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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