Oct. 12 through the years
100 Years ago – 1925
Dr. McCabe and Prof. Goode conducted Chapel Exercises in the grammar school auditorium (it was a Monday). Goode talked to the pupils about honesty. The grammar school was so crowded it had more than 100 children in one room with three recitations going on at the same time. The chairs were too big for most of the students – their feet could not reach the floor, which was tiring for the children, so school was being dismissed during the afternoon each day until proper chairs, which had been ordered 4 weeks before, arrived.
Rippe-Prater Woman’s Shop, whose logo was “Lovely Things at Little Prices,” advertised women’s coats: rosewood-colored suede coat with collar, cuffs and skirt trimmed in beaver with a flared bottom and lined in canton crepe, $52.75 ($967 in today’s dollars); a coat of Crackelhead Bolivia Cloth with fox-trimmed collar and cuffs, a flared bottom and canton crepe lining, $59.50 ($1,093 today); and a needlepoint slightly flared coat in crackelhead, $59.75. “Junior Coats for the Small Woman” were less expensive: a “beautiful little coat, size 15, of Needle Point material, shade double bloom, trimmed in Fitch mandel, straight lines” for $37.50 and “an unusually pretty coat for the small woman in [illegible, but looks like Deima], a new material, color Black price, slightly flared, size 15, trimmed in Fitch Mandel” for $41.50.
Berlin’s Department Store, next to First National Bank, advertised ladies’ coats for $8.75 and up, and children’s coats for $3.75 and up.
Sam Kolodny on Brown’s Corner advertised, “Fashion Favors the Little Woman in exclusively Tailored Fall Coats … Creations imparting a modish silhouette and chic smartness to the figure of the little woman who heretofore has been compelled to wear altered regular or misses coats.”
Globman’s ad for fall coats: “Among the most interesting are those coats with the new back fullness, handsomely trimmed in rich fur collars and bands down the side. Fox and squirrel have been used liberally. Prices range from $7.95 to $85.00.”
75 years ago – 1950
In these years, the wild game, including deer and turkeys, had been nearly entirely depleted from this area. The State Game Commission was restocking the area with birds and animals. In this week, Game Warden Edgar Lemon was distributing wild turkeys in Henry County in efforts to repopulate the birds. The birds had been raised in captivity but with intentions to set them to fend for themselves in the wild, but many of them roosted in trees close to highways. Residents were reporting on the results of the efforts to repopulate: In Rocky Knob of Patrick County, a farmer reported seeing a wild turkey hen hatching eggs, and eight eggs in one nest and nine in another. Also in Rocky Knob, deer with two fawns had been seen. That indicated that the deer were propagating and the increase in the birth rate was expected to increase; deer older than 3 years old usually give birth to twins, and younger deer usually have just one. The Henry County Game and Protective Association were instrumental in getting deer for distribution in the area and fish for the lakes and streams.
50 years ago – 1975
The Harvest Festival at Reynolds Homestead in Critz featured a barbershop singing, a tobacco exhibit, the Clarion Woodwind Quintet, gospel singing by the Brass Trio of Winston-Salem, bluegrass music by Buddy Pendleton and the Lost and Found Fiddlers, and a concert by the Reynolds Homestead Singers.
Jerry Falwell with the Old-Time Gospel Hour Team and the Liberty Baptist College Chorale led the afternoon service at Temple Baptist Church in the Collinsville Shopping Center. The Rev. Julious Bradshaw was the pastor there.
— Information from museum records and the Henry Bulletin and the Martinsville Bulletin.