Who remembers these?

[BarryBobPosthole]

A bit of a Thumper backstory. Back when I was a little kid, we lived in a very small town of 300-400 people at the most called Boles, Arkansas. When Eisenhower was elected president, the postmaster spot came open at the post office in Boles and there was only one republican in the entire county so he got appointed postmaster. That may sound far fetched but its the truth. His name was Sam Calvert and his wife's name was Leila. My family all referred to him as 'the old Repubican'. My Uncle Huck used to stand in for them when they had to go somewhere or needed time off. My Uncle Buster claimed Sam would use the light bulbs and batteries in the store and sell them as new. His old store had a meat counter, shelves of dusty canned goods, and an old pot bellied stove. Sam would shovel a lump of coal in that stove and it would get cherry red on the outside. God but I can remember how hot it was around that stove. You either froze or burnt up, sometimes both, at Sam's store. He also sold Federal shotgun shells, which was another reason my Uncle Buster wouldn't do business there.
He said squirrels shot with Federals would crawl off, and swore by purple Peters with brass an inch long.
Anyway, around that stove were four or five ladderback wooden chairs, each with a deer hide stretched over the seat. There was a little hair left in places but mostly they were shiny from many butts in them. I'd sure like to make another chair like those. Lots of folks had them in their house too. Anybody else old enouh to remember those old chairs or remember when the post office was a store, gathering place, and post office all rolled into one?



BKB

[quercus alba]

I remember the deer hide chairs, we were a little more sophisticated since we lived in a town of 600. I remember the barber used manual clippers and put some purple stuff on your ear when he nicked you. He also had ten cent cokes

[Big Skyz]

Man, you guys are old! :)

[BarryBobPosthole]

I remember the deer hide chairs, we were a little more sophisticated since we lived in a town of 600. I remember the barber used manual clippers and put some purple stuff on your ear when he nicked you. He also had ten cent cokes

I wonder if it was the same purple iodine we'd spray on calves to prevent screw worms when we'd cut calves?

BKB

[Big Muddy]

Yep, methylene blue, coal oil, turpentine, and quinine would cure anything on man or beast. ;)

[quercus alba]

His name was Alvin Owens but we called him butcher Owens. Later on he closed the Barber shop down and turned it into a pool hall. Kept his barber chairs, you could get your ears lowered while listening to The Bee Gees

[Thumper]

We always had red/orange cuts from the ol' bottle of Mercurochrome with the glass applicator that came out for every cut or scratch we got as kids. Kinda like the warm honey and lemon whenever we had a cough.

I remember those old rockers well and we had the same type "general store" right down the road from my grandmother's place in N.C. In the summer, the chairs were lined up outside the store all across the front. Right alongside was the old Coke cooler with the sliding doors across the top and the ice man would drop off a few blocks of ice to keep those glass coke bottles ice cold. They were a nickel back then, the same price as a popsickle. Then they both went to 6-cents, then 7 and finally settled on 10-cents all within a few years. Damned inflation! There was a big ol' jar of peppermint sticks on the counter next to the register and the ol' guy who owned the store would always let me open the jar and get one (he didn't even charge me the 1-cent that was written on the front of the jar). In the middle of the store was that old coal-fired pot-belly stove. When it was cold, all those rockers from out front, would get moved into the store and would be circled around the stove. The stove sat in a square box full of gravel to contain any sparks that escaped. The problem was, those old coots would sit around that stove and spit tobacco on the thing the whole time they sat there "conversing". I can still hear the sizzle and smell that NASTY smell, but for some reason it seemed normal at the time. I can remember sitting in one of those chairs and my shins and knees would get so hot I thought my dungarees would catch fire! If you stood next to it, you had to keep rotating as your front side would be burning up, but your back would be frozen.

Now, does anybody remember this? At that store as well as most stores like that, there was a big half barrel out front full of water and there'd be a long handled dipper hangin' on a nail next to it. That was the public drinking fountain! Heck, even downtown, there'd be a bucket or barrel out on the sidewalk with a dipper for people to stop and get a drink of water!

The old barbershop downtown was owned by a guy named Wimpy. I can't remember the guy who owned the store. :(

[BarryBobPosthole]

Ha! We had a barber in my hometown, probably still do I'll have to check, named Wimp Webb. His older brother was Spider Webb and he was a new car dealer in town. Spider was reputed to be involved in the local weed trade back then. You can't make this shit up. Sounds like a Longmire episode.
BKB

[Chicken Dinner]

I am still convinced to this day that Mercurochrome serves no medical purpose other than to stop a kid from crying. I know when I'd go crying to my Mom about some cut or scrape the first thing she'd say was somebody go get the Mercurochrome and those tears would dry right up and I'd change my tune about how my amputation was just a scratch that required no medical attention.

[LJ3]

Monkey blood.

We had a barber shop that was pretty similar to the General stores for you guys. My town was 1,500 so practically a metropolis! Had big ass comfy chairs, cigar smoke and stacks of playboys as far as the eye could see. Those damn 10 cent coke bottles were a bitch to pull out of that old ass machine but it was about the coolest place you could go for a kid.

[DeputyDog]

We always had red/orange cuts from the ol' bottle of Mercurochrome with the glass applicator that came out for every cut or scratch we got as kids. Kinda like the warm honey and lemon whenever we had a cough.

I remember those old rockers well and we had the same type "general store" right down the road from my grandmother's place in N.C. In the summer, the chairs were lined up outside the store all across the front. Right alongside was the old Coke cooler with the sliding doors across the top and the ice man would drop off a few blocks of ice to keep those glass coke bottles ice cold. They were a nickel back then, the same price as a popsickle. Then they both went to 6-cents, then 7 and finally settled on 10-cents all within a few years. Damned inflation! There was a big ol' jar of peppermint sticks on the counter next to the register and the ol' guy who owned the store would always let me open the jar and get one (he didn't even charge me the 1-cent that was written on the front of the jar). In the middle of the store was that old coal-fired pot-belly stove. When it was cold, all those rockers from out front, would get moved into the store and would be circled around the stove. The stove sat in a square box full of gravel to contain any sparks that escaped. The problem was, those old coots would sit around that stove and spit tobacco on the thing the whole time they sat there "conversing". I can still hear the sizzle and smell that NASTY smell, but for some reason it seemed normal at the time. I can remember sitting in one of those chairs and my shins and knees would get so hot I thought my dungarees would catch fire! If you stood next to it, you had to keep rotating as your front side would be burning up, but your back would be frozen.

Now, does anybody remember this? At that store as well as most stores like that, there was a big half barrel out front full of water and there'd be a long handled dipper hangin' on a nail next to it. That was the public drinking fountain! Heck, even downtown, there'd be a bucket or barrel out on the sidewalk with a dipper for people to stop and get a drink of water!

. :(

I remember that too. Wait a minute, what I remember was from an old Gunsmoke rerun.

You guys are older than dirt.


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[Nandy]

We also had a store/post office/buss stop/school bus stop, all in one. Kids will get the mail to their houses every evening after being drop by the school bus. The guy that ran the store was real nice guy. Amazing, how this could be happening the same in two separate countries....

[BarryBobPosthole]

We also had a store/post office/buss stop/school bus stop, all in one. Kids will get the mail to their houses every evening after being drop by the school bus. The guy that ran the store was real nice guy. Amazing, how this could be happening the same in two separate countries....

People are the same everywhere my friend.

BKB