of excitement to community life. Pranks were prevalent and each generation had its favourite tale about what happened at the store. Jennie Waddell who clerked for Stanley Dawson, Marion Waddell MacDonald who clerked for Crilly Lea and Sheldon Dixon, and Millie Dawson Harvey and Mary Dawson Howatt who clerked for Sheldon Dixon, were the ladies who instigated many of these pranks:

Mrs. George Ives sent a gentleman who was doing some general repairs to her barn to the store to get a 10 x 12 inch piece of glass to replace a broken pane. The fellow returned to Mrs. Ives in a hufij the store ckrk having told him that there was no such thing as a 10 x 12 inch size and Mrs. Ives should have known this. However the clerk told him they did carry 12 x 10 inch panes!

A farmer came to the store looking for shorts. The junior clerk, new to the store and the farming community, on the advice of the senior clerk, rushed upstairs and after digging through boxes came down with a nice blue pair she thought may be the correct size. Very indignantly, the farmersaid he was looking for porridge shorts, not wearing shorts, an item he never had donned, and certainly not in january!

Speculation in the store that a community bachelor was in need of a kiss aroused the curiosity of one of the clerks and some patrons, so taking a bet, the clerk bided her time until the bachelor and the curious patrons were in the store. When the bachelor went to the back of the store, the clerk followed, and seeing her chance, put her arms around the bachelor and gave him a big kiss. To her surprise, she turned to see the door closing and no one in the store. The bachelor was also somewhat surprised and remarked: “I thought I lost it, but I guess I still have it! ”

Vast changes have taken place in the retail business since 1940 when people grew their own vegetables, made their own bread and pastries, and brought containers to the store to be filled with bulk goods such as molasses, vinegar, and machinery oils. Customers exchanged eggs, pork, beef, and animal hides for groceries in those days. The men folk brought the grocery list and the shopkeeper, assisted by the clerk, filled the order. Seldom did women ever do the shopping except at Christmas time and on Election Day when they came to vote at the polls which were always held at North Tryon Corner. Santa Buying was left until Christ- mas Eve. A ball, handsleigh, or a game, along with a Christmas orange, some ribbon candy, barley toys, French creams, and nuts would be the surprise gifts found in children’s stockings the next morning.

Sheldon Dixon answered a knock on his door in the very early hours of December 25, 1940, to find a customer with a basket of eggs packed in oats, expecting to purchase some groceries for the holiday meal in exchange for his produce. Of course on this special day the store was closed but Sheldon, who lived in rooms adjoining the store, served the customer.

The following is a bill of sale from Dawson’s General Store for the ingredients for Sheldon and Florence Dixon’s wedding cake:

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