TEENAGE YEARS - Part 7 - It's Not All Work

Alfred has quit high school and is working in the mines. But its not all work; the weekends are time for social activities.

"Now during this period I too went through the change or transition in habits.  I got interested in wanting to go places at night or on holidays.  Naturally girls became interesting.  It was about this time that Ed Kramer and myself became great buddies.  Our only way to go places was to walk or ride a bicycle.  Our Saturday nights we usually went to town (Linton.)  That was always a big night.  Throngs of people on the side walks, seemingly just strolling along.  Of course the stores were open until late, the saloons were full of men and the ice cream parlors did a big business.  Linton was booming with many big coal mines.  We usually rode our bicycles to town and would park them at Saron Church.  On Sunday nights it was Church Services.  Olive Branch was attended more than any other.  It was about a 4 mile walk  A crowd would start forming at the cross roads at the bottom of the Henry Bovenschen hill, one mile north of Fairview cemetery.  There would be a gang of the Taylors, Kendalls & Smiths.  The crowd would grow at Henry B. and then Tom Pope had several to add to the crowd, on to Pete Stockran's corner, he had I think 7 girls and here a gang from Vicksburg would swell the crowd; by the time we got to the Bolten corner and met the Black Creek bunch we really had a crowd.  At the Ramsey Beasley corner we would meet the crowd from the west and a full house was assured for the “Meeting.”  Henry B Bovenschen and Pete Stockran always took a wagon but the young folks usually walked.  There were several other churches we would go to: Nine Mile, Miller, Sommerville, Lincoln, Providence, Lebanon and Mt. Olive.  All seems to have a lot of young people in their early teens.
 In the Fall there was box or pie supper at the school.  The young swains would bid for the box or pie furnished by the girls and the successful bidder would get to eat with the damsel.  It was a sort of sneaky procedure for the girl would get a number to correspond with what she brought.  At times of course the boys would try to find out their number & bid accordingly.  At times several would bid for a certain number and run the price up on some zealous fellow.  They also would run some girl for the prettiest @ 1¢ a vote.  This could run into a lot of money if two or three factions got to competing.  The money that was made was spent for school equipment.  Then some of the local talent would give a play sometime during the school term and they called this “Literary Night.”  It usually was free but some good acting came out of this venture.  Another big event was a dinner on the last day of school.  Of course the kids had a program but the dinner was something.  All the school patrons were there.  It was something.  I will always remember the Big Cakes Mrs. Ira Adams would bring.
 I think one of the most appreciated dinners I ever has was while riding on a wagon.  Uncle Dietz and me took a load of fat hogs to Worthington Stock Pens.  We were on the road by 5:30 that morning, we so must have had breakfast around 4 o’clock.  We had 8 fat hogs, well over 200 pounds apiece. They brought 80⁰⁰ and I marveled at all that money but Uncle Dietz said he owed the bank 50⁰⁰ on a note.  It was after 12 o’clock when we got started back for home.  There was a small store at the edge of town and we stopped and got 15 cents worth of crackers right out of the cracker barrel and 20 cents worth of cream cheese.  You got a lot for your money in those days.  We had a big sack of crackers and a big hunk of cheese.  What a dinner, bouncing on a rough road and a hot sun to boil down on you."

Looks like a lot of the social activity revolved around the local churches and schools.  Many of the churches did not have services every Sunday. It seems that the four mile walk to church was a social event in itself. 

Alfred's Four Mile
 Walk to Church

1- Alfred's home
2 - Bottom of Bovenschen hill
3 - Tom Pope's
4 - Peter Strockrahm
5 - Vicksburg
6 - Bolton Corner
7 - Olive Branch Church

Olive Branch Church

Alfred's early teenage years are coming to a close.  He is about 18 years old and becoming an adult. He has some money in his pocket from working in the mines and has started noticing the girls. So what comes next?