Windshield Stamps are ripe in the Land of Mears

At 87 Lars Jenson finds he is probably the oldest resident in the vil- lage of Mears . He was 27 when he came from Sweden , and he worked in the coal kilns with Mangus Peterson in the north ward of Mears . There were 10 of these charcoal kilns in the local yard . One would measure 30 feet long , 18 feet wide , and I think Lars said that they were 16 feet high . A lot of the wood was beech but it was mixed with maple . After the wood was cut in the forests and drawn in it was stacked in these brick kilns and when one was filled it was closed up and the walls were whitewashed on the outside to seal any fire escapes . For ten days the wood simmered away while the men worked on the other kilns and then it was ready to open . A freight train would take the charcoal away to Fruitport or some place down that way . Andrew Munson worked there too , and Bert Post , but a boy , helped stack up the green wood . Every week or two Sam Rankin would come up with the payroll . One day a man came who was going to build a hotel in Hart and wanted Lars to build the arches . So he was over there a while and when he came back he went to work on the section . Peter Ne's n had been section foreman but I guess Pete Johnson was by this time . $ 1.25 a day was the going wage on the rail , at the kilns or at the mill The men worked at 10 shillings a day and liked it and saved money and bought farms and built homes . Those were the dear bright days of gumption and selfreliance . For awhile Lars was night watchman at the Charlie Mears mill and was on the job from six at night to seven in the morning . If any shadows skulked around the sawdust he had to go up and ask who and why and tell them what . Lars owned various places around the village . At one time he lived on Third street near the Baily house . Hans Larson and Mangus Peterson had houses in the same row and later moved them to their farms . I think Lars bought a farm near Morris Lake which George Kitchen holds down now wen the wind doesn't blow it away . I believe Lars bought the place for about $ 200 and built a house on it . After a while Mr. Jensen found himself the owner of a farm on the Silver Lake road and that is where I first met him 28 years ago . He had 20 acres and later bought five aeres from Hylas Branch . After many years Hylas came over again and

said : " I came to buy you out . " Lars hesitated . " What will I do then ? " " Oh , you'll find something to do . " And he did . He moved to Mears and being unsatisfied to live a life of leisure he bought many village lots in the houseless fields in the south of Mears . He put up fences and there he grew his hay to feed his horse and cow and grapes to quench his August thirst . His wife rode on the hay rack and they tilled and saved . The last couple of years were rather lonesome alone . His grand- son , Milton Fuller , came once in a while to see him and bring some baking his mother sent . Doris Lawhorn walked by and looked the house over up and down as a possible future home . Hallowed with memories as the place was by the footsteps of his wife and their toil together it would have been fitting if Lars had decided to live there the rest of his octogenarian days and into his nineties . But the house seemed too big to him and when Floy Abbott came over to dicker they finally made a bargain . Floy buys the place and Lars will move away . He would like to have some little house right in the hamlet's heart , some little place like Bill and Coralie Volpp's , but it seems nobody wants to sell so prob- ably he will go out to live with John and Alice Fuller or in a little house which they may build for him in their watchful dooryard . If he goes there I will miss seeing him walking slowly down town after the mail and reflectively tramping back again with his loaf of bread . Build- er , tiller , toiler and saver he was the stuff the pioneers were made of ; a sober , industrious Swede that felled the trees and spiked the ties and made farms out of the wilderness . - Mrs . Peter Nelson - Budde has been knitting mittens this winter to make the snow drifts melt faster and rainbow - colored scarfs out of variegated yarn . - You want to go farther and save dough ? Fill up at the Hart economy gas station where US - 31 crosses the tracks . Ethyl is here too . adv . - For fresh meats and crisp vegetables come to Keith Corliss in Mears , who sells rolls , fried cakes lemons , cabbage and grapefruit . adv . - Cy Wilbur gets back to the navy . -Chester Ray took Margaret down to the canners ' convention in Chi- cago . By the help of large wooden forms brought in ready - made , the concrete basement walls for the new addition to the big barn at Silver Hills Farm were soon poured and have now hardened ready for the superstructure . Paul Wiener is having the new addition added to the east end of his barn to take care of the new additions to his herd of thoroughbred Guernseys . - Miss Laura Studer of Yakima , Washington . is in Shelby for a two weeks ' visit . Out there in that fruitful valley 1 suppose the favorite dance in the orchards is the " big apple . - Orin Wilson is out of the hospital and back to his own bed in Shelby , and we hope he will soon be back in the store selling stone crocks and white raisins . Clare Sanford thought it was too much of a job for his chil dren to walk around the rectangle of the sidewalk so he had a wooden slide off step made to help them cut across the lawn . Or did the chil- dren do it while their mother was over at Mae's ? -After Amiel John . son was married 25 years to a girl named Pearl he had a big anniver sary party with 50 people present of their home in Bender , and plenty of cake frosting and gifts of silver - In a few days we may get sug cards , but don't wait to get your $ 2.09 stamp if you are driving your car after Saturday night - Harold and Jewell Kaufmann are settled at home again after several weals of doing chores at William Powers ' REMEMBER HER ! REMEMBER HIM ! says Livingston Gift Shen . VALENTINE Heart Boxes of Candy . 29c un . Hall Mark Slam Cards , 10c and 15c . Comics . 1e each . Valentines with envelopes , 2 for 5c , 5c , 10c , 15c , 25c . Valentine's Day Napkins . LIVINGSTON'S GIFT SHOP . -Charlie Kokx will be the big ox of the REA for the coming year . He

