I've been working on the summer issue of "Traces" - the quarterly of the South Central KY Historical & Genealogical Society, of which I am editor. One of the articles which will appear in this issue was written years ago by the late Jimmy Simmons. He was for many years a history teacher at Glasgow High School, a Civil War pro and a great historian. We miss Jimmy and his knowledge of the area! The article I'm showing here is taken from one of his newspaper columns and I found it to be a sweet remembrance of the earlier days in Barren County when Jimmy was a young man. SO, instead of a post on genealogical statistics, I thought I would share this for your weekend. Saturday’s For the Kids! From “A Glimpse From the Past – What Glasgow Used To Be Like, Jimmy Simmons. Saturdays were for the kids in the 1930’s. Everyone came to town on Saturdays. Early on Saturday morning the country people started to town. Very few people had farm trucks in the ‘30’s and cattle were still driven to the livestock market on the hoof. The only person on the Old Bowling Green Road that I can remember owning a truck was Neal Boles. The old road had no pavement after you left the city limits, Huggin’s Branch didn’t even have a bridge over it during those days, and one of my earliest memories is of being told how Theodore Winlock had drowned while crossing the branch when it as up. His body and the buggy in which he was riding were both washed a good ways down stream. We were up early on Saturday to watch the parade of people headed for town. Some were in buggies, some on horseback, some in wagons and a few in cars. The wagons were the most prevalent method of transportation; the older members of the family seated in straight backed hickory bottomed chairs and the younger members sitting on quilts spread over straw. Sometimes a pig secured in a box occupied the back of the wagon. Most of the cars were Fords – A Models or T Models. Every family had a basket of eggs and many had a cream can. How long has it been since you saw a woman wear a sunbonnet to town? For that matter, when have you seen a buggy on the streets of Glasgow? I can remember well the last person who came up the Bowling Green Road past home in a buggy; it was Mrs. Mac Mansfield, who always drove one to church. The Big Spring Bottom was the hitching place and on Saturdays was always full; now the trees are gone, the Big Spring is mostly covered by concrete, and a parking lot covers the spot. The parade started early and by 8:00 we had seen enough and were ready to join the march to town; of course the Trigg didn’t open before 9:30 but we felt as if we needed to get there early to get a good seat. Johnny Mack Brown was my favorite and if he was on, or if another favorite was playing we often spent the day. My brother Tommy and I, along with the Wright brothers (Carl and Eddie) would occupy every seat in the house before the day was over. If we stayed too long, Mrs. Wright would send Eddie and Carl’s older brother, Garland, to get us. Garland worked at the Ragland-Potter or J. D. Reynolds and after working all day was not too happy with his brothers when he had to walk to town to get us, and sometimes he expressed his bad mood by kicking Eddie and Carl most of the way home. Poor Carl wasted away and died of an incurable sickness when he was in his early teens; he was my particular “buddy” and Tommy and Eddie usually paired off. What wonderful things the dime stores had! Lead soldiers were only a nickel; cap pistols a quarter. I had (and still do) the largest collection of soldiers on the street; at least after I bought out “Maste” Nunn. Speaking of “Mater” Nunn; Mater was the organizer of the local ball team. We called ourselves the Cleveland Avenue Indians. “Mater” was manager, captain, etc. (Self-appointed). We played in Totty’s field where the Hunt house now stands at the corner of Cleveland and Coombs Boulevard. Totty’s field was also a cow pasture and you soon learned to watch your step! Some of our gang were Billy and Edwin Totty (Edwin was killed in WWII on a bombing raid), Mater and Winston Nunn, Edward Kilgore, John Beatty, and Edward Albany (Edward slung his bat when he hit the ball and I have a scar to prove it). Our greatest rival was the “Gas House Gang”, which consisted of “Snake” Simmons, George Bertram, Frank Bertram, “Hamfat” Hiser, “Pig” Britt and David Lee. The “Gas House Gang” usually brought their own “Ump.” We had very little equipment and the length of the game often depended on how long the owner of the ball would stay. Some had no gloves (did you ever catch a ball barehanded?) and only a few had caps. My, My! How did we do it. I guess that we just didn’t realize that kids didn’t know how to play ball without the city to provide playing fields and adults to tell us when and how to play, and furnish us with uniforms to play in! Our parents didn’t even come to watch us. I guess we were too dumb to know what we were missing, and all we knew how to do was enjoy ourselves! There were always street preachers in the Courthouse yard on Saturdays and up the Lower Depot Street you could always find a “medicine show”, with bottles of some magic elixir to cure everything from corns to consumption. After checking out all of these interesting things we usually went home to play cowboy. What fine horses our parent’s bean stick made! We had a tree house and even a cub house with homemade bunks and an old stove; of course, it was formerly a hog shed but we didn’t mind. After spending the day in town, most everyone went home about dark to milk, etc., but around seven they came back to town. My family always went, for it was on Saturday night that we bought our groceries. It has been many years since we had such Saturday night crowds but I remember them as if it were yesterday. I can still smell the popcorn, and my mouth fairly waters at the thought of the ice cream! To post to lists: [email protected] or [email protected] Sandi's Puzzlers: http://www.gensoup.org/gorinpuzzles/index.php Sandi's Website: http://ggpublishing.tripod.com/