Sharing a story my dad, Earl Gratton Fields, shared in his memory book he wrote a few months before he died in 1995.
"Money meant more back then. I remember that Granny would tell me where a hen's nest was, and she would let me take 'half a dozen' to the country store and I could trade them for a nickel's worth of candy, (a good-sized bag for a nickel he told me)...
& pop was cheaper than that, maybe a penny.
It was rare when I saw a dime... our shoe leather would generally be thinner than a dime ...when we had shoes...never more than one pair a year."...
"Money meant more back then. I remember that Granny would tell me where a hen's nest was, and she would let me take 'half a dozen' to the country store and I could trade them for a nickel's worth of candy, (a good-sized bag for a nickel he told me)...
& pop was cheaper than that, maybe a penny.
It was rare when I saw a dime... our shoe leather would generally be thinner than a dime ...when we had shoes...never more than one pair a year."...
(I think he told me once that the leather on his shoes was so thin he could tell what kind of coin he stepped on...LOL)...
"When we lived on Church Hill at Tom's Creek, someone gave me a dime. I came out of our yard and started down the lane below our house. I met two Pickett brothers and made the mistake of showing them my dime...When they decided to take it from me, I said, "NO WAY!"...
Quickly, I put the dime in my mouth and they backed me up against a fence and began choking me. Somehow, I managed to break free, and instead of me running away, they did...
Finding a rock, I threw it at them, hitting one of them in the back. He squalled so loud that everyone came running out of their houses to see what had happened. Sure did scare me....
Finding a rock, I threw it at them, hitting one of them in the back. He squalled so loud that everyone came running out of their houses to see what had happened. Sure did scare me....
I ran back up the hill to our house and hid behind it. Knowing for sure that I was in for it, so I didn't come out from hiding when Dad came out on the porch and called for me....
Fortunately, a neighbor, Arville Donahue, had seen what had happened and came to our house to tell dad, and dad didn't whip me for throwing the rock, or hiding even.
It must not have hurt the boy much, because after they moved to Coeburn, Virginia, they would come to visit me and even bring me something..
Not often you make friends by throwing rocks at them!"...
Not often you make friends by throwing rocks at them!"...
{Remembering that my sister Dorla threw a rock at Willard Owens once when Willard and I were squabbling about something, hitting him in the back as he ran back up the hill to his house. Willard mentioned this and laughed about it in later years.
I can remember when we would ride our bikes down to Belcher's Grocery when we lived just above the trestle that came from #1 mine at Harman. We would ride to just below the old Harman School at Harman, Virginia.
One day, we discovered that the price of pop had raised to 6 cents...We thought it would stay a nickel forever....I think I was in high school before it went to a dime....
A rare find in my day too!}...LOL
One day, we discovered that the price of pop had raised to 6 cents...We thought it would stay a nickel forever....I think I was in high school before it went to a dime....
A rare find in my day too!}...LOL
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