Small Town Saturday Night

As a farm family in the late 40’s and early 50’s, we didn’t go to town often, but I have fond memories of main street in Cherokee, Oklahoma.

When there were extra eggs and cream to sell, we loaded up the car and made a trip to town on Saturday night. Our first stop was the Cherokee Creamery.

Before we left town that evening we had to make another stop at the Creamery for some ice cream to take home with us.  Inside a few selected cartons they put a little paper entitling you to a free half gallon next time you came in. What fun to be dipping into the box and find that paper!  It was a great simple advertising gimmick.  They probably sold several varieties, but black walnut was our favorite flavor. 

Occasionally we would get to eat supper in town.  A hamburger with French fries was 45 cents at Hayden’s Café.  A cold fountain Coke cost a nickel and was a very special treat for us. I had my first club sandwich at the Keye’s Drugstore and thought it was fancy gourmet food!   And the sweet smell of fried onions and burgers always reminds me of the tiny Kern’s Café on the east side of the street. 

I recall 2 other drugstores downtown at that time, 2 groceries, 2 movie theaters, 2 gas stations, 2 funeral homes, 2 automobile dealerships, 2 banks, 2 lumber yards, a furniture and hardware store, appliance, jewelry, and five or six clothing stores.   I know there were also several other businesses in town including the grain companies, hospital, clinics, and machinery dealers but the favorite businesses for little girls were the 2 variety stores on main street. We seldom had any money to spend except at Christmas time, but we did a lot of window shopping!

My little sister and I also loved to go in the old snooker parlor where we could often find Grandpa Stauffer playing or talking crops with his neighbors.  We could always coax him into buying us a handful of salted Spanish peanuts from the gumball style machine there!

Our other grandpa worked at Perkins Hatchery.  The mixed smell of feeds, minerals, and baby chickens under lights always seemed pleasant to me and that aroma still reminds me of Grandpa Johnson. Often he would watch for and save certain feed sacks that mother wanted to cut up and use to sew dresses for us.

It’s fun to wax nostalgic about these days of the past, but the convenience of one stop shopping at WalMart any hour of any day of the week can’t be ignored either.  I guess I've been blessed to have lived in both eras.