, Punka Brown comes in for coffee and local news at Coburns' General Store in Strafford. Now in their fifth decade, Mel Coburn and his brother, Phil, purchased the store together in 1977. Strafford regular, John Freitag attributes the Coburns' success to a "combination of diligence and hard work with care and understanding of folks in the community." (Herald / Bob Eddy)