Submitted by Tracy Wood 8/5/2006 ==================================================================== Copyright. All rights reserved. http://www.rootsweb.com/~usgenweb/copyright.htm This file was contributed for use in the Qulin Missouri site By: Tracy Wood ==================================================================== Qulin Memories These are some things that I recall growing up in the Qulin area. My Father Thomas A. Wood was a veteran of the First world war and upon returning from overseas went to work at Hunter,s bank as cashier in Campbell,MO. He was a natural piano player as many of the older generations may recall. He was soon married and later went to Chicago to earn more money working days in the bank and playing gigs in a band which he formed known as the Egyptian Serenaders. Other times playing in the houses of pleasure to augment his income as times were hard in the late twenties and early thirties. Of course there were "Fringe benefits" working in the bawdy houses as there were always some girls who always took a shine to the piano player! The Madam even encouraged the activity as everyone was happier - especially Dad! This came to an end when Mom got homesick and wanted to be near her Mother in Malden Mo. so they returned to Campbell and later managed the Deken Ferry store near the St Francis bridge south of Qulin. About this time the banks were closing right and left and that put more of a strange on my parents relationship and one day when Dad was visiting his sister in Chaffee Mom hired a truck,loaded everything along with the three kids and moved back to her Mother,s place in Malden. Dad would come visit us almost every night after closing the store and bring money for supporting us three kids. It just did not work out and about a year later they were divorced. One day I got a big spoon from the kitchen and began digging in the yard. Of course I got dirty and Mom gave me a spanking. When Dad came by that evening and give me a ride in the car I would not get out of the car and Dad said he would just take me home and bring me back the next night. The next morning he asked me if I wanted to return to Malden. Well I was still remembering the spanking I Had the day before and said no I wanted to stay with him. We left that day to find work in Dallas Texas where Dad`s sister lived. From that time forward I remained with Dad. I was not to see my Mother for twenty years later when I was discharged from the service in 1956. We returned about a year later to the Qulin area where Dad started giving piano lessons to about fifteen pupils a week. It was not unusual to take chickens, eggs, ham or vegetables for payment. There was always a free meal at one house or other during these times. Most people had very little money at this time but always had plenty to eat. I started school at the Mayberry one room school house located a couple of miles north of Broseley. My next school was another one room schoolhouse named Calvin about two miles north of the intersection of Highway 53 and 51. Some of you seniors may remember these schools which are now long gone. We next boarded with a couple named J.W. Earp a farmer near the Calvin school. This was a time when there was no D-Con to control the rats and mice which were every where you looked. They had a smoke house where the meat was hung and salted for curing. I recall a large wooden barrel was filled with water to within about eight inches from the top and shoats was put on top so that when the rats tried to jump to the hanging meat they would fall into th water and drown. They also had a water trough at the pump to keep the butter and milk cool. Fresh milk was placed in the old splash churn near the King heater stove to sour and then churned to make butter. Boy that made for some good eating when spread on Homemade biscuits and blackberry jelly! Dad would drive the Earps to Qulin to buy their groceries at Joe Hefner`s store. The Shell station run by Preach Prawl had a bench set up to play checkers. Mr Earp liked checkers and would have to play while in town. He did not know they had rigged the bench with a needle and pulley so when anyone sat on that side so when anyone sat on that side and was concentrating on his next move he would get jabbed in the tush. When Mr Earp said something was biting him Preach Prawl would say the darn fleas were bad this year! It was during the war and rationing of so many items was in effect. Dad was able to get extra gas stamps from his farmer friends to continue his piano teaching rounds. There were about five stores in Qulin. Joe Hefner Sr., Pridys IGA owned by Roscoe Pridy who later was my teacher in fifth grade. His son Sanford and I were best friends and about the sickest I ever got was from smoking tobacco that was procured from his store in a corn cob pipe. We also made ink from polk berries for use in our fountain pens. It was a pretty color but after a short while really smelled bad! Later on Mr. Pridy bought a Kaiser or Frazier car and Sanford sure had a heavy foot and his Dad never knew what a speedy car he had - but we Did!.. Another store in town was the Neighborhood Grocery owned by Alice Bollinger and her sister Pearl. It was located across the street from the Red and White store which had a Loafers bench alongside which faced South and was ideal for keeping up on the latest gossip and telling jokes! The Red & White was owned by Lou Fairbanks and her husband. Next door was Harry Doyle`s Barber shop and the next house was the Waller`s who had the telephone exchange in Qulin. I remember when the Red & White store caught fire and burned to the ground. Our Justice of the Peace Mr. Bob Ledbetter who lived just East of the store was telling about the fire truck which had to come from Poplar Bluff as we had no fire department in Qulin and only pump or well water to use. Of course by the time they arrived it was too late to save anything. Bob said because they arrived so late that they only used the "Little Syringe" coming into town! Of course Preach Prawl would have him tell about the Little Syringe many times which gave everyone quite a laugh! Mr Bill Carter had a sawmill in the South end of town across the street where we lived. I was hired by Mr. Carter to assist the Sawyer a Mr. Rodney Watson turning the logs and "dogging" them in place on the carriage. This job paid BIG Money to a fifteen year old at that time - fifty cents an hour! One day a man from the Social Security office came by to check the records of Mr Carter about who was employed and if the proper withholding was being made. I,m sure some of the old timers will remember a character named Treatse Glass who very seldom sobered up enough to know what day it was. He was working this day and he assured the agent he was just there to see a friend who owed him money. Treatse had sawdust all over him everyone including the agent just laughed. We never did find out who owed him