A Word Edgewise |
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A Word Edgewise |
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Last Updated 07/11/06
For more literature go
to Clendenin Books
Email: mjclen@our-town.com
ANYONE HAVE A TIME MACHINE TO LEND?
By Mary Joe Clendenin
Does your mind take detours like this: I need some cough medicine. Guess I should go to the drug store. Naw, I can get that at the grocery store. Oh, yes. I need milk today and some bread guess I’ll go to the grocery store—Nay, I can get that at the drug store. What about that baby gift. I can get it at ----.
Seems the boundaries for goods at special stores have faded. But that is not a new
trend. Grocery stores and department stores have often offered many different things to buy, or even to
sell.
There was a grocery store just off the square on Washington Street
where Aunt Effie Swanzy took her butter and eggs to sell each Saturday. She would make fresh butter and keep
in an ice box so that she had three, usually sell. Special customers would call for her butter. She could
save enough money in a couple or three months for material for a dress, or Uncle Sam a shirt.
And I remember Higgenbothem’s Department store had an assortment of caskets in
the back of the store, and Carleton’s, on the opposite corner of the square kept some caskets up stairs.
Some doctors had offices upstairs over the stores. I think Dr. Cragwall had an office
upstairs on the west side of the square, and Dr. Malloy on the north side. That way, if, while you were
visiting, or whittling on a bench near the courthouse, and felt a little ill, you could go to a doctor
without an appointment.
In the period from 1920 to 1940, most country merchants sold a general line and
bought eggs, stove wood, and in the east side of the county, cedar posts was a staple.
All eggs had to be candled as the infertile egg had not arrived. When candled
most of these eggs had to be discarded. Poor roosters were soon out of jobs.
Ice refrigerators were found in most homes by 1940. Ice routes were established with
pickups delivering to most homes on alternate days.
With return of production after the war, and the spread of REA lines, the refrigerators
soon went to the junk yard. At present there is not a cream testing station or an ice house found anywhere
in the county.
Saturdays were the favorite days of the week when farmers put work on hold and the whole
family went to town, and there were more farmers than in today’s world. It was not until after WWII that
mechanization came along and made it possible for one man to farm many more acres of land. So, Saturdays
were for buying groceries, supplies, listening to politicians on the square, catching up on news, and
visiting.
Not so many cars in the county then either. People shared rides. A woman who had no car
would do her grocery shopping soon as she got to town. The grocery man would put her selections in a box and
set the box out of the way until time to go home and she came with her ride to pick up her box. In the mean
time, women would visit moving from car to car of those fortunate enough to be parked on the square. Aunt
Effie would wail all week if Uncle Sam didn’t drive their Chevy fast enough—top speed was about 40 mp/h—to
park on the east side of the square, when parking was headfirst to the curb in front of the stores. The men
would congregate on the corners of the square or around the courthouse. With a little mingling news spread
county wide.
There were two “variety” stores, Novett’s and Perry’s. If we were lucky enough to
have 10 or 15 cents tied in the corner of a handkerchief, we made both stores before making a selection.
(yea, handkerchief. Tissues were still in the future) Of course, first drain on our hoard of cash was the
ten cents for the movie—real cowboys like Tim McCoy, Gene Autry, Ken Mannard, and a continued piece to see
if Frank Buck managed to get loose from the lion.
About 4 drug stores were situated at strategic locations, where they actually sold fountain
drinks. On a hot summer day what could be better then a frosted cola consumed while sitting on one of the little
wire chairs at a round glass table. But our money never stretched over all of that. Something had to be skipped.
Oh, and I almost forgot the ice cream parlor.
Simple pleasures for simple times and relaxed people. No one felt, nor talked about
being stressed-out. Sure, most were worried about when it was going to rain, the creeks going dry, the
Johnson grass about to take over the field. Accidents happened, people got sick, machinery broke down,
but chances were you could see more smiles than frowns as you mingled with two hundred neighbors.
I have no desire to go back in time, but I have some good memories, and I know you do
too. Cherish them!