This week’s column gives responses to questions or relates memories evoked from previous articles. Thanks to each one who shared a memory.
• Fred Allen Barfoot remembers making nightly rounds at the Compress with his grandfather Fox C. Lewis, who carried a flashlight and “punched” clocks all over the property. Fred Allen was young enough to be scared with every step, every corner turned. Kenny Joe Bankston also made some rounds with his grandfather Leon Sansing. Another night watchman was W.G. Foster, grandfather of Lois McMullan and Jean Zimmer.
During his high school years, Fred Allen Barfoot was the soda jerk at Alexander’s Pharmacy. Both John and Campbell worked as pharmacists, Birdie Mae Hester Cooper was one of the primary sales persons, and Merlene Vance Fulton was the bookkeeper.
Fred Allen explains that the soda fountain was renowned because they made their own ice cream. At the north end of the soda fountain counter was a built-in, 5-gallon ice cream machine, and every Friday after school, he made batches of vanilla, then chocolate, then strawberry and finally their rare orange pineapple.
They had to be made in that order because strawberry and orange pineapple took “forever” to clean from the machine. In the summer, he made ice cream on other days as well, making sure they had ample supplies.
Saturday was when all the farmers came to town, and many of them had to have their favorite dish, milk shake, sundae, or banana split even fairly early in the morning. Fridays and Saturdays, he was exhausted at closing time, he said, but he loved the busyness of the job and the wonderful mix of customers.
• Mary Ware recalls a cotton gin at Little Rock owned by Walter Williams and his son, Willie Williams. She also remembers Leon Cooksey was a mechanic and W.M. Johnson was bookkeeper for Lee Chevrolet.
• Mrs. Barbara Roebuck also remembers a cotton gin at Stratton by the railroad and one at Neshoba on old Highway 15.
• Larry Driskell remembers his dad O’Cona Driskell, R.L. Sessions, and Claude Livingston working at Milling Motor Co.
• Ralph Germany recalls more workers at the Chevrolet dealership: James Hunter, radiators; Ronnie Addy, mechanic on used cars; Austin Creighton; and Frank Pinson, body shop.
• Norma Jean Lowe remembers working at Hawthorne Chevrolet with Becky Phillips, Eddie Rettburg, Carr Arthur, Ralph Staton and Nellie Hamil.
• Diann Cleveland’s dad Willie Frank Meador was a salesman for Lee Chevrolet.
• Valerie Miller and Suzi McDill’s aunt Emma Jean Horton kept books for Leon White at White Auto Co.
• Kenneth White’s dad J.P. White worked at White Auto as a Front End and Wheel Balance Technician. Delmer “Doc” Smith and Andy White worked for Lee Chevrolet in Parts and Tom Harris also worked there.
• Bobbie Herrington White bought her first car at Lee Chevrolet in 1972 from her uncle W.H. “Skinny” Herrington. It was a 1972 Chevelle Malibu, two-door sport coupe. The bill of sale, which they still have, lists the date of sale March 30, 1972, and the cost $3,804.23.
• When reading about Sessums Hotel, Barbara Roebuck was reminded of her mother-in-law, Miss Winnie Roebuck. Around 1940, she sold butter, milk and eggs. Her son Fred would load the basket on his bicycle with those dairy products and ride from their home on the unpaved Conehatta Road to Sessums Hotel where Ma Sessums bought her goods. Mrs. Winnie was able to buy a piano and a bedroom suit with the money that she made from those sales.
• Fred Allen Barfoot remembers trips to G.N. Staton’s cotton gin on West Jackson Road/Hwy. 492 just across from Winstead’s Grocery. When he was small, he rode with the pickers on the piled-high cotton on the wagon from his grandmother Mrs. S.B. Barfoot’s farm to the gin. They would have to wait sometimes for hours as the long line of wagons slowly entered the tin-walled building.
The pickers would nap during the wait, as they had picked all day and would be up at dawn the next day to repeat until the picking was finished. At that time, school started in August but closed in September when cotton picking was done, as even the youngest farm kids were needed.
• When Louis Skinner recalls his pastime in the 1940s and 1950s, coon hunting quickly comes to his mind. Some of the boys of Union High School, including Louis, Michael Ross, Cameron Clark, Jerry Lane, Bird Dog and Tater Walters, Lee Winstead, and Anthony Pilgrim spent many nights in the woods listening to hounds chasing ring-tailed bandits.
The outdoor adventure, the close camaraderie, and the good hounds at chase were enough to thrill any young man. Louis remembers one high school assembly as Union’s Coach G.C. Kirksey spoke on and on about the merits of organized sports in an attempt to recruit more young men. Finally, Coach asked the gym full of students, “What could be more red-blooded and American than football?” Michael Ross loudly quipped, “Coonhunting!”
Here are this week’s stories
• What was the first convenience store in Union that cooked fast food?
• When I was in high school, Union was in the Choctaw Conference. In 1969, the football team won the conference championship. When did conferences begin and end?
If you have memories to share, contact me at teresablount26@yahoo,.com or 601-774-5564 or 109 Woodhaven Drive, Union, MS 39365.
