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Thursday, August 9, 1984-KINGS MOUNTAIN HERALD-Page 3B Passed From Today’s Scene Friendly Door-To-Door Peddler One thing the present genera- tion is not having the oppor- tunity to be exposed to is the ole time peddler coming to the door offering for sale his home grown produce. Housewives in the peddler’s hey day knew their schedules and were ready to step to the road to look over whatever the peddler had to sell. Most women used their aprons as their shopping bags. The best known peddlers whose routes carried them through Bessemer City were Mrs. Della Farnsworth, Mr. Dellinger and A.B. McSwain. Mrs. Farnsworth who started her peddling in a wagon, always had a driver-helper accompany- ing her. While her helper did the selling, she sat patiently waiting for the picky female buyers to make their decision. Always neatly dressed, she made a quaint figure sitting quietly with her hat on. She always wore a hat, even when clerked in Farnsworth Store on the Bessemer City-Cherryville Road. No customer ever saw her with her head uncovered. Mr. Dellinger, who was known as “The Farmer,” drove a flat bed truck. When he knocked at doors, no one had to play “Knock, Knock-Who’s There?” because everyone soon learned his knock. He used his pocket knife to make a series of re- sounding knocks either on the door frame or window pane. The, peddler who had the greatest sense of humor was McSwain who called himself Johnny Wright. He lived in Shelby and drove a Model A Ford Roadster through here before continuing on to Gastonia. Short and slightly stooped, his personality sparkled when he ex- plained his adopted name. “My daddy married a Wright- and that makes it half right...don’t it?,” he queried with a chuckle. “Then three of my children married Wrights...so that made my family half right, don’t it?” When he talked about his children, he would feint sadness as he said, “I just have five.” But for a man who came from a family of eleven children, five would not be half enough. For his sale, he had three cows to furnish his milk, buttermilk and home churned butter. In telling about his freshly churn- ed butter, another commodity long-gone from the local scene, he had an answer ready when asked, “Does your wife do the churcning.” He would exclaim, “My wife doesn’t even cook!” He explained, “When my baby boy Walter was considering matrimony, I had a heart-to-heart talk with him. “Son,” the peddler father said, “you’re not going to leave your mammy and me to get old by ourselves. If you get married, youll have to live with us. And you know,” he would say with pride, “my wife hasn’t done a bit of churning or cooking since my boy married...she just lets our daughter-indaw do it.” By the time he stopped peddl- ing after he was 74 years old, he had four generations liv- ing under his roof. Continued On Page 4 THE DOOLEYS ARE HE | © WHATEVERTHELOAD MAYBE...| From A One Horse Trailer To A Boat ..NOLOAD TOO LARGE! | | THE HEAVY HAULERS FROM GMC e5 Passengers Sleepers eSuper Hauler oFifth Wheel Available 4DOOLEYSON | DISPLAY TODAY! “THE 1984 HEAVY DUTY HAULERS” LL ER fh PONTIAC — BUICK — GMC — ISUZU 864-1192 castonia 864-1192 A RUA eee eee
The Kings Mountain Herald (Kings Mountain, N.C.)
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Aug. 9, 1984, edition 1
11
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