The Best Time in Anderson or In Your Life

[Ma and Pa]

I sure remember Don's Barbecue on the bypass just south of the 8th St. intersection. I especially remember "All-you-can-eat ribs" on Tuesday nights... for $1.25! And oh, yeah, were they good!   

[me]

I never ate at Don's BBQ but I heard it was good.  I do remember Mace's that used to be where Harvest is now because that's where I did all my shopping when we moved to Anderson.

[Anne]

We went to Don's for the all you could eat ribs, too. They were great. Not a fancy place, remember the pigs painted on the walls? It was never as good after it tried to "fancy up".

When we lived across town I would drive all the way to Mace's to shop because they would always carry my groceries to the car. A very important thing for a very pregnant lady with a toddler in tow!

I remember when the bypass was two lanes all the way to SR67 and the traffic was terrible in the mornings and at quitting time. Actually it was still terrible at quitting time after it was four lanes. We lived about 1/3 mile from 67 and the cars would be backed up way past our house in the afternoons.I think they put in the other two lanes between 67 and Mounds all in one summer. That took a big chunk out of our front yard.

[Anne]

My husband, who grew up in Park Place in the 50's, was just telling me that Mace's was originally built by the man who owned the Park and Shop (?) down in 8th St in Park Place, but before it was done, Mace's came in and bought it from him. The little store in Park Place had great meat and the Mace's still has good meat. I miss the meat market that was on 29th St.

[Gardengirl]

Hope all had a good holiday! The kids are back to school here, and they went back Monday and tomorrow they have a half day already! Can't keep those teachers behind a desk. <g> I know ehen I was a kid, we sure didn't have all these half days. I don't remember any, in fact. Just regular says off.

HI Anne! Hi Whooz her!

[Anne]

Hi GG, My grandkids are all back in school,too. Two of them spent their spring break here, that was great for us. I think they enjoyed it.
I don't remember half days either. I was in high school before we ever had a spring break and then it was just Good Friday. We were out for the summer though well before Memorial Day. We had nice long summer breaks, longer than the city schools.

[Gardengirl]

Anne, I never knew that Madison Heights wasn't a city school for awhile and that we technically didn't live in Anderson?I sure didn't know our summers were longer, but after we bought the lake, mysummers were so hectic they felt short.

A short list of work at the lake: measuring for chemicals to kill the algae, selling tickets and food, picking up dead fish, digging forworms (bait), going to creeks to look for crawlers for bait, mowing 7acres, which was a constant. You'd get it all done and time to start over. Weighing the stringers of fish, dealing with vendors, walking to the stores for our mom, etc. It was busy.

[Ma and Pa]

GG: It doesn't sound like it was all a lot of fun; I'm sure some of it was hard work. But I'd wager you're the better person for it today. What do you think?

[Anne]

GG, You are enough younger than me that MHHS was a city school when you went. It was a township school until the summer of 1964. Even the name on the building read Anderson Township Junior and Senior High School. My husband (boyfriend) attended AHS and we had very different schedules. We both started school the day after labor day, but AHS had several more days off during the year then we did, I don't ever remember having spring break until 1962 and then we just had Good Friday off. I graduated on May 23 and school was out a day or two later for everyone one else. My husband didn't graduate until sometime in June. 

What lake did you go to in the summer? We spent a lot of time at Loon Lake where my in  laws had a place. They are a lot of work and they didn't run a business like it sounds your family did.

[Gardengirl]

Anne,

We owned Stottlemyer Lake in the early to late 1960s. It was a lot of work, but it did make me mature and responsible. The stories I could tell.

I graduated on June 7, I remember. I remember you could see the school, MHHS, being built from the back play yard of Roosevelt El.

[Gardengirl]

Ma and Pa,

Working at that lake kept us off the streets. <g>

My dad bought the lake because I think he knew he was going to die, and he wanted a business my mom and we could run. My mom and dad were rabid fishermen, to Minn. in the summers and deep sea fishing in Florida in the winter. So, they bought the lake from Claude and Bessie Stottlemyer in 1959 and made it into a commercial fishing lake. We finally closed it in 1965, I believe, after we found out people were fishing out the lake at night while we slept. We sold it to Garnet Stottlemyer in 1967 and moved to California. My dad died in 1961.

[Da Wham]

We went to Don's for the all you could eat ribs, too. They were great. Not a fancy place, remember the pigs painted on the walls? It was never as good after it tried to "fancy up".

When we lived across town I would drive all the way to Mace's to shop because they would always carry my groceries to the car. A very important thing for a very pregnant lady with a toddler in tow!

I remember when the bypass was two lanes all the way to SR67 and the traffic was terrible in the mornings and at quitting time. Actually it was still terrible at quitting time after it was four lanes. We lived about 1/3 mile from 67 and the cars would be backed up way past our house in the afternoons.I think they put in the other two lanes between 67 and Mounds all in one summer. That took a big chunk out of our front yard.

Used to eat at Don's and some of the places other incarnations.

IIRC, Mace's was the original local grocery store chain.

Back when the Scatterfield Road was two lane my dad used to take me with him down to the river on the east side of the bridge to wash the car there. It was a popular spot. You could drive right out into the river.

[Da Wham]

Anne,

We owned Stottlemyer Lake in the early to late 1960s. It was a lot of work, but it did make me mature and responsible. The stories I could tell.

I graduated on June 7, I remember. I remember you could see the school, MHHS, being built from the back play yard of Roosevelt El.

Wasn't that lake originally an old stone quarry?

[Da Wham]

My husband, who grew up in Park Place in the 50's, was just telling me that Mace's was originally built by the man who owned the Park and Shop (?) down in 8th St in Park Place, but before it was done, Mace's came in and bought it from him. The little store in Park Place had great meat and the Mace's still has good meat. I miss the meat market that was on 29th St.

IIRC, that grocery on 8th St in PPlace was still in business up until 15 or 20 years ago. It's been a coffee shop and a dance studio and whatnot since then.

Where was the meat market on 29th? I don't recall it. I recall the one on 23rd out east by Pitt and the old one on the west side of the 1800 block of Columbus, but I can't dredge up one on 29th.

[Ma and Pa]

GG: We never went to pay lakes when I was a kid, but dad took us fishing in the gravel pits on Scatterfield where the Mounds Mall is today. Also in the Myers pits on Alexandria Pike south of Cross St., which is now Shadyside Lake, part of the park, until it was prohibited after Bobbie Price drowned there.