Pictures Of My Dad

This is the earliest single photo that I have of my dad.

People say that I favor him and in this picture I can sorta see it.

This is how I remember my day when he was at the store working. He always had a small filing cabinet in his pocket.

Shannon Wood was one of my dad's best friends growing up and this is taken in their Army uniforms.

This is another one of my dad's best friends. Edd Chambers, in this picture he is around 18.

Dressed for Success

Taken out in the country place with Lucy and Juanita.

Buying A New Delivery Truck

Whenever the Store was going to buy a new vehicle for the business whether it was a car or a truck they received "Special Treatment."

The local Dealerships, Chevrolet, Ford, GMC and Dodge would always find out what time was the best time to come by the store to make sure that all of the decision makers were there. They would bring out a basic vehicle a midline vehicle and a top of the line vehicle. They would park it in front of the store and let them narrow down their selection to maybe three vehicles. They would leave these cars with them for about three days for them to make their decision.

My dad would give them a call and let them know what they had chosen and then the dealing would began. My dad and his brothers loved to deal and get the best offers on the table. Sometimes this would go on for days until the deal was finished.

They were satisfied and the Dealership of choice had sold a vehicle.

This particular truck was for hauling furniture in and it had an inclosed body on the back with closing doors and an over the cab storage for smaller items.

When we received the finished truck and the furniture body had been mounted on the frame it was a beautiful addition to our fleet of vehicles.

It had Waters Bros. Inc. In script on both sides and the stores address. It became a rolling advertisement wherever we delivered furniture.

As I am typing this I am smiling just thinking about a trick that was played on me when we first got the truck. I was in the back tying up a bedroom suite securely to keep it from moving in transit when someone closed the doors and then the truck took off down the road. I just held on for dear life until it stopped then I started to shout to let them know that I was in the back of the truck.

I heard a scuffle outside the door and then I heard Bobby Ayers tell someone let him out before he smothers. I am thankful to this day for a friend in Bobby Ayers.

Another time I was going to get my drivers permit and my dad made me drive the truck to get the permit. The officer giving the test made me drive up Central Avenue beside the First National Bank and I had to stop for the light. The truck had a manual transmission and you had to control the brake and the clutch on a hill and as a new driver this was a test in its self. Add a patrol officer giving you a drivers test and someone in a new Cadillac pulled up on my bumper. By this time I am sweating profusely not wanting to stall the engine or roll the truck back into the car behind me and wait on the light to change. I said a little prayer, and it was answered. When the light changed I moved forward slowly turned on the blinker and turned right down South Elm Street.

When I got my permit I was glad for the accomplishment of getting past that hurdle that day.

The New Wood Range

Years before when we had appliances at the Mrs. P.Y. Waters Grocery we had sold several Wood Ranges to customers, but as more and more customers got electricity they purchased electric ranges and used the old wood ranges for storage or put them out in the yard to cook outdoors.

We had a customer who lived way out in the country and she would come to town once a month pulling her little red wagon bring fresh eggs and butter and quilts and jams and jellies to swap for things that she needed at home.

She would always stop by the store and pay on her bill before going home. Dad would let her store anything perishable in a refrigerator that we stored cold soft drinks in until she was ready to go home.

This one day when she came in she said she needed to purchase a new wood range as hers had rusted out and she couldn't store hot water in in anymore. Dad got out an Atlanta Stove Works Catalog and let her browse through it until she found what she wanted. He told her that he would pick it up on the following Tuesday and we would deliver it to her on the Wednesday following.

Wednesday morning we went to unload it from the truck that he had gone to Atlanta in onto a pickup truck. It was so heavy that it took four of us to move it from one truck to the other. We decided that we would wait to assemble it when we got to her house and we could carry it in easier.

We got to her house and I got to see the first bottle tree that I had ever seen. As she would pull her wagon back home she would pick up colored beer and wine bottles that were thrown out on the side of the road and take them home in her wagon. She would take the bottles and put them over the end of the small branches in her trees and as the sun would shine through the trees the bottles would gleam and glisten in the sun. She also took the bottles and used them at the edges of her walkway to her front door. She would dig a trench and put the necks of the bottles in the ground and use the bottoms lined in a row on the edges of the walk way.

She had plastic flowers hanging all along her fence in the front of her house and in her shrubs. She said that all of the graveyards that she would pass on her walk home would throw out the old arrangements and she would get them to use in her yard. "She was being green long before we ever knew what being green meant."

We went into her kitchen and moved out her old wood range and set it out in her barn for her. We assembled the new wood range and carried it into her kitchen. The new wood range was much heavier than her older one and as we set it into place on the floor the floor sagged under the weight. We had to make a trip into town to get some cement block to put under the floor to support the weight of the range. We finally were able to get it leveled and the floor supported for her.

She fed us some homemade coconut cake and some peach tea for all of our effort and let us know that now she could finally take her a warm bath because she had her hot water tank (that didn't leak), on her new stove.

As it only holds about five gallons of water hot as the stove cooks we knew that she would have a little wait before she was ready for that warm bath.

Washing Day

We had a loyal customer when I was growing up that I remember taking many new items of furniture to her home.

She had raised a large family in Banks County and had done all of this without electricity, and the convenience that went with it.

One day she was snapping peas from her garden when I got to her home to collect her payment on her bill. She invited me to set down and she let me know that she was thinking about purchasing a new washer and dryer for herself and doing away with her wringer washer.

If you have a few minutes I want to tell you why I've come to this decision.

As you know my youngest son got a divorce in the Spring and moved back home until he decided where he was going to move to. He moved all of his furniture that he had and we stored in in the barn.

Every Monday when I get out the wringer washer to do my laundry he tells me to call out a plumber and an electrician to wire and plumb the back porch for his washer and dryer and use them instead of being tied to the wringer washer until you finish my wash.

