"I saw it happen-- the modern miracle
of the supermarket," Mrs. O. B. Clase, of Warsaw, told a
homemakers' conference at Purdue University recently.
Know affectionately as "Aunt Lottie" by countless families
who used to read her columns in county and Farm Bureau papers,
she looked very pretty in a black embroidered cotton dress, red
hat and matching shoes, as she charmed and enlightened the audience
with a review of market changes observed in the past 60 years.
Her talk, with a vivid description of the markets she knew as
a child in Kosciusko County, is given in excerpts as follows:
BARTER SYSTEM
"Back in 1890's my parents, Mr. and Mrs. J. R. Butler, and
I went to town or village once a week to do our trading. We took
accumulation of butter, eggs, with perhaps a few vegetables or
berries in season, and traded them for our week's supply of groceries."
"Riding to market in an open, horse-drawn wagon posed the
problem of keeping eggs and vegetables fresh and the butter from
becoming liquid in summer. It was my job to sit in back and hold
an umbrella to shade the produce which was packed in wet linen
and pie plant leaves."
"The old wooden store was heated in winter by a wood stove;
in summer it was cooled not by air conditioning, but by open doors
and unscreened windows. Sure, flies a-plenty! Horses tied to hitching
racks stomped flies and raised thick, odorous dust from the gutter
to settle on open boxed and barrels of fruit and vegetables displayed
on the sidewalk."
8-CENT BUTTER
"Our hickory basket of
eggs and stone crocks of butter were carried in over sawdust sprinkled
floors. Eggs were counted, the butter weighed, smelled, tasted
and carried to the musty back room to be stored in an old lake-ice
chest or floated in an open tub of ice water good butter and bad
butter, all together, waiting to be sold to some homemaker in
town. Butter that day was selling for 8 cents a pound, eggs for
7 cents a dozen."
"Cockroaches and mice were quite numerous. How did I know?
Well, I just tagged along with the groceryman and I saw a good
deal like the cat that slept in the open cracker barrel, folks
with dirty hands idly letting coffee beans run through their fingers
back into the open bin while they stood visiting, loafers snitching
smidgens of cheese from the uncovered supply on the counter."
"A collected mass of shirts, socks, thread, buttons, bolts
of cloth, and tinware were displayed with kerosene lanterns nestling
alongside. Hams and slobs of bacon hung from the ceiling."
LARGE TRANSACTION
"That day our food brought all of 93 cents. For it we received
in trade three pounds of sugar at 25 cents; one pound of coffee
at 15 cents; one gallon of kerosene, with a potato stopper for
the spout, 10 cents; rice, 10 cents; one pound of crackers, 10
cents; one pair of work socks, 10 cents; and three sticks of carefully
selected peppermint candy, three cents. That was it!"
"Seldom did we exceed out food budget or run a store bill.
It was the pride of every thrifty homemaker to make her butter
and egg money set the table (with the help of produce grown at
home) and also buy everyday clothes needed for the family."
"After a few years, when the farm family began to raise pickles,
onions and tomatoes for the canning factories, harvesting crops
by hand (oh, our aching backs), it did help the pocketbook."
CHANGES COME
"We began to see changes new things on the grocery shelves,
which were cleaner now; mosquito bar tacked over windows; fly
and mouse traps; food in better condition because transportation
had improved and fast freight cars were iced."
"It was the year of traveling salesmen with huge trunks full
of new things from Chicago and Cincinnati wholesale houses. How
I loved to be at the store when one of those dapper salesmen opened
his treasure chest. All eyes and ears and probably open-mouthed
too, much to my mother's embarrassment, I usually hung around
until I got a taste of something which was out of this world."
"With the advent of the cream or milk checks, we could afford
a few so-called luxury items like the figs and dates displayed
in huge blocks right out on the counter for all to see and taste.
If a small girl looked wistful enough, she might rate a sample.
To me they were ambrosia, if a bit gritty."
GIRL MEETS OLIVE
"My first meeting with green olives, spread from a clean
glass keg at the invitation of the grinning grocer, was disastrous.
I started out with relish, but the longer I chewed the bigger
those olives got. I lost the olives and learned a lesson. Mother
was a great one to point out quietly the folly of being greedy."
"However, she bought a bit of all the new things so we could
taste at home and not look hungry in public. I think that's why
I've always enjoyed food research."
The speaker concluded with this summary: "Influenced by many
factors, including electric refrigeration and consumer education,
the revolution in food processing, packaging and marketing has
produced a fabulous fairyland which is the modern supermarket.
We may not approve all the changes but we certainly don't yearn
for the 'good old days'."
Mrs. Clase and her husband, a retired farmer, have a boat livery
and plain little fishing camp on Muskelonge Lake, south of Warsaw
where they've fixed up a half-dozen old school busses for their
customers to live in.
MANY INTERESTS
They enjoy making new friends and having old favorites return.
Guests are mostly Hoosiers but one of their nicest families is
from Hawaii. When they aren't otherwise occupied they like to
work with ceramics and raise unusual plants. Mrs. Clase helps
in the garden and does textile painting as a hobby.
Years ago she was the second president of the County Home Demonstration
Council. This year one of her daughters, Mrs. Dean Brown of Warsaw,
holds the position. Another daughter Mrs. Dallis Berry, lives
in Jackson, Mich. The Clase clan has four grandsons and one granddaughter.
Warsaw Times-Union Saturday, July 25, 1959
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