WINNING PRIZES
Across the
Fence
By Arvord
Abernethy
Do you remember those
cartoons that used to come out in the newspapers entitled “Born 40
Tears Too Soon”? That is the way I feel about getting the full benefit
of the advice Bob Miller recently gave in his column, “
Full Circle
”. It was concerning how much it can cost in stamps to win one of
those sweepstake prizes.
The size of the prizes and
the cost of a stamp have changed greatly over the last several years.
Back when I started sending back chances, it probably just took a 2 cent
stamp. Now when you open up your mail and a letter reads, “You could
already be the winner of a $50,000 prize, return this and find out,”
an eighteen cent stamp seems such a small amount to get your curiosity
satisfied. I haven’t kept count of the stamps I’ve used, but now I
have to keep sending back those sweepstake chances hoping to get some of
my stamp money back.
I got lucky the other day
and won a prize that will take care of some of the stamp money.
Higginbotham Co., in their many stores, are celebrating their 100th
birthday and gave away 100 prizes. Knowing that my chance of winning was
much better than that 7,820,000 to one chance that Bob was having to
take, I signed up.
The other day,
Higginbotham called up and announced that we had won a prize. It would
have meant a lot more had I answered the phone instead of Mary, as they
told her that the prize was for her. I went down and picked it up and it
was a beautiful lady’s purse that was exactly the color that she had
been looking for. Had I answered the phone, I could have claimed that it
was a special order that I had made for her birthday, but had been a
month late in delivery due to a worker’s strike. Anyway, thank you,
Higginbothams.
Not often does a person or
business get to celebrate its 100th Anniversary. In December
of 1880, John James and Lucy Higginbotham moved from
Water Valley
,
Mississippi
, to
Dublin
to be near five of their twelve children who were already out here. In
January 1881, two of their sons, B. T. and J. M. opened their first
store in DeLeon, and it is still in the same location.
The
Dublin
store was opened soon afterwards. The Stephenville store opened in 1891,
the one in
Hamilton
in 1928, and others of the 18 stores and lumberyards at various times.
At first the stores were
operated independently by different members of the family, but in 1917
they were all incorporated together and still operate as Higginbotham
Bros. & Co., with the General Office in Comanche.
The corporation is still
family owned, with some being in the fifth generation. The 100th
Anniversary stockholders meeting had approximately 200 in attendance and
it was more like a big family reunion.
We were passing through
DeLeon one day so stopped at their store and found a Lazy Boy rocker
just like we wanted, so bought it. We found a well stocked store there
that carried all lines like the old general stores.
I have tried to picture in
my mind how that first store looked like 100 years ago. I know they
didn’t have any Lazy-Boy rockers then as no one could be lazy then and
survive. If you would have looked back towards the back of the store,
hanging from the ceiling would have been rows of horse collars. Since it
was cotton picking time, out in front would be hanging a cotton sack and
a pair of knee pads. On the sidewalk would be three different size wash
tubs, one with a washboard on it, another with some cotton scales, and
nearby would be an axe to remind you that it would soon be time to get
in that winter wood.
Many happy returns of the
anniversaries, Higginbothams.
Since writing the above
story, we got a call from the A. G. Thompson Super Market that I had won
a prize from them. I went down and found that I had won a nice General
Electric tape recorder.
This could be a real
interesting device to have around, yet on the other hand it could get me
in trouble. Mary will sometimes tell me some news or tell me to do
something and my alibi is usually that she just thinks that she told me,
I’m afraid now that she is going to pull that tape recorder on me.
My luck has been so good
lately, I try to meet the mail man every day to get that $50,000 check
from Readers Digest.
Shared by Roy
Ables
ACROSS THE FENCE
