Jack Harden's Memories:
1) During WWII, I remember seeing Mr. Blakeley in the Long Store with his
ear pressed up against the radio intently listening to the news. Sometimes
he would even make comments back to the radio as if the commentator could
hear him..
2) I remember the American Legion baseball games on Sunday afternoons,
watching Red Eubanks, F.L. Eaves, Clemens Beard and other local heroes do
their thing.
3) I remember the carnival coming to town and setting up in the field close
to Mr. Sander‚s store.
4) I remember Harry Sudlow and me putting too many cherry bombs under Mrs.
Grace‚s new foot tub and blowing the bottom out of it. We buried it
somewhere..
5) I remember the good ham sandwiches that were made by different mothers
and were brought to our first grade class where Mrs. Lancaster was our
teacher.
6) I remember riding in the back of Red Eubanks pickup to the away baseball
games in Clearwater, Graniteville, Bath and other far off places.
7) I remember smelling the smoke from the preparations for the BBQ feast at
the Agricultural Club on the 4th Saturday of each month.. Everyone could
smell the BBQ cooking and wanted a taste. If you snuck around to where it
was being cooked, you could usually get a piece of burnt skin which really
tasted like "MANNA, COOKED BY THE GODS".
8) I remember Mr. Mike Cassels coming out in the early morning to greet me
at the depot before starting out on my paper route.
9) I remember sitting in front of the barber shop during WWII and seeing
many US ARMY trucks loaded with soldiers and machine guns come down Main
Street heading for the river landing to practice for war and to build
pontoon bridges.
10) I remember my Mother sitting on the front porch of our house shelling
peas or butter beans and throwing the hulls out in the yard. There was
always someone walking by that we could talk to.
11) I remember Dr. Fred Brinkley‚s automobile tag numbers: D-4 & E-1
12) I remember helping to unload flour from freight cars onto the Cassels
and Co truck so as to earn a quarter for an RC and a big cinnamon roll.
That was „BIG BUCKS‰ in those days. I can still see Robert Jackson with
his always present cigar driving the truck.
13) Robert Jackson also ran a shoe repair shop right beside our house and I
would spend many hours with him watching him fix shoes and as a bonus I
would enjoy the aroma of the raw leather and the polish he used.
14) I remember when the Baptist Church got a Hammond organ and hearing
Miss. Louise Cassels play it for the first time.
15) I remember Lynwood Bush bringing me a new 10 cent cap pistol the day
after I fell out of the car and was knocked unconscious.
16) I remember all the high school girls crying when Mr. Shuler left and
went to run his parents farm.
17) I remember hearing the fire bell ringing several times. About the only
thing it signaled was that whatever was on fire was a goner.
18) I remember flying kites in the field across from Jack Handigans house.
19) I remember soldiers coming from Camp Gordon on Sunday to get a free
meal from welcoming families before going off to war.
20) I remember FANNY MO sticking out her tongue and touching her chin
and/or nose.
21) I remember going to Mrs. Ida Brinkleys house to get some butter or
maybe a gallon of milk fresh from her cow. (THAT FRESH MILK DID NOT
KILL US).
22) I remember my sister taking kids to the THREE RUNS CREEK in the summer
with several of us hanging on to the running boards and one person on each
front fender.
23) I remember the horse drawn wagons of cotton on the way to the gin, on
which we would hitch a ride on the extension sticking out of the rear of
the wagon.
24) I remember Wilbur Outlaw flying his US ARMY AF CARGO plane at TREETOP
LEVEL out of Augusta following the RR tracks and BUZZING THE TOWN.
25) I remember my dog POSSUM following us to and sometimes meeting us at
church every Sunday and waiting outside until the service was over.
26) I remember Mr. Oswald Bush selling cantaloupes from his truck for
10 cents each.
27) I remember watching and later playing with the German Prisoners who
loaded watermelons in freight cars for shipment to NYC. From time to time
they would break a watermelon, dig in and give me just the heart. If things
got slow the prisoners would stop and play a little catch with us if we
happened to have a usable baseball without too much tape.
28) I remember the sadness expressed by all of the townspeople when the
word came that Roy McElhenny had been killed in action.
29) I remember Tom and Gene Dunbar taking me to Henry Rishers filling
station, getting me my own beer or beers and bringing me home quite drunk
to my mother with a lit cigar in my mouth. She was not a happy
camper. This episode probably did me good as I have had very little to
drink since that time..
