Holly Circles are ripe in the Land of Mears

Holly Circles

--Sunday the Lintons were not able to get to church in Mears , on ac- count of the blockaded roads . Then the snow plow came out from Shel- by and Monday they got to Mears by going around by the Cobb school and through Shelby . - Sunday evening there was carol singing on the streets of Mears after Epworth League . The young folks wound up at Mrs. Helma Johnson's home for hot cocoa and cookies . - We miss see- ing Charles Hefner on the streets . During the summer he was very ac- tive in agriculture and got around a lot , but has been mostly confined to his home for the last two months . - Mrs . Orin Wilson has returned from Helena , Montana , where she saw her son . Louis Parsons . - Let us see what Shelby looked like 25 years ago this Christmas . Claude Buttermilk Pfeiffer was the big hotel keeper . He got the buttermilk middle name by standing on the high sidewalk in front of the bank and turning around to admire Vesta Misner's comely form as she passed by , the looking back at Vesta causing Claude to stub his tee and step off the high sidewalk and spilling his pail of buttermilk . Charlie Churchill was the banker then and Pat Johnson was the red - headed cashier . The opera house was in full swing then . The villagers climbed the stairs to see home talent plays and stock company productions . There was a box office to sell reserved seats like C23 or H14 . Harlo Elliott , proprietor of the True Blue Ctore , was liable to be the ticket seller you found in the window . Well , when you got inside the wide auditorium you could turn around and look over your shoulder at the boys and girls in pea- nut heaven , which was the balcony . The opera house was also the meet- ing place for the midwinter rally , a three - day institute for teachers . grangers and patrons . Prof. W. D. Henderson from the University of Michigan came up to lecture on the life history of a habit . Arthur Heald was the baker and lunchroom man : also there was another restaurant called the Wade - Wright Inn . ( We will , thank you ! ) Yes , if you were

to-

hung y you just sat down at the table to wade right in . It was as funny as " Eat , Moore & Moore " up in Scottville . Jake Morningstar used to come down to the depot to haul the mail from the train . Prominent daz- zling high school girls of those days were Vesta Griffin , Gertrude Roy- al , Thelma Raynor and Myrna Kennedy . About where Shoecraft's sell ladies ' stockings and men's belts now , Myers & Son had a department store upstairs and down . Phonographs were in full bloom then . You could get a nice table model with a lid on for $ 50 , and a four - legged stand - upper for $ 85 or $ 100 . It was quite the thing for every up - and- coming family to buy a phonograph . Edna Senecal and all the bushel- making girls at the basket factory were talking about the latest blue moon fox trot records and what song was on the back of them . If the trains got stuck there might be a gob of passengers waiting up all night in the depot for the train to come in , and as they waited around the big hot stove and watched the bulletin board there was always the conjecturing joy of wondering if day before yesterday's train would come in before tomorrow's or whether the operator would chalk up : " All trains cancelled , " so that washup could let them start all Over again . If you got hungry you could follow the night watchman up to Heald's where you could pick up a pie and the nightwatch would lay the money up on the baker's shelf until he came down and found it morrow . The library did quite a " business " in those days . People took more time to read because they hadn't begun to motor much yet . Shel- by was a lively place 25 years ago when one of the leading slogans was : " It pays to trade at Hunter's store . " Orin Wilson was already at the grocery business even then , but I am not sure if he had started selling white raisins . - Miss Ruth Johnson , who lives a mile west of Mears and half a mile north , teaches school in Hart , but the white landscape granulation does not always permit her to get her car clear home every night . Sometimes she has to leave it in Winnie Beck's yard and walk half a mile . I suppose Winnie beckons from the window as Ruth passes by John Lovell thinks 12 feet high is too much of an elevation for his ceilings and he considers making a false ceiling to keep the heat nearer the floor - Harold Glen Wilson is the son of Harold , the grocer's son . We wonder if he named him after the Little Point Sable glens , like Forest Glen Lathers was named . - The Swedish Christmas program is always a pleasant event in Mears . Maybe Erma Staples will speak a piece , and Nina Krantz looks lovely singing a solo . Dorothy Carlson's blonde circle braids make her look like St. Cecelia as she plays the piano . It is very good of Wilmer to go around with his car and gather up the children for Sunday school . Anne Ricks is a sweet singer . After the pupils are all remembered the bulk eandy is sometimes passed to the grownups in the congregation who nibble at it in surprise , as this is a treat they don't get everywhere . It makes them glad they attended.- Sawdust is such light , fluffy material that you wouldn't think of saw- dust killing a man . But it killed Orin Croff , 49 , who was getting a load of sawdust at the Ferry mill when a heavy block of frozen saw- dust fell on him , breaking ribs and a collar bone and injuring a lung , He expired at Shelby hospital . - Martin Vander Ven passed on Dec. 22 at New Era where he was once postmaster for 12 years , also a hotel owner and greenhouse tender . - Next Wednesday will be 50 years since Oscar Hawley got married up in Mason county . When a young man he taught a rural school on the old lakeshore road that runs north from Bass Lake to Buttersville , He carried his bread and butter on the Buttersville road . Since he came to Shelby he has been running a green- honse and raising goldfish . - Esther Hoffman , daughter of the cider

