Monday, January 21, 2013

Hunting Strange on Main Street



Hunting Strange on Main Street in Hollyhill


Hello. Jocie Brooke here reporting from Main Street, Hollyhill, Kentucky where everything seems pretty ordinary the same as every day. My fellow reporter, Wesley Green, thinks I’ll spot something strange to report on here in our new venture, the Hollyhill Book of the Strange. But I’m still thinking the Book of the Ordinary would suit our little town better. He shakes his head at me and says everything seems pretty strange here to him, seeing as how he landed here from Jupiter. 

I can’t argue with that. I’m sure if I was up on Jupiter, I’d think things were strange. That’s the one that has all the moons. Wes says over sixty of them, but only four that look much like our earth moon. Think about looking up at the sky and seeing four moons shining down on you with dozens of others popping out here and there like bouncing balls. Wes says folks going out at night on Jupiter have to wear hats to keep from getting moonburnt. That could definitely make a book of the strange.


But here in Hollyhill we only have one moon to shine down on our Main Street. So come on and we’ll walk down it together. You can poke me if you notice something strange that I’ve looked at all my life and think is ordinary as can be. Of course, then I may just think you’re strange. 


First we’ll go down Main Street where the stores are lined up on either side, snuggled edge to edge. We have two stoplights – one in front of the courthouse and another up by the post office on the north end of town. The post office was built during the Great Depression by the WPA. That was the government giving people jobs and our little town got a great big post office out of it. That’s kind of interesting but not exactly strange since it happened in towns all across the country. Then again it might be strange that they built it up so high off the street. The workers must have had a fondness for building steps or maybe it was just to make the job last longer. 


We have two grocery stores, two ten cent stores, two banks, two drugstores, two ladies’ dress shops, two lawyer offices, two hardware stores, two furniture stores, two Laundromats, and two grills. Notice a trend here? Well, before you decide Hollyhill has two of everything which might be decidedly strange, I’ll point out we only have one newspaper office, one barbershop, one defunct hotel, one chiropractor’s office. There are three poolrooms that are off limits to kids like me. To make up for whatever mischief might go on in them, four churches anchor both ends of Main Street – First Baptist, Presbyterian, Christian and Methodist. The Pentecostal and Second Baptist churches are on back streets behind Main. Oh, I forgot the jewelry stores – two of them too. But only one men’s store. There used to be a movie house, but it went out of business years ago. Dad tells me when he was a kid there was a bowling alley in the upstairs rooms over where the wallpaper store is now. That’s strange enough to think about. Somebody bowling over top your head. There used to be an Opera House and hotel too, right across from the train depot, but that’s on a side street up from Main.  Oh, and I forgot the car dealerships, Ford and Chevrolet, that are right on Main Street. And there’s two gas stations at the end of town past that courthouse stoplight going south.


Whew, I’m beginning to wonder how all of these buildings can be squeezed along one Main Street. The churches and the post office do spill on down the street from the two and a half block center of town. And that most important building, the library is on another side street up from the Post Office. We have Andrew Carnegie to thank for that. I looked him up in the encyclopedia and he gave building grants to start over 1,600 libraries in America and Hollyhill’s was one of them. Thank you, Mr. Carnegie! 


So we’ve walked down Main and taken a side trip up to the library, but I’ve not spotted much strange. Did you? If so let me know so I can take another look. And meet me again next Monday. By then something exciting might have happened. Don’t hold your breath, but I suppose anything is possible. Even in Hollyhill. 

(Remember, if you leave a comment here or on One Writer's Journal, you'll be entered in a giveaway for an autographed copy of Scent of Lilacs. Each comment gives you an extra entry. Drawing March 1.)




20 comments:

  1. I would love to visit Hollyhill! I really like the "2" of everything. It reminds me of my husband's hometown in the upper peninsula of Michigan. Iron River had 2 mainstreets, and like Hollyhill, 2 of just about everything! Fun!
    Nancee

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    1. Thanks for coming over to Hollyhill, Nancee, and for sharing about your husband's hometown in Michigan. Small towns everywhere share a lot of the sameness. Jocie is looking in her dictionary to see if "sameness" is a word. LOL

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  2. Hi Ann, Reminds me of a little town I spent part of my childhood in located in Missouri. Smaller than Hollyhill, so small my mom could send me downtown to the bank with my dad's paycheck. The most exciting thing was a new grocery store grand opening where they gave away cotton candy! Can't remember how many trips I made but it was probably too many. Keep up the good work...your blog makes me think and smile.

