-53- of the long tables that filled the main floor pf the Market House, or to find a space on the Market Square. Here, loads of hay, grain, potatoes, turnips, and other vegetables were lined up to.await huyers. Fat steers” were tethered to the hitching posts. In Spring, it was customary to see crates containing little pigs to be bought for fattening. At Christmas and Easter, when hogs were routinely slaughtered, dozens of sleighs laden with frozen carcases passed down the Tryon Road én route to the city -- their harness bells lending a cheery note to the pre-dawn darkness. During the other seasons of the year, beef cattle, sheep, and lambs were driven over the road. | |

While these activities were underway on the Square, farm wives were displaying their wares inside the Market House: butter, eggs, milk, garden truck, berries in season, dressed chickens, ducks, and geese. City house- keepers and small grocers were early on hand in the hope of picking up bargains. They were canny shoppers, but the rural ladies were equally astute. At the beginning of the market day, they agreed upon minimal acceptable prices for their goods; nevertheless, the shoppers continued to parade up one aisle and down the other, dickering for a penny or two off the charge of P pound of butter or a basket of berries. Not until mid- afternoon did prices take a downward turn. By that time, the country ladies had begun to weary of the long hours of incessant haggling; furthermore, they had to allow time for their own shopping in the city department stores. They had no inclination to take unsold merchandise home with them, and so, distasteful as was the thought, they had no alternative to cutting prices. Jt was their considered opinion, often expressed with appropriate emphasis, that the city folk were a scrimpy, penny-pinching lot -- always on the lookout for something for nothing. Years later, I was intrigued to learn that the clerks in the city stores used almost identical terms to

describe the buying tactics of the country housewives.