Decorated Eggshells are ripe in the Land of Mears

Now that the new Shelby depot has its windows and door in I am reminded of many memories of the old depot which sat almost where this one does only a little bit north . Jay Waite used to be station agent down there back 30 years ago and some of the time Elmer Sage was telegraph operator . And Clarence Tucker was station agent for a long time too . Three passenger trains went north and three went south . And it was an event of the day to go down and meet the evening train and see who came home from Muskegon with a new hat , although Jennie Bowerman could make just as good hats right in Shelby and sell you a foundation garment to go with it . Hart depot used to have a separate waiting room for men and one for women , but in Shelby it was one big to-- waiting room with a pot - bellied stove and everyone was sociable gether . There was another pot - bellied stove in the telegraph office . which was in the middle of the building , and back of that were the compartments for baggage , express and freight . When the trains came in the conductors had to come in and sign the train book , showing what day and minute the train arrived and departed . Of the many people that soaked in the pot - bellied heat from the Pere Marquette wainting room stove some were waiting to get out of town , some were waiting to welcome arriving friends and relatives , and some were just waiting . absorbing the bituminous comfort . Jim Ferris , the chicken inspector , going with the would drop around to see if all the right girls were right boys or if any of them had been having a falling out and weren't speaking to each other for a spell . For while the United States Depart- ment of Agriculture was . besieged with thousands of requests for a pamphlet called " The Love Life of a Frog , " which they never did print and nobody else . Jim Ferris , the village oracle . was always an anth- ority on the love life of Shelby . There were two ways to get to the donat . one around by Third street past the long brick side of Steven- son's drug store , and another very much more nounlar one down through the narrow side walk aller between Bechtel's drug store and Tom Read's law office where the Kroger store is now . There was a lengthwise plank sidewalk through this narrow ballway alley that led toward the depot . I went through there the other day and it seemed so strange and deserted . I don't suppose I go through there once a you now , or maybe once in five years . I suppose there are people in Shelby

who don't walk through there once in a year . Jim Ferris does get on his tours of inspection to see what is going on in the burg . If Shelby had kerosene street lamps they would hire Jim Ferris for the old lamp- lighter , and if he passed any lovers sitting on a bench in Triangle Park up by the Congregational church he would pass a light and leave it dark . Several times a week I rode the trains between Mears and Shelby . One time the fare was 11c , another time 21c and one time 17c a trip . Very often I stayed over night in the three - story Shelby hotel . Some- times the snow made the trains very late , two , three or four hours late . One time the train was a week late . One time a lot of us stayed all night in the depot waiting for the evening north bound train which finally came at daylight . Mrs. Andrew Barkel and daughter Vivian were among the waiters , or waitees maybe you would call them now . On the trains were standees or strap hangers and some of the girls were laplanders . Of course they would try to land in the right lap and apologize profusely . And the lap owners would say : " Oh not at all . that's quite alright . " This night I was telling you about I guess Wells Stockhill was the town marshall and night watch and carried the keys to main street , so when we depot waiters got hungry we would get the night watch to open up the bakery and we would get cuts of pie off the shelf and leave the money on the shelf . There was another time on a Saturday night when the train decided to be a week late owing to the accumulation of embattled snow , so I thought I would walk to Mears up the track . I walked off embankments into snow banks 14 feet deep and finally got to East Golden where I saw Frank Acker's light and stayed all night where there used to be a town and a mill and a post office called East Golden . The next morning I could see to get over the drifts into Mears . A week later the train came . Rev. Sher- wood Eddy was surprised by 67 people on his birthday . - Pat Johnson is back from California where they ate oranges and from Phoenix where they ate cheese , and Mrs. Johnson is going to make a salad of cheese and oranges to revive vacation memories . - Write us for sum- mer cottage reservations now . Hanson - Osborn , Hart ; Central Agency . Pentwater . Tony Field is on the long way home from California's Long Beach . - Marvel Fenton got a kink in her back when she bent over to pick up her crocheting . One way to prevent that next time is to put a little brass hook in the end of a broom handle and when the needle work falls hook it up without even stooping . Clara Davis has a pile of new cement blocks to wall up her well pit so she can have it all under ground ond take away the " dog kennel . " - Genevieve Steen works in the Rankin hardware and she had a fertile imagination so she took pots and pans ' and granite spoons and copper screens and steel wool and made a windowful of Easter millinery styles which would make Jennie Bowerman sit up and take notice . It attracts many eyes of the passersby . Such clever hats we never saw before or never will until some woman comes to church on Easter Sunday with a live set- ting hen in a nest on top of her head . And that would make Rer . Oli- ver Page turn over a new leaf in Ecclesiastes and say . " Vanity of vanities , all in vanity . " Herb Matthews times his watch by the tele . graph but Jeweler Harold L. Moore says all watches timed on Time - O - Graps - Heated apartment for rent in Mears . Elmer Krantz . We have the funds on - hand for the purchase of desirable building lots on Silver Lake or on Pentwater Lake . Also for the purchase of a summer home on either lake . Let us know what you have , the location and price . Realtors , Hanson - Osborn , Hart : Central Agency . Pentwater . The return of John Krauss was the leading serial nitement of the week , John has been down in Florida for a spell and they say he fell

