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Some Stuff I Wrote (2001) H. Morris Williams

Occasionally a quarter item would be sold, though always after dark. A young fellow would

drive his car to the curb, leave his motor running, show one finger or two in an unspoken signal.
Contraceptives, kept well concealed under the counter, would be discreetly delivered to the driver

and the car would pull away.
One day the old Grand closed and the spanking new Columbia Theater opened one block to

the north of Hurst’s.
Even more customers flocked to Hurst’s. Later the Columbia was renamed the Gateway (this
building is still standing) and Hurst’s still thrived.

“Good evening, sir. The popcorn smells extra nice tonight, doesn’t it?”
“Hello, young people. How about some hot popcorn this cool night? Only five cents.”

Time passed and the end for Hurst’s Hole in the Wall came into view. Television came along
and the night time street crowds dwindled. Air-conditioned homes took more people off the streets.

Years of hard work and constantly being on his feet outside in all kinds of weather finally
look their toll. A disabling stroke took Hurst’s ability to work, then his life.

Later his wife, a hard-working angel of a life-mate also died. Son Bobby, a college
graduate, now lives in the Tampa area. Bobby is proud of his daddy and he should be.

Claude R. Hurst, with no social safety net to catch him if he failed, invested his working life
in a “Hole in the Wall” and hard-worked his way into a small slice of the American Dream.

That’s the kind of daddy any son can be proud of.

Seven Sets of Siblings

March 29,1994

Recently, this column reported that the CHS class of 1952 had four sets of siblings among
it’s 83 members. They were listed as Elwood and Ralph Tyre, Alfreda and Katherine Sheely,
Syvalin and Betty Tolleson, and Howard and Mildred Register. Now it turns out that the CHS class

of 1944, with just 71 members, had seven sets of siblings. They are J. L. and Aleene Markham,
Mary and Henry Cornell, Jr., Bennie and Nadine Kinard, Elinor Glynn and Harry Mack Rae, Barbara

and Katherine Sheppard, Maybelle and Geneva Sapp, and Marvin and Mildred Huggins. Thanks to

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