I told him, "Thank You," but I have raise my family doing it with a black cast iron pot, first building the fire and then drawing up the water from the well and getting it hot in the pot to wash and rinse my clothes and now that I have been using this wringer washer since then, this way is ok with me.

Yes, you have to stay with the washer to make sure that the washer doesn't walk off of the porch and you have to be careful when you wring the clothes through the wringers. You have to refill the tub with rinse water and I always put this water on my plants so I don't waste the water.

Well, a good friend of mine had gotten sick and I went and helped her out for a spell until she got back on her feet. When I got home I had a surprise waiting for me on the back porch. My son had paid to have a plumber and an electrician come out and plumb and wire the back porch for his washer and dryer, and there they were sitting there waiting to be used.

Now you already know what I'm going to say, when wash day came around I went out to the barn to get out the wringer washer to bring back to the porch. I tried to put it back in its place on the porch bout I couldn't get it up the steps by my self. The little devil on my shoulder said, go ahead and use it and you can still hang your clothes out on the line. Well I listened, and I used the washer like he had shown me and then I hung my clothes on the line to dry.

When supper came, and we were all setting around the table the conversation came up about the laundry. Why did you hang the clothes on the line and how did you wash the clothes. Not wanting to admit that I had given in and used the washer, I said, I like hanging my clothes on the clothes line because they smell so fresh and clean from the sunshine. My son said, "What would you have done if it was raining?" "Just like I've always done, hang them up in the house and on the front and back porch to dry.

Well two weeks ago my son moved back out and got an apartment in Gainesville closer to his job. He took all of his things with him, even the washer and dryer. I had him put the old wringer washer back out on the back porch so I could start using it again.

When wash day rolled around I got everything together just like I had done for years, but somehow it just wasn't the same. I had to stay there with the washer to keep it from rolling off of the porch and I guess I was just getting to be a softie. Well so, here is what I need to know, how soon can I get a new washer and dryer?
I said how about this evening, will that be soon enough. When I get back to town I will get you a plain washer and dryer just like you requested and I will fill out your contract and when I come back this evening to install them on your porch you can sign the contract.

You make thing so easy for me, I want to "Thank You for listening to my story and I really appreciate your help with the peas.

Later that evening we delivered the washer and dryer and she was all set for Wash Day.

Labor Day

The Wringer Washer

Today whenever you wash clothes all you have to do is open the washer load up the tub, add the detergent and select the wash setting and let it go and you can go and do something else.

Well before all of this you had wringer washers.

We sold a many wringer washers out of the Mrs. P.Y. Waters Grocery as well in the early days of Waters Bros. Furniture and Appliances.

Whenever we delivered them to the customers they were either trading from one wringer washer or they were trading up from the boiling pot and rub board. It was these customers that had just gotten electricity that were now able to have an electric wringer washer. We explained to the customer how to fill the tub with fresh water and plug it in to their electric socket and turn the washer on and it would wash the clothes for them. You could run the clothes thru the wringers on top of the washer to get the water out of the clothes, but be careful it could catch your fingers and hands thing they were clothes. This is when you had to be quick and hit the reverse on the rollers by twisting the side of the ringers to reverse them. Once the washing was done you dropped down the hose on the side of the washer and let it drain into the yard or a bucket. Once it was drained you could add clean water back into the tub so that you could rinse your clothes. Then use the wringers to ring out the water from the clothes so that you could hang them on the clothes line.

Someone had to stay close to the washer whenever it was running, because they had wheels on the bottom and when ever it was washing they had a tendency to move around on the porch or floor. Some have been know to roll off of the porch.

We loved to use the old lids on trade in wringer washers to sit in to slide down a steep grassy hill in the summer and fall and in the winter we used them as a sled. Some kids would take out the agitator and use it as a megaphone. It worked real well for this because it was cone shaped.

Some people used the wash water from the washer to bath in before throwing the water out. And used the rinse water to water their flowers.

Palmer Waters

Anything But White

For years, whenever you purchased new appliances all that you could get were white appliances. If your walls were white you had a very bland kitchen and the only way you could brighten it up was with accessories.

Well in the late fifties and early sixties we started to get calls for some appliances on other colors. We would relay this information on to the manufacturer and they must have listened to their customers because we got some new colors. The new colors in the late fifties were, Petal Pink, Turquoise Green, Statford Yellow, Cadet Blue, Canary Yellow and Red that were offered to the customers.

We never sold any red that I know of but we sold a few of the pink, but more of the yellow and turquoise. What a difference this made in the kitchen. Cadet Blue proved to be unpopular and so it was discontinued.

In the sixties we had Coppertone, Harvest Gold and  Avocado Green. These were the popular colors for that remainder of the sixties and mid seventies.

In the late 70's the color Bright Poppy Red made another appearance but it didn't last long. In the late seventies to the early eighties new colors arrived on the scene. These colors were, Natural colors that better suited the kitchens of the seventies and the eighties. Harvest Wheat, Onyx Black, Coffee, Fresh Avocado and Almond were introduced with Almond and Harvest Gold definitely taking the lead. The 80’s saw Coppertone and Avocado fade away.

From the pastels of the fifties, the earth tones of the sixties and the off-whites and return the whites in the eighties and ninties, today kitchen designers often choose stainless steel for an efficient utilitarian look or black for sleek sophistication.

White still remains popular and is still the most popular choice among home owners today.

Who would ever thought in the 1950's, 1960's, 1970's and 1980's that they would sell refrigerators with a bumpy texture under the paint. Or even sell them with computers or even tv's.

We have come a long way over the years, and even with all of the choices that are available for the kitchen most still choose white appliances.

Palmer Waters