30) I remember Rev. Parkinson demonstrating his new WIRE RECORDER and
thought it was a miracle.
31) I Remember Dr. Culbreth pulling down my pants right on MAIN ST. in
front of his office to examine me after I had a bicycle accident. I also
remember him, with my dads help removing my dog Stranger‚s leg after he had
been hit by a railway motorcar.
32) I remember May 8th 1945 when I came home from the Aiken County Hospital
after having surgery for the bicycle accident and reading the headlines in
the Augusta Chronicle “VICTORY IN EUROPE”.
33) I remember seeing all the photos in the front window of the drugstore
of the LOCAL SERVICEMEN who were off at war and wondering where they were
and how many of them would come home.
34) I remember seeing the last two cars of FIDO filled with US Marine
recruits going to Paris Island most every morning.
35) I remember looking forward to going with my mother to Methodist
Missionary meetings at various members houses. My favorite was to go to
Mrs Yoemans house as she always had some delicious leftover biscuits and
would give me one or two against my mother‚s wishes along with some syrup
poured in a hole made by my finger.
36) I remember going to Augusta with my Mother and having BRUNSWICK STEW
OVER TOAST at Walgreens and to me it was a feast fit for a king.
37) I remember loading cotton into boxcars from the railway platform for
Mr. C.A. Smith who paid me a nickel a bale..
38) I remember My dad and Mr. Meyers getting up in the middle of the night
to inspect President Roosevelts‚ train for “HOTBOXES” when it was on its
way from Washington to Warm Springs Ga.
39) I remember the Savannah River flooding and coming up not too far from
Basil Brinkley’s house.
40) I remember going to the funeral of Tom Bolware who crashed his plane in
Long Island Sound and was killed after surviving the horrible battles of
wherever he may have been.
41) I remember being with my mother when she had duty as a plane spotter.
She and others would set up shop in a little shack across for O‚berry‚s
house and report all plane flights by telephone to somebody.
42) I remember one lonely summer afternoon sitting in front of the barber
shop and seeing a train hit a car driven by Hezzie Harrison. Luckily only
one person was killed as there were at least 10 people in the car.
43) I remember George Bush (NOT OF WASHINGTON FAME) dragging his CROAKER
SACK around town, stopping to sing a song while strumming on his washboard
with a nail.
44) I remember seeing Mr. Yoemans leaning way back while driving around in
that big car.
45) I remember Eddie Lamken, Mrs. Mary Harleys cook holding a funeral
service for his dog.
46) I remember Belt Low selling fish from a box every Saturday on the
corner right up from our house.
47) I remember putting glue and Ink in Claudia Owen‚s pigtails at school
and how mad her mother was. ( I later learned how mad she really was.)
48) I remember when Father Divine or Daddy Grace would hit town and there
would be all kinds of celebrations in the black community. They seemed to
be having such a great time and a joyous celebration
49) I remember the TENT REVIVALS set up in the field across from Brinkley‚s
store.
50) I remember the ladies of the town using the second floor of the drug
store to roll and prepare bandages to send overseas or somewhere for our
wounded servicemen.
51) I remember seeing Danny Blackwell, age 12 or 13 who was dying of
cancer and not understanding how someone so young could have this disease.
His brother Sammy was a Submarine Sailor out there somewhere.
52) I remember playing the PIN BALL MACHINES at Jean Shaw‚s store.
53) I remember the end of summer and the start of school and how it was
interrupting my play time.
54) I remember having a Red Ryder BB gun and doing some things with it
which I won‚t mention but most of all I don‚t remember shooting Peggy
Franklin Brinkley with it as she claims. She says that she is still
carrying one of my BB‚S on her torso. Don‚t believe it.
55) Last but not least I remember while working for Marion Brinkley I went
home for supper one Saturday night and on my return trip I decided to run
in the middle of the road so as not to hit anyone on the sidewalk. That was
not to be. Mr. Eubanks had the same idea, if he walked in the middle of
the road he would stay out of everyone‚s way∑ We did collide with lots of
force, knocking Mr. Eubanks to the pavement, scratching him up pretty good
and leaving a knot in the middle of my head. Mr Eubanks jumped up with his
usual comment, „TOWBESHORE, TOWBESHORE‰. It was hard to explain to Marion
and Carl when I got back to the store. Luckily one of us was not killed.
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