Dirty Little Secrets

It's Saturday - and I've got the house ALL TO MYSELF, with the exception of the doggers, of course. Ole is participating in a car show this weekend, sponsored by one of the local car clubs so he left the house at 9 o'clock this morning and I probably won't see him until 9 o'clock tonight. Tomorrow won't be quite as long a day. Lovely Daughter and Lars went to town to run errands and won't be home until later this afternoon.

I love having the house to myself because it just doesn't happen that often. So here I sit - it's almost noon and I have accomplished nothing - but the kicker is I don't even feel guilty about it. What an attitude, huh? And I have so much I want to do today.

It's a beautiful day here today. It's almost reached 60 degrees, but unfortunately we're under a winter storm watch for tonight and tomorrow with the possibility of the sky dropping six inches of snow on us. Will it ever end?

A couple of entries ago I promised more history lessons about my little town. For those of you who haven't read me for very long, it's probably become quite apparent that I love old pictures and have quite a collection not only of old family photos but also of my local area. I never was a history buff of any kind until my mother died and I got into geneaology. That made me want to learn as much as I could not only about my ancestors, but also about the area that I have lived in all my life.

My family moved here when I was just a wee leetle girl. You can read about how I ended up in this area by clicking here and also reading the next few entries. Not only am I a half breed, but also a gypsy. I'll let you figure out the rest.

Anyway, when I was a kid one of the things we really looked forward to for entertainment was the monthly meeting of the Community Club. Local families would gather together for a potluck supper at what was called The Hall back then. The building had originally been a combination hardware store and grocery store when it was built, and eventually was turned into a community center.


It was old and very drafty. The little side building on the right of the picture had been transformed into a kitchen, and was such that you could see outside through the spaces in the siding. There was no insulation, and in the winter the snow blew in through the cracks. A stage had also been built when it was taken over as the community center. That's where we kids used to put on all our Christmas programs, spring Maypole dances and any other performances that the teachers put together.

The adults eventually decided that they were going to hold monthly dances in The Hall. Then, a few years after that certain adults developed something called The 100 Club. This was kind of a hush-hush deal - but like all other hush-hush deals - everybody knew about it but nobody talked about it, at least openly. Once a month The 100 Club would hold a "social" in the community center. There was a live band, food and set-ups because you had to BYOB. When you entered the door the guys threw their car keys into a basket. At the end of the evening there was a drawing - get the jist? It was called The 100 Club because there were 50 couples that paid their membership dues; membership was by invitation only. You had to be "approved" by the Board.

Ole chuckles when he thinks about it - he says there's an entire generation of folks running around this community who KNOW who their mothers are, but aren't real sure who their fathers are!! Oh, what a little Peyton Place we had.

At the time we moved here there was also a very weird minister in our church. He had the most beautiful, perfectly waved hair every Sunday morning. Then the story got out that his wife would set it in pincurls every Saturday night before she headed for the local bar. She apparently "owned" a bar stool, and always came dressed with very long, bright red nails, and makeup so thick she needed a palette knife to scrape it off when she got home. She played the organ in church and there were plenty of Sunday mornings when she was late for church!!