Growing up in a small town had its ups and downs. But oh how I miss him.
The town was small, so small that you knew everyone who lived there. It was nice because we had our own little community.
There were no big stores there. Just a little shop where you could buy bread and milk, that is, if you were there early in the morning, sweets, soda and little things like that. They also had the old fashioned soda fountain with the bar that you could sit at and drink your soda. Something you don’t see very often these days. In the summer you can buy tomatoes, potatoes and ears of corn fresh from the garden. They had some little things for the house, but not much. We used to love going up there with our pennies. So you could buy candy, 2 for a penny. And the gumball machine that had specks on certain gumballs. If you have that, you have ten cents worth of free candy. Oh the pennies I would put in that machine. I thought it was awesome. Free gum and candy on top of that. Remember when you could buy a candy bar, and I’m talking about a bigger one than you buy now and it was only five cents. A pack of cigarettes cost thirty-two cents. Well, the store owners have retired. Which, as a kid, I thought they should have retired many years earlier. His children did not want to continue running the store, they wanted to go live in the city.
We also had a post office that was in the front room of a lady’s house. We would go in there and look in the glass window and see if there was anything in our box. She used to annoy me when they would tell me what was in my mailbox before she gave it to me. As I said, everyone knew everyone and knew everyone’s business. If you want to know something, just go to the post office. You found out what was happening in your city without even asking.
Then we had the old school house. I only went there for first, second and third grade. The building was deteriorating and they decided to take us out of the city by bus. The school only had four very large rooms, with a wardrobe between the rooms. Two rooms were on the first floor and two rooms upstairs. First and second grade were in one room… First grade on the right side and second grade on the left side. The second room had third and fourth grades and upstairs there were fifth and sixth in one room and seventh and eighth in the other. The other grades were busted. Each room was heated with a potbellied stove. Reminds me of old cowboy movies. At that time, they did not have a kindergarten, or it was not thought of at that time, or they simply did not have enough space for them. It was a great school. We had recess in the morning and afternoon and would walk home for lunch. What kids don’t do nowadays. We had a teacher for two grades. So you really got to know her. It was a sad time when school was closed and it was scary to ride a school bus to school. And no more going home at lunchtime.
We had many neighbors who planted large gardens and sold their produce. I remember going to a guy’s house and buying tomatoes. He would tell her I need fifty cents worth of tomatoes. He would take a big bag of tomatoes home. What we pay five dollars today would probably cost us thirty cents back then. I don’t know if everyone got that many or if I was just being generous because there were so many in our family and fifty cents wasn’t much. He sure gave us a lot. Corn on the cob… I’d buy a dozen and he’d always throw in something extra. what a boy
Everyone watched over everyone back then. Today no one wants to get involved. Oh, and did I mention getting in trouble? You think no one sees you until you come home. Like that time I was on my way to a friend’s house and I walked through the middle of the train tracks. Wow, I warmed my butt when I got home. That was a no no. Trains ran pretty fast back then.
And the time I was caught smoking walking down the road. There were eyes everywhere, even if you couldn’t see them. I remember the time my sister and I bought a pack of cigarettes. At that time I had a pack and she did not. She wanted some and I wouldn’t give her any. Well I was walking around and I lit a cigarette, bang, I lit another, bang, the brat loaded up half my pack with loads of cigarettes. Talk about crazy. But who could I tell? He wasn’t supposed to be smoking, he was only about 13 or 14 at the time. But sooner or later I got revenge on her. I could never find her cigarettes to get even with. Here years later I found a hardcover book in the closet, opened it up, and in the middle of the pages, she punched a hole the size of a cigarette pack. What a clever idea. Of course, mom didn’t find it until she grew up and she made herself.
I could go on and on about life in the small country town, but I’m running out of energy. I don’t know what you missed