Saturdays When I Was Growing Up

Saturdays sure have changed a lot since I grew up. I don't know if I can put into words, but it was fun back then. We didn't have a Walmart or Mall to do our shopping in, but we did have a General Store where one could buy food, clothing, tools, feed for the animals and seeds and fertilizer. You could also buy candy and cookies from big glass jars. Sugar, flour, corn meal and dried beans, rice and peas could be bought by the pound or by larger amounts. Lard was sold in buckets. We only bought that when we had used up the lard we had rendered when we killed the hogs. Crackers were kept in barrels and you could buy as many as you needed. A few cracker and some cheese cut from a big block was a good lunch for a hungry person. Saturday was the shopping day for most country people. Since there wasn't a lot of cars during this time and the Great Depression had made everybody poor, travel mostly was done riding in the farm wagon pulled by the faithful team of mules. We would sit on our front porch and wave at the neighbors as the rode into town. We didn't ride into town, we lived close enough to walk there. Everybody went to town on Saturday afternoon. Some went early and stayed all day. Our little town had three general stores, a drug store, a barber shop and two doctors offices. The stores were lined up in a row with a common sidewalk. There were benches in front of each store. That's where all the people met to do their visiting for the week. The little sidewalk would be so crowded you would have to push your way through. But it was fun to be there. You would see friends you hadn't seen all week. In the summer when the church ladies made ice cream and sold it by the cone was a good time. They would set the freezer and all the fixing in a shaded spot and sell the cones for .05 cents? It would melt and be messy, but oh so good. At the end of the day everybody went home until next Saturday. It was nice to go visit friends and shop on Saturday. Nobody was in a rush, Oh well, times do change. S