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-Atoka Business Spotlight-
 Sparky’s all about family
and friends
Step
into the north entrance of Sparky’s Exxon in Atoka and take a quick right You’ll find an eating area equipped
with six booths. You kind of get the feeling you’re walking into someone’s family den. There’s
a bulletin board with pictures of men and the fish they caught, which serve as evidence to back up fishing stories told at
Sparky’s on a regular basis. There are funny cartoons on the board as well, plus various other community messages. On
another wall there are proclamations honoring the establishment, plus plaques commemorating the accomplishments of Atoka Dixie
Youth softball teams. Every morning from 6 to 8 a.m., plus every afternoon around lunchtime, as many as 20 people gather in
the area to talk about everything from politics to the weather. “Some of us come in here two or three times a
day,” says Earl Billings, an Atoka alderman who says he’s been coming to Sparky’s for as long as he can
remember. “Some of us eat breakfast, some of us eat lunch … We talk about politics, fishing, hunting …
everything.”
 “We have all kinds of people that come in here,” says Sparky’s owner Brett Pickard.
“Truck drivers, farmers, doctors … I’d say about 80 percent of the people are regulars.” Sparky’s,
located on the southeast corner of Munford-Atoka Road and Highway 51, is in the heart of the area that everybody in Tipton
County refers to simply as Crosstown. The area runs along Highway 51 roughly from Kimbrough Road to McLaughlin Drive. Before
the South Tipton County population explosion in the 1990’s and the expansion of the Atoka city limits, Crosstown was
an unincorporated town.
 Approximately 40 years ago Sparky Pickard,
Brett’s father, opened up an auto parts store behind what is now Penny Pantry, located across Munford-Atoka Avenue from
the current Sparky’s. Sparky eventually went into the convenience store business and moved to where the current Sparky’s
is located. In 1990 Brett built the current building. Sparky’s Real Pit Bar-B-Que restaurant opened up on the
same lot in 1986. Two years ago Pickard opened up the Spirits of Atoka liquor store, located just south of Sparky’s.
The intersection has been the most traveled in South Tipton County for a long time. With the population boom that continues
today, the property has become very valuable. Pickard probably could have sold the lot to one of the convenience store conglomerates
by now, but instead he was become part of the growth and progress in Atoka. “None of this would be possible without
the population going up,” Pickard says, motioning towards his three businesses and the adjacent movie theater. “You
have to advance with the times.” It’s unlikely Pickard and Sparky’s will be going anywhere anytime
soon. “I used to hang around the store when my dad ran it,” says Pickard. Sparky passed away in 2000. “I’ve
lived within three miles of this corner for 47 years.”
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