"Shop Local"

Dear Family Trails readers, 

What thoughts does this week's title, "Shop Local," conjure up for you…a trendy new way of looking at how you shop, where your tax dollars are going, supporting small businesses in a world of big-box stores? That's where my thoughts go when I see the banners around town to remind shoppers to support their home-town merchants. It makes sense, and it has helped me change the way I shop, but honestly, I thought this was a new concept in the past 20-plus years. For many years the local farmers' market has sent this message, and I agreed with the farmers…I would definitely want to eat lettuce grown right here in Alabama than some lettuce picked 2 weeks ago and shipped across the country in a truck. But the retail aspect of this….I didn't give it that much thought-not until, that is, my friends began opening their own businesses. Okay, are you asking yourself, "Where is this week's blog going with all this 'shop local' chatter?" Let me connect the dots…

In last week's "Weaver Wednesday" post, Fifty Years in the Merchantile Business, we read about the closing of "C.S. Weaver and Sons" in 1944. This week I am posting another letter written to Grandfather Weaver about the doors closing to his business.

But first, speaking of taxes…..here is a tax certificate that Grandfather Weaver paid in order to sell tobacco. It is dated October 31, 1939 and the cost was $5.00 tax to the state and $2.50 to Talladega County for a one year license. The probate judge who signed it is D. Hardy Riddle, and it is written in pencil. 

I will retype this letter so it will be easier to read. It is dated October 13, 1944 and is written by John B. Chastain of the "Chastain-Roberts Company."

Gentlemen, 
It is with regret we learn that you are liquidating your business. A business that has continued for fifty-two years through depressions, panics, booms, and what not can be counted upon to be managed by honest, capable people.
Since we began working Talladega we have had three or four different salesmen working that particular trip, without exception they have really believed in your firm. Any claim, shortage or complaint of any kind they knew to be just as your pictured it and your word we feel sure was always accepted without question.
We hate to see you liquidate because, if for no other reason, though there are many, there is a scarcity of good independent merchants. We believe and will continue to believe, until the picture changes far from where it is today, that live wide-awake independents can whip the chain stores, the trouble being there are far too few who will operate and merchandise like you and a few other merchants in this territory have been doing.
If at any time we can be of assistance, please do not hesitate to call upon us. Please refer anyone at any time to us that you have occasion offer references to.
We want to wish for you good luck and prosperity in whatever undertaking you may decide to follow, with our very best wishes for you and yours for the future and with appreciation for what you have done for us in the past, we are

Yours very truly,
CHASTAIN-ROBERTS CO.
By: J.B. Chastain

Our Weaver family cookbook, Seasoned with Love, by our very own family member, Lucretia Malone Mount Davenport, contains many recollections about Grandfather Weaver's store. In the next few "Weaver Wednesday" posts, we will look at the remembrances written for the cookbook. Past blog posts have featured our cookbook, so if you would like to know more about Seasoned with Love,  please check out Merry Christmas and Happy Anniversary and Cousins and Cookbooks.
Seasoned With Love is available online at Lulu.com. You will be in for a treat when you order your own copy of this very special family cookbook.

Before I close this week's edition of Family Trails, let me just say I am sorry that it did not get posted on our traditional "Weaver Wednesday." We are having some work done on our stairwell at home, and after the stairs were all taken out, I realized that my family history notebooks AND my scanner were at the top of the stairs! So …better planning ahead, I hope!
Thank you for checking out the Weaver family's Family Trails this week.
Love,
Mariellan

"Courtesy is a War Casualty"

Have you been honked at lately? Seen someone run a stop sign? I remember after September 11,  2001 people became kinder and more considerate as they drove past their neighbors. People were patient and more respectful to others that they passed in the grocery store. Now, it seems like drivers are falling back into the bad habits of honking and and being rude. Today I saw a truck with a trailer pull out in front of an oncoming car, and my heart stopped. 

 I think we thought it was a 21st century problem, but in reading through Grandfather Weaver's scrapbook, I found this article written during World War II that addresses the same issue. There is no reference or note telling what publication he cut this article from or any mention of the writer. The typeset resembles some of the Baptist publications he clipped from and glued into his scrapbook from the 1940's.  I think I will retype this so we will not miss a word!

But first, to paraphrase John Claypool, "Smile at others. It may be the only smile that  the person you pass by receives."

COURTESY IS A WAR CASUALTY

It is clear that courtesy has become a very conspicuous war casualty. Which is surely a great calamity. For nothing else so oils the machinery of living and lessens the sense of strain and stress as does courtesy. Especially does one miss the general presence of courtesy in the market places. 

Before the war men were treated with friendly regard and expressions of appreciation and gratitude were frequent. In the past generation business houses everywhere invariably vied with each other in extending consideration to their customers. Now people are not only ignored but are often treated as if they had given offense.

Of course, the customer is not needed now as he was needed, say, during the recent depression. Today there are too many customers and too few of those who would serve him. Rationing is an excellent thing but the time it takes and its repeated explanations are annoying procedures. Nerves are under pressure, help is inexperienced and hard to get and keep. 

These are all excuses of a sort, but they are not valid reasons for discourteous treatment. The cold but kindly truth is that it takes no more time to be pleasant than it does to be unpleasant. As a matter of fact, it takes less energy to be amiable than it does to be disagreeable. Courtesy is a creature that carries its own reward along with it. It is constructive in its nature and as helpful to the giver as it in to the recipient. 

It is worth money to be courteous and kind. Agreeableness will sell more real estate, cigars, groceries, dry goods, furniture, insurance, than any amount of argumentative salesmanship. Just be pleasant and one can walk away with a contract right under the nose of the argumentative man who knows it all. 

The courteous man is like the shade of a big tree on a hot day. He is like love when one is lonesome, a bed when one is tired, food when one is hungry, and money when one is broke. Our advice to everybody these nerve-wracking war days is to try to be pleasant and see what happens. It may teach certain lessons that will be wonderfully helpful when the next depression comes-as come it will.