THE EXPLODING SODA POP BOTTLE

Some time ago, as my wife finished washing the coffee air pot from our genealogy meeting and was letting the warm water run to rinse it out, the glass bottle inside the pot exploded.  Or, you could actually say the bottle imploded since it was under a vacuum.  The explosion was very loud and frightening but thankfully my wife was not injured.

This incident reminded me of an exciting and frightening event that happened to me as a teenager at our Colvin and Jones Store in Unionville.  The event I remember from years ago at the store I call “the exploding soda pop bottle”.  One of my many jobs around the store was to fill the cold drink cooler before closing so that the drinks would be cold for our customers the next day.  The cooler was not anything like you see today in our modern stores.  It was a large insulated metal cooler that was filled with water which was cooled and circulated to keep the drinks cold.  The drinks were stored in wooden crates of twenty four bottles that had compartments to keep the bottles separated.  I had to carry the crates from the storage room outside into the store to load into the cooler.  It was the middle of the summer and had been an extremely hot day.  The bottled drinks had gotten very hot and I made the situation worse by giving the bottles a good shaking while bringing them into the store.

After bringing several crates into the store, I began to place the drink bottles into the ice-cold water in the cooler.  I finished loading one crate into the cooler with no problems but about halfway through the second crate something happened.  I had just placed two bottles into the water and reached down to get more when there was a loud explosion.  I ducked down and when I looked over into the cooler, saw that the upper part of one of the bottles was missing and the ceiling above the cooler was dented from the flying bottle top.  It seems that the combination of the hot summer day, the shaking that I gave the bottle and then placing the bottle in the cold water caused excessive pressure in the bottle that made it explode.  I was lucky to have been reaching for another drink bottle and out of the way of the flying bottle top.  From that time on, I was very careful to take care not to shake the drink bottles and to stay out of the way when placing them in the cold water of the cooler.

MEMORIES FROM COLVIN AND JONES GENERAL STORE

The above picture is a scan of an original oil painting that my wife presented to me in 1982.  The painting was done by Mildred Barr Smith from an old photograph that we had of the store.  The date of the photograph would probably be between 1960 and 1970 before Highway 167 was widened and the store was moved back with the front section removed.  As I look at the painting, memories come back to me of the many wonderful hours of my life that occurred at the store.  There is something about an oil painting that seems to capture the reality of how things were in those days.  Something in the warmth of the painting brings forth feelings and emotions that cannot be captured with a photograph.  The following are some of the things that I see in the picture that bring back memories to me.

The black pick-up truck parked beside the store that "Nubbin" the handyman around the store drove back and forth to work everyday.  The black sealer on the store roof that was used to seal the many holes in the tin roof.  For many years, when it rained, we had to place buckets in the side store room to keep the leaking water from the roof from ruining our stock of animal feed.  The benches and the coke box on the front porch of the store.  Even though they are not exactly correct and in the right positions, they still bring back memories of listening to the old men that would gather there and play cards and talk.  The gas pumps are a truth depiction of the original pumps that were at the store in the days when we sold Mobil gasoline.  The fifty-five gallon drum to the right of the gas pumps was for kerosene, a very necessary item for a time when everyone did not have electricity at home.

Most of all, when I look at this picture of the store, I remember what a welcome sight it was for Esther and I when we would come back to visit our family after we moved away from home.

WATERMELON FARMING STORIES - PART 1

I LOVE WATERMELONS!

This is the beginning of a series of stories about the venture into raising watermelons for the wholesale market by the Colvin and Jones families of Unionville, Louisiana.  I was between ten and fifteen years old when my father and grandfather tried their hand at raising watermelons as a farm crop.  There are many memories of the successes and struggles that my families encountered as they strived to make a living from the fertile farmland of North Louisiana.

Let us begin with some history of the events leading up to our family living in Unionville.  My father was raised in Junction City, Arkansas and my mother was raised in Unionville, Louisiana.  Shortly after graduation from college, they married and set up household in Linville, Louisiana.  My father took the position of Principal/Coach of Linville School and my mother, who had been a school teacher for several years in Homer, Louisiana retired from teaching.

