Tuesday, July 24, 2012

What the Rocky Mount Curb Market Has Meant to My Family, 1933


Around 1933, Effie Vines Gordon, home demonstration agent in Nash County, was asked to make a presentation on the success of the Rocky Mount Home Demonstration Club Curb Market. Mrs. Gordon interviewed a number of women who sold at the market and their reports are below. I can’t tell you who said what, but Mrs. Edwin Bass, a very successful seller at the curb market, brought a typical curb market display to Mrs. Gordon’s presentation.

Dr. C.B. Smith, referenced below is the former chief of the Office of Cooperative Extension Work, USDA. You can read his collection of essays and poems, “Life Worth While,” online at http://4-hhistorypreservation.com/eMedia/eBooks/Life_Worth_While.pdf.

When the market was opened in 1923, one lady gathered up headed lettuce in a clothes basket, and she sold out completely. She made two cakes for the next market and sold them. She made more cakes and in the 20 years the market had been open, she had sold $18,666 worth. This lady and her two sisters made their reputation in cakes and dressings. “We are positive if it had not been for the curb market we would have been in the county home, or worse still, dependent upon relatives. Our home was mortgaged and now we have our home, a comfortable one. We own our car, a small savings account, and we don’t owe a penny.”
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“During the past six years I have been attending the curb market and I have found it to be a place of interest as well as helping us fight our financial worries. First of all I think it is financial needs that prompt us to attend, and then once we get started we cannot stop. It isn’t a novelty that soon wears away. It gets next to us and we always want to come back. We look forward to seeing our customers whom we soon learn to love. For we have learned through the curb market that our town folks are just as sweet and pleasant as they can be.”
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“In the past six years since I have been attending the market, I have sold $2,500 worth consisting of flowers, vegetables, chickens and eggs. I have used this money towards supporting the family and adding a few new furnishings for the home.
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“Due to the Rocky Mount Curb Market, our family enjoys the privileges of buying all the necessary groceries for cash rather than paying high credit prices. The market also clothes and family, buys all school supplies, and keeps the family car going. Personally, I enjoy the social neighborliness of each market morning and the cordial greetings of each of my customers as well as the sellers. My sales for 1932 were $530. Sales in May were $78; $25 of which was for sweet peas.”
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“I have sold $956 worth of produce since I have been attending the curb market. I used my flower money for my clothes and a good time, until the depression came on. Last year I bought fertilizer and groceries, paid my cook and hired man on the farm. I bought a ton of fertilizer and a half barrel of flour and had two dollars left in change from one week’s sale of flowers. I paid the interest for four months on a note at the bank, which was $28 each month. My little girl sold five little foxes they found in the woods and wild flowers enough to buy a good second-hand piano. They have a little flower garden and are selling flowers to get money for school dresses and music lessons this winter; they are nine and eleven years of age.”
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“By selling on the market I have clothed and partly fed a family of seven for eight years, also bought a new car and paid doctors’ and dentists’ bills.”
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“The curb market has done for our family the following: sent one boy three years to Wake Forest College with the second boy entering this year. One year’s sale amounted to $828.”
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“I have been going to curb market since June 3, 1933. I have sold over $20 worth. With the money I helped to buy the food and clothes for a family of nine. I am 13 years old and am a member of the 4-H Club of West Edgecombe.”
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“My reason for being a booster of the curb market is that it is helpful in several ways. We can have a place to sell our surplus vegetables and it is helpful in getting a little cash at a time when it is very needed. It is a good place to give children some training in an educational way, also brings you in personal contact with the public so we can learn more about each other’s ways and I really enjoy being with the people.”
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“When I was 10 years old, I began to come to the curb market regularly. For several years I helped my sister to make cakes and pies to sell. During my freshman year at Meredith, the money I received from the market paid for my board and clothes. For the past two years, I have been at Eastern Carolina Teachers college, and the curb market has paid a great part in keeping me there. With aid of themarket, I am hoping to finish college in June.”
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“The curb market has been our greatest help in time of our greatest need.”

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