was re - elected president at the annual meeting which was dinnerless and pencilless . They have 1431 members getting electrical service , which is 193 more than last year . We are in business for your mind's sake and your stomach's sake and so we sell good groceries and magazines . For breakfast foods and supper foods see Dóc and Helen and Phil and Jean at the Corliss Food Shop in Hart . There will be a Boy Scout court of honor in Mears Monday evening , Feb. 9 , probably in the Odd Fellow hall . E. H. Tryon , chief executive of the Muskegon area coun- cil , will probably be there . All scout troops and neighborhood patrols in the county are urged to attend . - Mrs . Euna Hart fell and broke her hip . - After eight years Mrs. Carrie Deephouse of Vandalia came up to visit her sister , Mrs. Minnie Lorenz - Henry Lorenz in San Diego watches the soldiers to see where they go . A lot of them come across the road to his recreation palace . - Frank Gring had a new chimney made this week . - As soon as Bill Krause gets his breakfast parlor dishes washed he hurries over to his club house at Bill Smedley's.- The sixth , seventh and eighth grades had a party at the Mears school- house Tuesday night and lots of pineapple jello was eaten by all . The boys got moustaches from the cake frosting . Each pupil could invite a guest , so some of the high school pupils had a chance to attend . A scavenger hunt sent couples scurrying around town to hunt thimbles , hen's teeth , gray hairs and Mears postmarks . - Mrs . Clara Davis got home from farm life in Indiana Thursday . This morning she went Daisy Tennant's and when she came back she found the snow plow had re - visited the street and plugged up her tunnel gorge . - Jim Fuller tore his old chimney down . - Postmistress Crystal Weldon sold 50 of those $ 2.09 stamps up to last night . Have you a sticker stamp on your windshield ? It is healthier to have one if you drive your car on the highway . Hannah Fuller , lovely doll , is back from Virginia to see her ma . Hannah is Mrs. Wayne Spellman and lives in Norfolk to keep track of her sailor boy husband . - The Ed . Brubaker family have moved to their new home on the northern hem of Mears . - To Bright's drug store to get some Valentines for Sister Sue to send to her playmates at school , 1c , 2 for 5c , and up . Also heart - shaped boxes of candy - Before Mrs. John Babcock started out for the basket factory old girls picnic this morning she put the soup kettle on top of the oil burner to get hot for John's dinner . So he ate in five minutes bis beef soup with noodles and he says he ate so much he felt like a bloated pup.-

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Charles Flory has 317 cords of wood for sale : also coal to put in your bin . Shelby Ice & Coal Co.

Beautiful 8x10 enlargment from your choice negative or part thereof . 49c . The Photo Shoppe , Shelby .

Hubbards ' are in the market for beans and can use a carload every week . In Hart by the east tracks .

Eva Hanson - Osborn says : Everybody loves a river , a nice wide river . surrounded by wooded dells and all such things : a pretty woods , some farm land , say 40 to 50 acres , the best piece of pasture land in all out doors , and all just a little ways from the county seat : buildings , too : most a quarter section and only round $ 35.00 ar pere . Can you heat that in these times with land going " sky high " everywhere ? Local folks are letting the outsiders get all the good buys.-

Phil Wurthner sells the 1941 Phileo super - quality refrigerator with compartments for frozen food , dry cold and moist cold . 108 Courtland See us for insurance , fire , life , automobile , surety bonds . Also real estate . Neil Wheeler , Shelby , Mich .

To the Central Meat Market in Hart where Nixon & Nixon will be clad to wrap up beef steak for supper , pork roast for dinner , bologna