West Jefferson in Days Gone By - series 150 by Charlie Miller

Gladys Jewett continued.

We played on the dry goods boxes

In front of Byron Fellows store,

But when “Bird” Clark rang the curfew,

We weren’t there any more.

Across the street from our home

Stood the bakery of John Kubitschack;

The trips that I made to that store,

Would more than fill “Santa’s” pack.

If we had a nickel for candy,

We would spend one cent at each store;

And then put it all in one sack

And ‘twould make a pound or more

We would stroll to the old town bridge,

The creek where we all loved to wade,

At the sound of the six o”clock bell,

Home to supper we all would raid.

Last but not least was our hay mow,

The place where had our big shows;

A trapeze was hung from the rafters

Where we tried to hang by our toes.

Now those carefree days are over,

The old town is a different place.

New faces and places have changed it.

But sweet memories even time can’t erase.

I wish everyone could know of the places that she described. The stream, of course, is Little Darby Creek. The town pump sat in front of the Baptist Church on Main Street. The Opera House is still the town hall, though remodeled. It had a nickelodeon theater and traveling shows. The schoolhouse was the Union School that sat in the middle of what is now Garrette Park. The old sawmill sat off of Fellows Avenue, just east of the old high school where the old athletic field was, now the site of the Ox Roast. “Little Dick” was L. C. Dick; he was a teacher, Post Master, and the County Superintendent. I can remember him probably from 1942 when I was in the 1^st Grade, and he visited our class. He was a little short man. ‘Bird’ Clark was the town Night Watchman.