Parker's Store and some McDavid residents
This was one of the times I was drawing a blank for column ideas. Among the many things I tried while searching for triggers was looking through my picture files on my computer. This picture of a group of men and boys in front of J.R. Parker's Store (I think from the 1930's) brought back memories of my time in McDavid, Florida in the 1950's and 1960's.
In my time Parker's Store was ran by Mr. Parker's daughter, known to all of us as Miss Edith. Miss Edith also operated the McDavid post office out of the front right corner of her store.
Parker's was one of three stores within walking distance of my home in those days. The other two were Kynette's, ran by Mr. Kynette Driver, and Slim's, ran by a man I never knew as anything but Slim.
On the occasions we had money to spend, we most often shopped at Kynette's. (I'm tasting a Pay Day candy bar as I write.) Kynette's was closest to our house; there was only one house between our house and Mr. Driver's house and store. The building housing Kynette's is now gone. The name lives on in a store operating from a building first used as a service station by Mr. Driver's son, Russell Driver. The new Kynette's is operated by Russell's daughter Sue Hopkins and her daughter Helena. One of my favorite memories of the original Kynette's was the day one of my cousins asked how much for a Coke. Mr. Kynette jokingly told him 10 cents each or two for a quarter. He was going to take the two for a quarter option until someone explained the foolishness of that.
Slim's was across highway 29, which was only a two lane with very light traffic in those days. We once went to Slim's in search of soft drinks. Mr. Slim said, "I got some soda water." Our experience with soda water was baking soda stirred into water and given to us to ease upset stomachs; it was, to say the least, not tasty. Mamma explained to us later that to Mr. Slim soda water was what we referred to as soft drinks. Mr. Slim moved away from McDavid sometime in the late 1950's or early 1960's.
We went to Parker's Store most often to collect our mail. In those days we didn't have a post office box; our mail came general delivery. We went to the post office window and asked Miss Edith for mail for the Chancerys. We later got a post office box. Other people also used our box number for their mail. My cousin was briefly living in McDavid and sometimes using our box number. One day she went to the window and asked if there was any mail for Selma Denn. Miss Edith's reply was, "If it wasn't in Cecil Chancery's box it didn't come. Anybody I don't know I put their mail in Cecil's box."
The next ASHS meeting will be February 18th. Our museums are open most Saturday's from 10 am until 2 pm. The Blackcat Reunion will be Saturday, April 25th at Lake Stone. (For other information about the Blackcat Reunion call me 850-417-9803) Sawmill Day will be May 2nd