money! There was also a man named Andrew Scott who used a team of mules to drag the logs next to the carriage. He came with a wagon to work which was filled by day`s end with slab wood which he delivered to customers after work. There was a lot of good natured joking at this job. When July would come around, that was blackberry picking time. There were a lot of woods at that time and another good place to find berries along the railroad track. There was a family north of town who had a pet monkey and of course he loved blackberries! We always had to give him some so that cut into our final take home. There was a Mrs Johns who lived nearby who made us jam and jellies for half the berries. She was the Mother of Torrance and Leon whom I know some of you remember. When the cotton crop came in the schools closed to let the kids harvest the crop. I recall John and Fleeta Rodewald farm was very close to town and his two daughters Marcella and Kate would bring water around to the pickers in a bucket. Of course there was only one dipper that everyone shared! That was always a welcome relief and no one was ever sick from the shared Dipper. There was always the occasional green bowl fights that would occur but a yell from the owner who was always at the wagon stopped it for awhile - usually about ten minutes and it was back to the fight. The cotton gin would run all night as the wagons would be backed up to off load. This would give the drivers a chance to visit the beer joints as they were called at that time. Albert Culbertson had a pool hall and next was Eddie Losh's tavern where his Mother Ma Losh made such good meals! Of course there was Marvin McClure's Liquor store and pool hall. There was also Bessie Davis's dance hall that was a favorite - the guys said because she had the loudest Jukebox in town! At that time Mr Wes Williams had a grocery store and he was such a nice person to give credit to some who took advantage of his generosity. Some farmers would buy an excessive amount of sugar and Wes would laugh and say the fruit crop was so good this year they had extra canning to do! Sometimes I would help some wife pick out the particular patterned feed or flour sack to match what she already had or one that just took her fancy. Most of the time you could bet the one she chose would be on the bottom of the pile! I recall Mr. Ted Cruse and wife Irene who lived in Oglesville making sorghum molasses. He would feed the canes into the rollers while a mule would turn in a circle to extract the juice. This was passed thru a number of cooking pans to cook and had to be stirred constantly so it didn't burn. If a fly happened to drop into the syrup - it was just bad luck for the fly! It sure didn't affect the taste of the finished product - it was so good on homemade biscuits. Who can forget the popcorn balls held together with sorghum! Back when I was growing up in Qulin you could get a Bologna sandwich with your Pepsi for a nickel as there were no restrictions serving food in the grocery store. One store was owned by Earl Baird which later was owned by Mr. Wesley Williams. One day Guy Scott another well known resident was in the store and noticed Earl did not wash his hands just after changing the baby on the cutting block! The word spread very quickly what he saw and everyone who used to get there Bologna sandwich made sure they bought them either at Elmer Webbs or Wards store. After Wesley Williams became the owner of course that all changed! There was a young man named Torrance Johns who would work part time in the store especially on weekends. Torrance had the uncanny ability to hold a candy bar along with a cigarette and Coke in one hand while waiting on a customer with the other hand and carry on a conversation all at the same time not missing a beat! Back then the farmers would bring in fresh eggs butter or milk and exchange for some groceries. The eggs would be candled to make sure you didn't get any meat with your eggs. Dad came in one day and asked Wes did he have any fresh brown eggs as they were supposed to taste better and too he had heard on Believe it or Not they were so much stronger than white shell eggs and could be squeezed from the ends with a lot of pressure before breaking. Torrance put a dozen in the bag and brought another for himself which he began to put pressure from the ends in his two palms. Boy to my amazement they did hold together the first few times but then he put his hands between his knees and started applying pressure. About that time the egg broke and went all over him and he looked from one hand to the other and said GOLL -LE -E just like Gomer Pyle on TV. Wesley started laughing and slapping his knee so hard that he almost lost his breath. It was some time before he could finally speak in a normal manner but Torrance was a good sport about the whole thing and laughed about it too. For days afterwards all you had to do was ask Wes for some fresh eggs and he would slap his knee and start laughing all over again! I was 17 yrs. old and Billy Carr and Glenn McDaniel from Webb learned from his brother Frank who worked at the shoe factory in Poplar Bluff that they were hiring. We went together to apply for work and were all three hired. Being only 17 I had to get a work permit from the Social Security office before starting. Back then there was no union or health benefits and it was a real sweat mill but of course we were just glad to make the sixty- five cents an hour! The first time we voted for a Union it didn't pass and things really got worse! We had to wait six months before we could vote again and that time it passed. I worked on a clicking machine stamping out shoe parts and you were like a jack-in-the-box to make your points. If you got proficient in making more than your points for pay above $1.00 an hour they would send in a time and motion person to watch you work. You had to be careful when they were around as they would raise your points to maintain your average! My fellow workers selected me as the shop steward for the lining cutters and as I was pretty brash at that and too young to know better I had to argue some ones case when they would try to fire them. I was ready and willing to get fired and move to work in St. Louis if it came to that. Well it didn't come to that and No one lost their job while I was there. There was a shirt factory in town and my neighbor across the street started working at the shoe factory and his wife worked downtown. His name was Johnny Rose and wife was Florence Rose. There was a Nell Allison who also worked at the shirt factory and we all rode together. It was about this time the Korean War came about and I took my physical for the Army. I waited about two weeks and decided to join the Air Force. I spent four years in service where I eventually met my future wife Chie. I have certainly been lucky to find someone to put up with me all these years. More to come maybe!! Tracy Wood