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in love with a southern girl and may bring her up for a bride after he gets his lawn raked and new wallpaper on the ceiling . Anderson's gro- cery in Mears sells nylons and anklets , adv . - MODERN HOUSE for sale : six rooms and bath and garage on beautiful shaded paved street in Mears . It's a home you can be proud to own . Inquire of Mrs. R. H. Barton , Mears , adv . For sale : Briggs and Stratton gas engine , $ 15 . Forest Lathers , Mears . Neil DePotter , the horse trainer , has run his race . For Solly Safford , for W. R. Roach and for Mark Hunkins he chased horses around the fair ground oval . He was 82 when he was buried Tuesday at Manistee . Albert Ecke was a kindly soul who liv- ed up Milwaukee avenue , as his road to Crystal Lake was called be- cause so many from Milwaukee settled there . Albert was born in Mil- waukee in 1887 and came up here when a small boy . I remember his father , a short man with a beard , and his mother who lived afterwards with her son . Late years he had lived alone here summers and other times of the year . This winter he had gone to California and was going from there to Fort Lauderdale , Florida , to visit his brother Fred when he was stricken with a heart attack at Dallas , Texas . He was buried Monday in Hart . - Leslie Oril Cogdill , whose prents live in Hart town- ship , was accidently electrocuted on the tanker ship Sebec in the South Pacific March 4. He will be brought to Hart for burial very soon.- The brick work on the Hart Methodist church is rapidly going up . Rev. William Meadows distributed 110 $ 10 bills to folks to invest and bring in the harvest August 15. - Gottlieb Schneider will be buried Saturday in Detroit . He was born in Germany in 1866 and came to Hart in 1918 and bought a fruit farm north of town . He leaves a wife , three sons , Clarence , Walter and Harl , also two daughters in Detroit . Mr. Schnei- der was a member of the Hart Baptist church . Robert Hooper , 21 , col- ored , of Holt , went to Hart , stole Floyd Weeks ' car , broke open the alley entrance of Barney VanderWall's grocery , stole some groceries and cases of pop , stated to drive to Pentwater or Ludington on the lake shore road , got stuck down by Orrin Flood's , aroused suspicion and was picked up and is in jail . - Mrs . Victor Pearson was in Hart hos- pital March 18 for an x - ray . So were Mrs. Lena Sayers and Melvin Clark . 400 acres , between Mears and Shelby , approximately 67 acres in fruit , some timber . Packing house and living quarters , $ 10,000 . Han- son - Osborn , Hart . Sunday Lenore Peterson will stop her x - ray ma- chine long enough to get married . While Sam Morse was married 50 years ago last Monday his golden wedding celebration will be will be held Sunday , April 14 , when all the daughters can be home Weeks Lumber Co , for windows and sash , WHEN YOU NEED A GOOD STRONG WRECKER CALL THE FLOOD MOTOR SALES ; 24 HR . SERVICE . PH . 161 ; NIGHT , NO . 1 .

at once .

Meals and lunches at Elmer's Place , Mears

Anderson's Grocery , Mears , sells nylon hose , also children's anklets

FOR RADIOS . HOUSEHOLD APPLIANCES . MIRRORS , STUDYO COUCHES , WINDOW SHADES and FINE FURNITURE , COME TO THE STORE OF R. J. WIETZKE in HART .

RADIO SERVICE on all makes , Experienced workmanship , reason- able rates . SHELBY RADIO SHOP , 509 Michigan Avenue- -Easter sunrise service at the Mears church .