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The Slice: Remembering a rural way of life
The Slice’s discussion of the days when stores were closed on Sunday prompted some farm country nostalgia.
“Your column today brought back some really good memories,” wrote Arloine Brown of Davenport. “All stores were closed on Sundays at the time I was a child (’20s and ’30s). That’s just the way it was so nobody thought anything about it.
“The big thing, though, was that made Saturday evening special. Everybody (that I knew) came to town. The stores stayed open late, the local movie was a big hit, men gathered on the sidewalks and pools halls, women visited and did the weekly grocery shopping, and we kids got to run all over. What fun it was!
“Even the local restaurant – the Mitten – let us take up a booth with our cherry phosphates (or, on a splurge, a 15 cent milkshake).
“It seemed like those great Saturday nights went on forever.
“Sundays were church, rest time and visits and were great preparation for the busy week on the farm.”
Agree or disagree: “We moved here in 1977 because we wanted four seasons and loved the weather for many years, but it has changed,” wrote Chris Bishop of Blanchard, Idaho. “I would like to go back to the weather we enjoyed before the summers got hotter and the winters got milder.”
The volcano as catalyst for romance: “Mount St. Helens introduced my wife and me,” wrote Glenn Williams of Spokane. “When the mountain erupted in 1980, because of unknown health concerns that the ash might cause, WSU gave students the option of leaving with the grades they had at that point or staying for finals – 15,000 students took them up on the offer and left.
“Of the few that stayed (some, like Lori, because they didn’t have a ride and the rest, like me, who needed to attempt to improve their grades), it was an opportunity for new connections.
“We met at a party, the only non-couple, and were the only ones to later marry. Coming up on 33 years!
“Have to admit though, that once I met her, couldn’t think of anything else so taking finals didn’t help my grades at all.”
Today’s Slice question: Ever wonder how your life might be different if you had gone to college or, if you did go to college, you had gone to a different school?
Write The Slice at P. O. Box 2160, Spokane, WA 9910; call (509) 459-5470; email pault@spokesman.com. Do the people you knew who are now dead outnumber those you know who are alive and kicking?