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CHAPTER EIGHT

Saturday Night--Alive!

Saturday night in Moulton during the thirties and forties was never the loneliest night in the week for most. This was the night that grocery stores (including Bybee Bros. Kash Grocery) did not close at six o'clock, as usual, but stayed open until ten or later. All farmers who could put one foot ahead of the other and had the necessary transportation (sometimes horse and wagon) began, early in the day, filtering into town, with their week's accumulation of cream, eggs, and any other produce they could scrape together. These were sold, mainly to the grocery stores because the proceeds were usually spent right on the spot for next week's supplies. Some did take their produce to the "poultry house," which was located down near the "Q" tracks on Main Street.

Saturday was normally a care-free, festive day for the farming families as well as for town folk, when they met their friends in town, visited relatives, or just had a relaxing day in general. Those of us who had to work did not enjoy it quite as much, but it was always a pleasant break in Moulton's normally quiet routine. The young at heart, all ages, took full advantage of the occasion.

Practically every store on Main Street was open and lighted, and there would be a concert by the town band in Pulliam Park. It was an especially good night for those of high-school age, and for their spectators. The girls would walk, usually in twos or threes and also usually counter-clockwise, around the street from the Colonial to the E. Wood Co. and come back on the other side, from Hart Bros. station to the Bybee store.

Several feet behind the girls were the boys, going in the same direction and trying to be what would be called "cool" these days. Cars were parked into the curb and the parade of young people was carefully observed by the parents, relatives, and acquaintances sitting in their cars, all of whom felt a great responsibility for the morals, not only for their immediate family, but for any relative or any one they knew, for that matter.

This promenade would go on throughout the night, with some of the boys joining their girlfriends and intermingling with others to keep the motion going.

Quite strangely, the boys and girls thinned out on Main, long before time to close the stores and go home for another week. Many preferred the dimly lit park to the lights of down-town Moulton. Occasionally, a very happy girl would show up in the store with her parents as they picked up their purchases and readied to go home. Also occasionally, one of these girls would have forgotten to brush the grass from the back of her clothing.

Prohibition, as it was called, was still in effect since the 18th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution had not been repealed, and hard liquor was still illegal in this country. Beer, as we know it today with its high alcoholic content, was also verboten. "Near Beer" was the drink of the day for most, because it was legal (we even sold it in grocery stores) but had a practically nonexistent alcohol content. This left the field open to bootleggers, who sold pure alcohol--in most cases, for "spiking" the near beer and other soft drinks, such as Coca Cola. The nickname, "Coke," had not been coined at this time.

Moulton had its share of bootleggers, some local and some who sold as they came through in their daily business, such as the truck drivers who delivered bread to the stores. Drunkenness was not a problem, usually, except in the minds of doting mothers, such as Cecil, who considered taking a drink a mortal sin--one of many which would never be forgiven. When my brother, Bob, ran his "hamburger joint" she nearly worried herself to death over his morals, since some of the vendors would frequent the place on Saturday nights. As far as I could see, it was not really a problem for anyone but Cecil.

After "repeal," The worry was the local "beer joint," next to our store, run by Howard Bragdon. At that point, all that was legal was 3.2% beer (alcoholic content) which was mild by present-day standards, but heartily welcomed by those who "drank." Near Beer continued to be sold, on a much smaller scale, for some time after real beer was legalized. Bootleggers, naturally, disappeared from the scene.

The passing of prohibition did not change Saturday nights very much. Drunkenness was never a big problem. Occasionally, there would be someone who had had too much (or thought he had, and was showing off), but this was the exception rather than the rule.

Saturday nights, and other nights as well, were livened up somewhere around 1940, when a roller skating rink came to town. It was a great addition to our limited entertainment, not only for the young people, but for some of the "older kids." People gathered around the rink, which had open sides, and as many as could find space parked their cars there, rather than on Main Street. The recorded music was of the popular type and everyone enjoyed it.

I did not know how to skate, since I had not learned earlier when it would have been quite easy. My earlier excess weight kept me from enjoying such things or entering into sports. In my younger years, I was called by some (including my sister), "Mr. Five By Five," which was the name of a popular song at the time. I lost the excess weight while in high school, so this was not a problem at this time. I just had not learned how to skate.

But one night, I made up my mind that I would try it. I even went so far as putting on the skates. Two of Moulton's most famous jokers, Dick Eby, editor and publisher of The Moulton Tribune, and Hugh Wood, of the E. Wood & Co. Store, came up behind me and got me out on the floor of the rink. Despite all my hollering, screaming and begging, they took me around with all the other skaters as fast as the two of them could do it! Of course, I was not skating. I either had my feet way out in front, or trailing behind, with the two of them skating and propelling me just as fast as possible.

Needless to say, I have not put on a pair of skates since that night.

During my last year of high school, 1937-38, Moulton received another boost in entertainment for young people. Vanner Hornsten, in his drug store, installed Moulton's first juke box (a Wurlitzer RockOla) in a small room, upstairs, at the rear of his store. It was "out of sight," literally, from the prying eyes of the public. Most of us had never seen a "nickelodeon" before and it was a great attraction, especially since the little room had a dime-sized floor, just perfect for close dancing.

I and my friends and schoolmates spent many pleasant hours in that room, feeding in the nickels to keep the music playing and learning to dance at the same time.

Records that stick in my mind are those by some of the well known swing bands, such as Benny Goodman's "Don't Be That Way," and several by Horace Heidt and His Musical Knights, including "Half Moon on the Hudson," with Alvino Rey on the guitar and the King Sisters. More of us took our first dance steps in that little room than we can now remember, and more of us found our first girl/boy friends there and went out on our first dates from there than will ever be told.

Vanner was not what you would call a well-respected citizen in Moulton, but we of that era will always remember and thank him for giving us a great place to hang out.

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