Apr 14, 1965: "Editor's Notes". Mrs. Sam Harris, our Oak Grove scribe, says she knew one of the fellows who burned to death in that caboose explosion in Ashley County years and years ago. This column discussed the occurence, and the subsequent mysterious lights that appear in the area of the explosion, several weeks ago. Mrs. Harris said she knew the fellow and his family when all resided in the Stout Lumber Company Camp near Thornton in Calhoun County just after World War I. Mrs. Harris, a keep student of folklore, points out that there was a fear at the time that it was bad luck to wash clothes on the Friday before or after Christmas. But the wife of the doomed man had a baby and she needed to wash so she did it on Friday before Christmas on Saturday. Mrs. Harris said this created quite a stir among the camp residents. She says one elderly lady predicted: "Mark my word, there'll be a death in that family in the next year." And, of course there was. [when I was growing up in Bradley Co., there was a story about a light that appeared in a certain place in Ashley Co. Presumably because of a death - I think] Logging camps had a unique place in the history of our area and it appears now that it may be a segment of history soon forgotten. The late Jim Hurley, Sr., liked to tell about getting on the log train and going down to the camp with the payroll for workmen. And - Our current county judge, James Earnest, was born at one of the camps. I got to thinking the other day about those Kaiser and Frazer automobiles that created such a stir about 20 years. ago. They were the industrial children of Henry J. Kaiser, who had made a mint building ships for the USA during World War II. Lester Temple was the Warren dealer for Kaisers and Frazers, and he showed them in his 203 building, where Norm's Furniture City is now located. I remember that the Louis Ederingtons had one of the first Kaisers, and the D. C. Harris' the first Frazers. The cars never did really go over big - I remember that Harold Simmons had one of the last of them; a beautiful blue two-door sedan. Their basic design and lines were good, but somehow Kaiser never got the "bugs" worked out of the manufacturing. One of my wife's schoolgirl friends in Pine Bluff, used to ride around in her father's Frazer armed with a crowbar. It would stick in low gear, on occasion, and this necessitated raising the hood and banging away at a certain point until the gears would shift again. A rather unlady-like practice, but thoroughly efficient. We were riding around the other Sunday when we saw smoke and flames coming up from Bert Green's woodshed. It burned, partially, and Bert was out there cleaning up several days later when he found an old "token" from the Bradley Commissary. For the youthful and unitiated: Bradley workmen, in the old days, sometimes ran out of money before payday. They could go to the foreman and get these "tokens" which could be spent at the company store. The amount spent would then be held out of their wages, when payday finally came around. Thinking of the Bradley Store makes me think of Roy Harley, who worked there as a bookkeeper for years. Roy and the late Bob Fullerton were talking about some person who owed the company some money, and Roy ventured, "He's just as good as cash." Mr. Bob rejoined quickly, "There's nothing as good as cash money." --------------------------------- Be a better friend, newshound, and know-it-all with Yahoo! Mobile. Try it now.