During the next few years three children were born into this family;  myself, my brother Richard and sister Penelope.  Sometimes in life, events happen that change the course of the remainder of the life of a family.  During the summer of 1949, I came down with the dreaded disease of polio and had to spend three months in the Charity Hospital in New Orleans.  My father resigned as Principal of Linville School and moved to New Orleans to be near me while my mother and siblings moved to Unionville to live with her parents.  After I was discharged from the hospital, my father resigned from his position at Linville school and we joined the rest of our family at Unionville.  Once settled in Unionville my father went into partnership with my grandfather in his grocery store/gas station.

My grandfather had been operating the store for years and also had a successful small farming operation raising cotton, corn and watermelons.  With the increase in the number of people that the store had to support, it was necessary to expand the farming operation to raise the needed income.  During that era, watermelons were a money making crop, so my father decided to try his hand at raising watermelons on a larger scale.

To be continued……..

A VISIT BACK TO UNIONVILLE

My daughter, Lynne, and I made a day trip back to the Unionville area this last week.  The purpose of the trip was to visit several of the cemeteries in the area where our Colvin ancestors are buried and get record photos of tombstones for our research.  Lynne has become addicted to family history research just like her mother and father.  We are so thankful.  Now my wife and I will know that there will be someone to take care of all of our research and it will not be thrown out as happens so many times.

We visited four cemeteries: Old Colvin Cemetery, Thomas R. Colvin Cemetery, Colvin-Barmore Cemetery and Unionville Cemetery.  The first four were small cemeteries and we got photographs of all of the tombstones in these.  The Unionville Cemetery is quite large and I have many photos that I have taken there before, so we just tried to fill in the missing ones.  Only one more cemetery that we need to visit, the Katy Cemetery.  We will have to make that another day.  This cemetery is off the main road and quite a hike for an old man.

We went by our old Colvin and Jones store for a visit.  The above picture is the way it looks now - many memories in that place.  Mr brother Richard has cleaned around and inside the store and opens it up on most Saturday mornings in the summer for the eldery men that grew up around Unionville to gather, drink coffee, and reminisce about the good ole days.  I made a trip over one Saturday last year and really enjoyed visiting and talking with people that I went to school with and knew when I was growing up.

Whenever I visit Unionville, I get nostalgic and begin to think how different life was back in that time.  Many of the things that we experienced our children will never get to enjoy.  Later, we stopped at a service station in Dubach to get some nurishment to keep up our strength.  As I browsed the shelf looking for something to snack on, I ran across a "Stage Plank".  How many remember "Stage Planks" and "ROC Royal Crown Colas".

As we were getting back in the vehicle, my daughter asked me what I got to snack on.  When I replied a stage plank, she had no idea what I was talking about.  Our young people today are missing out on some of the better things of life.  By the way, they did not have a "Power House Candy Bar" so I had to settle for a Snickers.

Family History Research is Fun!!!!

Happy Ancestor Hunting.

COLVIN AND JONES STORE

This is a picture of the inside of my family's country grocery store/service station in the late 1950s.  The store name was "Colvin & Jones" and was a successful business venture that provided a living for the Jones and Colvin families for many years.  It was a ten hour six and one half day a week operation with only a part of the day off on Sunday to attend Sunday School and Church.  During the summer months we would usually close on Wednesday afternoon and take time off for some family time.

The individuals in the picture are my father,James Garland Jones, Sr; my mother Ruth Colvin Jones and the super cool young man in the center which happens to be me.  Notice that I was dressed in what would be considered very hip in those days.  With my FFA jacket, white tee shirt, rolled up blue jeans, white socks and black loafers, I was a real lady killer.  Probably hidden under the jacket was a thin white belt which was a mainstay of my wardrobe.  The store was a family project and we all chipped in to help to make the store a success.

Some of the interesting things that can be noted about the store in this picture are:  All of the electricity comes from drop cords and plenty of extension cords; By this time we had gone modern and had shopping carts; Grey Crickets for sale in the back room; We gave Delta Trading stamps with purchases (sign behind my father); the large amount of lard in buckets - we must have had a sale on lard that week.

I have so many interesting stories and memories to share about the store and will be doing so in the next coming weeks, so keep checking back.