The following is a third excerpt of Crockett's Bluff As I Remember It, David Prange's memoir of his childhood in the Bluff from his birth in 1926 until his family moved to California in 1944. See "I: Approach From the West" and "II: School Days." Pictured above in Schwab's Grocery as it was about 2000, the last surviving store in the Bluff, to which he refers in this recollection.
"Our dad's store was the most popular place of business in town, but for one. That one, which was by some considered the Honky-Tonk, was the Schwab's store. There were actually only two stores in town that were actively serving the public. The August Prange store was also active but served, mainly, the employees of his vast plantation. To say the least, it bordered on being a company store. The Schwab Mercantile was considered the Honky-Tonk because beer could be purchased there and a pool room was a part of the establishment. An interesting difference was our dad ran a credit business while the Schwab store, to my knowledge, did not. Generally, as to be expected, when folks had money they patronized the competition. The availability of beer and the pool tables were a great attraction. When they were short on money they often came to dad's store. Our dad, with his gentle heart, was an easy touch, and most knew it and some took advantage of it.
"The Schwab, the August Prange and dad's stores were active within my earliest memories. The August Prange store closed to business during the mid to late 1930s. Our dad's store remained open . . . until the remainder of our family moved to California in 1944. The Schwab store closed in or about 1985.
"I have wonderful memories that surround our store. Sunday mornings, after church and if the weather was accommodating, some of the adult men gathered for the game of pitching silver dollars. This was always played next to the store, on the north side. This game, as I remember it, has very nearly the same rules, as did pitching horseshoes. Rather than ringing a stake, the silver dollars were pitched into a small hole in the ground. This was during the early 1930's and as the Great Depression progressed through the decade the game continued, but the silver dollars were gradually replaced with common steel washers.
"A very dear family friend I associate with the store was John Johnson who had migrated from Nebraska with the Prange clan. He is a very much a part of my memories of the store. He was rarely seen without his bolt action, single shot, twenty-two-caliber rifle. He enjoyed shotting blue jays out of the trees, and much of this was done while sitting on dad's front store porch. I remember him once having his eyes tested for glasses by a traveling optometrist, if I dare call him that, on the front porch of the store. At some point during those years there had apparently been a break-in a bit before my time, so I suppose there was a reason for vigilance; therefore, for several years John actually slept in the side room of the store as the night watchman. I do not recall a problem with burglars developing during my days, however.
"The front store porch was the gathering place for many residents. My brother Charles and I spent hours listening to tall tales being recounted. It took bedtime or school homework to pry us away, and always with regret.
"During the summer months, the mosquitoes provided a real challenge. During those tall tale sessions most were stripped to the waist because of the hot and humid weather. It was a continual swing and alap. No one seemed to give that circumstance a second thought. I suppose we thought that the mosquitoes were just a part of living. You live, you slap mosquitoes."
[Many of David's recollections -- the men playing washers, certainly John Johnson who was a friend of my fathers who was at our house often, and definitely the pool table (and eventually the pinball machine) at Schwab's Grocery during my high school years -- are vaguely familiar. I recall the pool table set in the middle of a back room surrounded on all sides by sacks of feed, fertilizer, and other commodities. DPW]
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