“In the fall of 1935 some of my friends and I rode the train to Jackson to the state fair. You could make the round trip for $1.00 and at each little town along the way other boys and girls got on. We met some boys from Cruger, which is about fifteen miles from Greenwood. I began corresponding with a boy named Junior Griffin. He would call me long distance from Cruger, which was very exciting. In December he called and wanted to know if he and a friend, Shelby Parker, could come up to date me and a friend. I think I asked Lena White to date Shelby. That was my first real date and since Mama failed to tell me what time I had to be in, we just kept riding around until 12:30 a.m. She was frantic when I finally came in and from then on it was 11:00 on the dot.
“I dated Junior all that spring, we wrote regularly to each other, and he called a lot, and I thought I was really in love. Thinking back now on that skinny and not so handsome boy, I wonder why. He was a lot of fun though and always had plenty of money to spend and since his Daddy had the Chevrolet agency in Cruger he could always get a car and plenty of gas. He later married Hortense Spann, a friend of mine, and they lived down the block from us when we first built our house. He was later killed in an automobile accident.”
Personally, I think Junior was quite handsome in a fourteen-year-old sort of way. And who knew Cruger had a Chevrolet dealership? The wonders of Sara’s memoirs never cease.
I loved this! As my Dad grew up in Cruger of course it caught my attention. My grandfather was also a partner in that dealership. The dealership was lost when the war broke out (or at least that was the story I’ve always been told). Mr. S. F. Buchanan had the Ford dealership in Cruger as well as the bank. Who knew Cruger was a thriving community back then and not just a blink of the eye! By the way, I have the Teller’s Cage from the bank. Thank you Sarah Buc, may you rest in peace. I’ll never forget her stories!
Suzy,
Cruger had TWO car dealerships? My gosh, who knew? Glad you enjoyed this and hope you’ll keep giving me feedback when you find something interesting. Wish you were still around here.