Odds & Ends

Where have you seen this sign before? If you lived in Cliffside, and you're old enough, you probably walked under it hundreds of times.

What is this?

And where did it come from? It very likely was issued from a device that, if you lived in Cliffside in the '40s and '50s, you walked by a thousand times. For a penny it dispensed information of a very personal nature.

Old Desk Thermometer

Back in the Christmas season of 1940 or '41 you might have been the recipient of one of C. P. Hamrick's desk thermometers. His store gave one to every customer's household.

Cliffside “Jewelry”

You never know what'll turn up in Odds & Ends. The latest is an image of two common objects, although not as common as they once were, for they're not made anymore. Hang on to yours. Someday they may be valuable collectibles.

 

Documents: Old Letter

In the summer of 1901 R. R. Haynes wrote a friend about the progress being made in building the Cliffside Mill. Surprisingly, they had not even started erecting the mill walls. He seemed pessimistic, or at least uncertain, about the state of things, and the direction the company was taking.

Rust Works Slowly

Time can take away the institutions of our youth, but it can't quickly destroy all evidence that they existed.

Black Bear Trail

Cliffside was once a way station on the Black Bear Trail, "the Scenic Route for Tourists Between the North and the South."

Guessing Game

If there had been personalized license plates in Cliffside back in 1956 (and there weren't), whose car would have displayed this plate?

 

Old Letterheads

As we were looking through the mill's old correspondence, we were struck by the ornate letterheads companies used in those days, a time when their stationery was their only feasible means of advertising.

The Fair

Is it just us, but in days gone by was the Cleveland County Fair the greatest of them all? Here, in Odds & Ends, is a great old ad for the fair of 1938. Maybe we should all go back this year and see if the excitement is still there.

Did You Know?

Who wrote the words to Cliffside School's song? ("Three cheers for dear old Cliffside High...") We never gave it much thought, probably assuming it was something that was just always there. You may be surprised to learn who wrote it and when.

Remember That?

How the stores and shops in Cliffside used to advertise, with sale papers hand-delivered to your house, placards on phone poles and really primitive ads in the Cliffdweller?