Caldwell County MO Archives History .....GOING TO TOWN BEFORE AUTOMOBILES CAME 
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File contributed for use in USGenWeb Archives by:
Karen Walker khw4@yahoo.com September 3, 2008, 6:26 pm

GOING TO TOWN BEFORE AUTOMOBILES CAME
	Narrator:  John Bennett, 66, of Hamilton, Missouri

     In the days before Farmers possessed automobiles, going to town was quite 
an event.  Such trips were usually on Saturday so the children could go too.  
The old farm wagon was the usual vehicle, although some people had a two-
seated spring wagon which seated six if needed.  Mr. Bennett's folks began 
with a lumber wagon and finally the father bought the spring wagon.  In a 
wagon,  the parents sat on the seat, the children might sit on a board laid 
across the wagon or on an additional wagon seat or in the wagon bed itself 
which was filled with straw covered over with old quilts.  Mr. Bennett's 
mother hardly ever went to town on account of the numerous youngsters, so one 
of the older girls sat up with the father Thomas Bennett.
     When the family went to town, they took their lunch and ate in the shade 
of some big tree, feeding the horses at the same time.  The water was carried 
in one of their own buckets from some public well in Hamilton.  Their father 
disliked to have his horses drink out of the trough by public wells lest they 
catch some disease.  There used to be a public well and trough just south to 
the Orville Parker grocery store and another was located south of the old 
Houston, Spratt and Menefee Bank (which has recently been restored to its old 
usefulness in the 1934 drought).
     Some town folks did not like to have country folks eat under their front 
trees because it called flies, but some country people have recalled that 
there were some town people who even brought out fresh water to them and would 
invite the country women into the house till time to go.  
     If the men went by themselves they were apt to buy crackers and cheese 
and eat in the store, sitting on a cracker barrel.  Or they might drop into a 
restaurant for a bite.  At Fourth of July celebrations and the old Hamilton 
Fair, the family went as a whole, excepting Mrs. Bennett.  They started to the 
fair early so the father could see the stock in the morning.  At noon they 
laid their dinner out on the ground on a table cloth and were always proud of 
the dinner prepared by Mrs. Bennett and the Bennett girls.  Such dinners were 
a matter of family pride.
     Interviewed  August 15, 1934.


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