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    1. Ahh, the good parts of living in a small town, Linda. A place where everybody knew everybody and watched out for the kids. That grocery store grand opening with the cotton candy sounds like something that might just happen in Hollyhill. Thanks for sharing.

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  3. I would love to win The book Of The Strange.Please enter me in your contest.
    Elizabeth Dent

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    1. Great, Elizabeth. But the book of the strange is only going to be here on Jocie's blog. The book you might win is her and her Hollyhill family's story in Scent of Lilacs. I think you'll still like the story if you're the winner.

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  4. really didn't see anything strange. Love Colleen's books . Would love to winScents Of Lilacs.
    Please enter me in the give away. Thanks.
    Elizabeth Dent

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    1. Strange may be in the eye of the beholder, Elizabeth. We'll see in the weeks to come.

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  5. WOW! Lots of businesses in that town. But, are all that live here adults? I never saw one schoolhouse. Strange! Maxie

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    1. The high school is on down the street from the Post Office, Maxie, and the elementary school is on a side street a block over. But of course there are kids. Jocie is one of them.

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  6. It's strange that they don't have a sheriff's office and jail. Don't they ever have anyone breaking the law? Maxie

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    1. The sheriff and the jail are in the courthouse. Maybe we'll get to that on one of the blog posts. As great as Hollyhill is, there are a few bad eggs that have to spend a little time in jail.

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  7. A streetlight right in the middle of the street? Now, that's strange. Why would someone do that? Maxie

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    1. Jocie's not sure where you saw that streetlight in the middle of the street. She's going back down Main to hunt it up because you're right. That would be strange. I think you must have been thinking Jocie said streetlight when she said stop light.

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  8. Seems strange there is no donut or coffee shop! I left a comment on both this post and the earlier one and they didn't show up so I will try again! This is fun....Linda

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    1. Sorry about your comments not showing up, Linda. Jocie wasn't paying enough attention on this blog, but the two of us will try to do better now. No donut or coffee shop in Hollyhill, but there were those two grills where you could get coffee and a drugstore soda fountain too.

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  9. no pool hall, MOON-shine, jailhouse
    there are sidewalks for rollerskating
    school in the next block
    factories, shoe store, beauty shop
    courthouse and lawyers' work
    construction ~ where do the community people work
    where do they earn their money to spend in the town?
    Kathleen
    lanehillhouse[at]centurylink[dot]net

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    1. Kathleen, Jocie's just a kid. Surely she didn't say a thing about MOON-shine. :) Oh, but you must be describing your small town. In Hollyhill most folks are farmers or work in nearby towns. We do have a sausage factory and a cheese factory and three or four feed stores to supply those farmers. Plus a few schoolteachers. The schools and beauty shops were on the side streets.

      Thanks for your comment. We'll learn more about the people of Hollyhill in the days ahead.

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  10. Jocie here. You guys are making me smile. I'm only 13 so maybe I didn't write all this as clearly as I should have. But I'm going to read it again to see where I put a streetlight in the middle of the street. That would be very strange and might cause a few traffic problems - if Hollyhill ever had that much traffic.

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  11. I love you Ann. Wish I could meet you in person. I lived in a tiny town when I was growing up too.
    When we were in town the kids were allowed go where ever they wanted with no need for worrying about us. We loved to go to the drugstore to get a double dip ice cream cone for a nickel? And the kids favorite place was on the backside of one store, where Mr Jude had all kinds of candy for pennies and nickels. In glass jars. Also where I had my first bubble gum. We mostly had 1 of each store. Can't believe that little town has survived all of these years. One of those I call a spot in the road. Loved it there. Maxie

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Jocie loves to know what you're thinking about your visits to Hollyhill.