I Remember, by Mabel Bridges Cargill

Page 2 of 13

He was interested in the cultural advantages for the people. He had programs scheduled from the Lyceum Company, from the Chautauqua. The programs were given in the town hall. The school programs were given there. In the summertime, ice cream suppers were held; in the wintertime, oyster suppers were held—all in the town hall. There was also a large room built back of the town hall for the Masonic Lodge.

I have mentioned that there were doctors there. He had two doctors most of the time, from the time the town began. One of the doctors, I remember, was Dr. Haynes, another, Dr. J. Rush Shull, who was a son-in-law of Mr. Raleigh Haynes. Dr. Allhands, Dr. Bobo Scruggs and Dr. G.0. Moss were some of the early doctors. Dr. J.S. Rudisill is the first druggist I remember being there.

In the department store, materials, ready-made clothes, shoes, all kinds of groceries, hardware, there was a meat market downstairs-in fact, everything that the people needed, could be bought in this store. When we were children and would go to the store for candy, we had some favorite clerks who always gave us good quantity for the pennies or nickels we had to spend. I can remember how we would stand back and wait for those particular clerks to say, “Can I help you?”

There was a laundry for the people. There was an ice plant. There was a cannery. At first a corn mill, then later there was a roller mill built that made flour.

Another cultural advantage was the Cliffside Renown Band. One area was built into a park and right in the center of this park was a big bandstand. On Sunday afternoons, this band would go to the bandstand and play and the people would gather there to listen to the music. Sometimes, there would be lemonade, sometimes, homemade ice cream and our Sunday afternoons were just filled with delightful music and enjoyment and fellowship with each other.

“If a family moved in and he found they were having dances in their home, they were asked to leave.”

 

One of the things, Mr. Haynes screened his residents very carefully. He did not allow any dancing. If a family moved in and he found they were having dances in their home, they were asked to leave. Another thing, he did not allow dogs in the little town.

The people on Saturday nights would gather in different homes. At that time, most of the instruments were the old pump organs. And they would gather for singings; you could sit out on your front porch and listen to the songs coming over the night air. Most of them would be religious songs, or, as we now call them, the old love songs, like “Bury Me Beneath the Weeping Willow.” Some of the religious songs of that day were “Amazing Grace,” “0, Why Not Tonight,” and another song, which goes something like this, “Oh, come, angel band. Come, and around me stand...” I cannot think of the name of it. “My Latest Sun is Sinking Fast” is the name of it because that was one of my mother's favorites, and we had it sung at her funeral. That and many of the other old religious songs just thrills your heart! I remember as a child sitting on the front porch and listening to those singings on Saturday night.

Another thing, they would have string bands and those men would get together and make music. Two of the people that I remember who were quite interested in this type of music were Dewey McDaniel and Gene Wilson. Some of the other entertainments—the physical things that the people would enjoy—were the two baseball grounds. Every Saturday afternoon in the summertime they would play baseball. As a child, I can remember seeing B. B. Goode, who still lives in Cliffside, and Baxter Splawn come up our street with their baseball uniform and their best girlfriends.

Let me go back and say just a little bit more about the Lyceum programs that we used to have. I remember once one of the programs was a very noted singer of her day. She was Gladys Rice. And it was things of that type that Mr. Haynes brought to Cliffside to expose his residents to the cultural things of life.