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Barefoot In The Sand: Remembering the Waning Days of the Hopewell Community (1998) Bruce C. Gragg 74/123

TRADING IN FARGO

My "buddy” there was Mack McCrary. He was Papa’s nephew and one of
the mechanics in the area. He kept bees on the side, and later gave
me a hive and got me started with bees. He always like to tease me.
On one occasion he was kidding me and asked me about my "girlfriend."
Without cracking a smile, I politely asked "WHICH ONE." He never
asked me again about the girls. That was a family joke for a long
time. His wife, Bluma was one of Aunt Belle’s daughters. Belle was
another of Papa's sisters. Aunt Belle and Uncle Benny Leviton had
several daughters and one son. Three of the daughters and the son
lived in Fargo, with Jimmy taking over the family general mercantile,
Mineola later bought her own store. Jimmy married Mr. Emmett Hill’s
daughter. As Jimmy's boys got old enough to help, they helped and
later took over the store operation. Benny Gene and Louie along with
their sister Latrell all worked there as they grew up. A few times
when we went to Fargo we would stay with Mineola or Aunt Belle,
mostly we stayed with the Hall's, after all they had more children
mine and Vera's age.

The first store I remember going in was an old wooden unpainted
general mercantile with a front porch, owned by Uncle Benny. It was
ceiled with the ribbed 1x4 boards, they were not painted but had a
very old coat of varnish and the smoke and grit over the years from a
couple of old pot bellied stoves for heat. This was a usual type of
structure for stores built in the late 1800’s. It was lit with drop
cord lights with the large clear bulbs and slow turning ceiling fans
hanging from a bracket on the high ceiling. It was a grocery,
hardware, feed, seed and general merchandise store. The kind with the
"Jefferson Island Salt" ad painted on its side. It was also the local
Post Office. The mailcarrier from Jasper went to Fargo before
delivering our mail. So we could get mail either from Jasper or
Fargo. He picked-up the mail from the Post Office here in this store.
As I recall when entering the store one the left was the Post Office,
on the right and beyond the Post Office were the dry goods. About
half way back on the right was an old glass show case full of all
kinds of candy. Some of the candy was in the old glass jars with the
big lid that lifted off. At the rear were the groceries and meat
counter. At the meat counter they had a large walk-in cooler and a
meat case and behind that a real old "Meat Cutters Block" where they
cut the meat, and the cheese from a large hoop of cheese. They would
take time to thoroughly clean the meat block several times a day.
Even then, they knew of the danger of improper handling of meat
products. To the left of the meat counter was a doorway that lead to
the back warehouse for feed, hay and other large quantity items.
Several items were measured from a large barrels or one of 74

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