miller , was married Dec. 13 to Lieut . Fay Ewbank in Lansing . - When Donna Vander Ven of New Era goes back to her work in Butterworth hospital in Grand Rapids her friends can say : " How much is butter worth ? " And Donna will say " 52e a pound . " - Vivian Okeberg , Shelby teacher , will be harbored in Benton Harbor during the holidays and when she comes back with her tape line she will be able to tell how the whisker crop is growing at the House of David . - Stanley Lee is getting very fat in the back of the neck . He will have to let out the button holes in his collars or else get rubber neckties to ease up on his Adam's apple . Noel Peterson was confined to his bedroom slippers for four or five days but is again able to lace up his shoestrings and get down town to look for Santa Claus at the church - Will Krauss doesn't stay down town nearly as much as he used to before he was married . He wants to be around when his new wife beats on the pancake grid- dle to call him to supper . - Dorothy Morningstar , who combs spit curls and shines fingernails at Herpolsheimer's , came home to see if the Shelby girls tint their toenails on one foot or both . - Fred White , who lives on Maple avenue in Mears , used to work for many years for the Detroit Street Railway fixing cars or something at the car barns . He says Detroit still has a lot of electric street cars running and they are right in style during rubber rationing as they don't need any tires . For a while they were burning up the back - style street cars but now they won't let them be burned . A streetcar is good for many years of service after a bus is worn out . - If you are going to watch the old year out and the new one in , you might want a lunch at midnight . To Keith Corliss ' store in Mears for crackers and cheese , cookies and soups . adv . Hungry Shelby people have been missing their pineapple rolls with their coffee lately as Art Pietsch has been sick at the hospi- tal and unable to bake any Pietsch pies or apple cakes . - Dr . Vern Son- ter , the tooth extractor , was in charge of the Rotary meeting in Shelby when the South American pictures reeled before the crowd . - Joyce Ped- ler . Shelby teacher , has gone home to Muskegon Heights to peddle her Christmas cards . To the Weeks Lumber Co. for more storm sash to keep heat bubbles inside and the little zeros outdoors in the ash pile . adv . - Wes Green and Bernard Staples are working at the crate mill . Wes handles the green timber and Bernard drives the staples . - Milk brings health and happiness to growing children . It is really one of the cheapest and most satisfying foods . When I see Floyd Krauter go through town with a load of cans taking the Guernsey milk to the bottling plant , I say to myself : " There goes a load of health and happi- ness . " Paul Wiener's herd at Silver Hills Farm is one of the largest milk producers in the county - Remember Pearl Harbor ! Ax the Axis , buy war stamps and war bonds and crack the Japs . - The student coun- cil of Shelby high school put on a full - length movie in the auditorium . the story being by Clarence Buddington Kelland . Years ago the editor had a talk with Mr. Kelland in the Sprague Publishing Company's of- fice in Detroit , where the editor had gone to buy law books . That was before Clarence had invented Scattergood Baines and the Coldriver hardware store . We wish all our paid - up subscribers a Merry Christ- mas and a Happy New Year . Will you get our New Year's blessing-

Try some of Hubbard's lump coal .

H : b'ard want to buy a carload of light cranberry beans every week . E. R. Hubbard & Son . Warehouse by the east tracks in Hart .