I grew up on a farm about five miles from the nearest town, Oak Grove. My dad was a tenant farmer who rented several farms including pasture land to support our dairy cows, which we milked and sold Grade A milk.
All the farmers in the area came to town on Saturday night. They sold their cream and eggs for enough money to buy groceries for the upcoming week. Looking back, I now realize it was probably the perfect place to grow up. Farm kids ran all over town without their parents worrying about drug dealers, sex offenders, or any crime. I did, however, make friends with a town boy who was real friendly and probably slightly retarded. He was always telling me things that were sort of backwards, such as when he was explaining how another town boy might take advantage of me by saying “Give him a mile and he’ll take an inch”. Another time I asked him where he was going and he said, “That’s for you to know and me to find out”.
Most of the kids got a nickel allowance on Saturday night. John Madsen from Oak Grove said he would spend half the night deciding how to spend the five cents.
A lady from my church, Leah Jett, grew up on a farm near Bethany and remembers going to town there on Saturday night. My wife Laura was from Mountain Grove where the farmers and their families came to town on Saturday afternoon. In my hometown, the farmers all raised row crops and continued to work on Saturday, where as in Mountain Grove, most farmers raised cattle or operated a dairy farm so it was more convenient for them to shop in the afternoon. Mountain Grove has a square so the girls walked around the square one direction, and the boys the opposite direction.
I figure you would have to be over seventy years old to remember going to town on Saturday because most of the towns discontinued the Saturday tradition after television came along. However, if you have memories you would like to share, please contact me.
Jack can be reached at PO Box 40, Oak Grove, MO 64075 or jackremembers@aol.com
No comments:
Post a Comment