The Hancock-Henderson Quill, Inc.
by Clinton Sears, Macomb (formerly of La Harpe) for "The Quill"
After reading the January 13 Pioneer People article by Suzanne Miller, it brought back many memories and I thought I might add a few more.
Yes, I remember Wednesday and Saturday night when you could not find a place to park. Some people would bring in one car at noon and park so they would have a place to sit that night.
Farmers would come from miles around and bring a can of cream, a case of eggs, or maybe a gunny sack full of chickens to sell at Bradford produce so they could buy groceries.
Do you remember 7 gas stations in town? There was Midway, Farm Bureau, Conoco, Sinclair, Standard, Phillip 66, and Ed Randall station at the east end of town. I don't remember what kind of gas he sold.
Do you remember 3 car dealerships? "Pop" Cole Chevrolet with the wood bench out front, Charles Sticklin Ford, and Painter Kaiser-Fraizer.
Do you remember on the east side of park the school's Ag shop, a laundromat, and a J.I. Case farm store?
Do you remember these 3 eating places in town. Dunns Cafe, Mids Cafe, Traveler's Inn and later on Sugar Daddy's?
Do you remember 2 drug stores? Yes, that's what they were called back then before the country went to pot. You could go in to Wilson drug store to get an ice cream cone and eat it as fast as you could to get to that little paper in the bottom that said free only to find BETTER LUCK NEXT TIME.
There were 3 barber shops in town as well as Thompson Merchant Exchange, Gittings Hardware, Cratsenberg's Brown Lynch Scott, Hopkins Newstand, Shriver Meat Market, and Long's Meat Market.
Do you remember the La Harpe creamery trucks that hauled milk from the farms in ten gallon cans and it was processed at the creamery. There was an old ice house at the east end of town where you could stop in and get a chunk of ice to hurry home and make a freezer of homemade ice cream . They ran an ice route in the country for farms that had no electricity and they just had ice boxes to keep their food cool. I drove one of those trucks one summer.
I just have one more "Remember When". It is the Quill and the picture of the old man's son.
"Well if you can't smile, grin a little and have a good day."