Having been born and raised in Moultrie, I have so many fond memories of the town from the days past. The way it used to be, the people who made up the community, a place where if you wanted to socialize, downtown was the place to be.

“Going uptown or going to town” were common phrases heard regularly. But the meanings of those phrases invoke so many memories. Oftentimes the city people referred to it as “going uptown.” The country people, from communities all around would refer to it as “going to town.” So if you listened carefully it was pretty easy to know if they lived in the country or city, even if you didn’t know them. And it was for totally different reasons then, that the downtown area was the hub of socialization and commercialization.

Now, we are totally spoiled. Grocery stores, hardware stores, clothing and shoe stores, are generally open 7 days a week. It wasn’t until the 1970s that it was becoming more popular for stores to be open all week; even during the 1970s there was a period of time that we could not even buy gasoline for our vehicles on Sunday, during the “shortage of oil” when gas really went up (from 30 to 70 cent per gallon.)

Downtown Moultrie was visited regularly due to necessity, especially on Saturdays, because we didn’t have shopping centers and malls. Of course, there were those that could go shopping more often, but the booming business was on Saturdays. But the bulk of stores were all in the central location. You didn’t have to drive all over town to buy what you needed. The farmers and their families, their employees would work all week in the fields, and when the weekend was here, Saturday was the day to buy shoes, clothes, groceries and whatever else was needed. It was a big thing to be in town on Saturday. Even the city folk, who had worked all week, would take time on Saturday to buy all their supplies for the next week. If you didn’t shop on Saturday, you had to wait until Monday for the stores to open again, because as the Bible says, Sunday was a day of rest. It was church day. Downtown was the hotspot of the community. So everyone would eventually meet someone they knew or hadn’t seen in a long time downtown on the square. It was a family event, even a big social event for some folks.

Our city square was a mecca of shopping! On the north end, we had JC Penney’s, Warner Dress Shop, Barfields Shoes (later Causey’s), GC Murpheys, Belks, Davis Clothing, Mashburns Beauty Shop and a bank.

On the west side, there was McClellands, Eleanor Dress Shop, Braswells Jewelry, Butler Shoes, Sears, Goings Men’s Wear, Browns Men’s Shop, Rice Jewelry, and Scriebers.

On the south of the Square, was Register and Taylor Pharmacy, Neel’s, Watsons Drugstore.

On the east side was Friedlanders, The Fair Store, Top Dollar and Woolworths, along with Wilsons Jewelry.

On North Main and on First Street going further each way, you’d find Minix Drugs, White Auto, Cranford Jewelry, Bowles Photography Studio, Crystal Pharmacy, Gammages Shoes, Lazarus, the Sportsman Resturant, Harveys Grocery Store, Arwoods Drugs and many more. Until 1964, our library was even downtown.

But the most memorable and best stores in the world for kids then was Murpheys, McClellands and Woolworths! They sold toys! Murpheys and Woolworths were the most modern of the group. I can still remember the hardwood floors and the big ceiling fans that were constantly whirling in McClellands Store — I think that was the extent of their cooling system. Of course they were similar to what Wal-Mart is today, they had something for the entire family, but when you’re a kid, a new toy is the ultimate in a shopping trip, at least that’s the biggest concern for you.

We didn’t have the fast-food type restaurants that we do now. Sure we had Barbers Drive In, remember the car-hops? We had Chandlers and DairyCo, and DairyQueen. But they were all off the beaten path of the square. So when you were downtown, you could always go to Goldleaf, Sportsman or Plantation House to eat. But folks then didn’t eat out a lot, it was special occasions for most. But if you wanted something to hold you over, or just wanted to have a special day in town, Watson’s Drugs had a soda fountain, complete with swivel seats, and bar to sit at, and you could buy sandwiches, Coke, coffee or a slice of pie. Woolworths also had a sit-down type resturant where you could order a cold Coca-Cola, in a true Coke glass, and a hot dog or hamburger plate. I remember when I went to buy groceries with my mama, sometimes we’d go in there and have the hamburger plate and it was delicious, the hamburgers tasted so much better back then and the fries were always hot! Even the Coca-Cola tasted different. If you wanted a snack on the run, Murpheys had a candy counter where you could buy hot, fresh popcorn, a cold Coke (in a waxed paper cup on ice) or a hot-dog or chili dog. They also so Brachs Stars candy, and Maple candies along with others. You could buy a quarters worth of candy (it was weighed and bought by the pound or whatever amount you wanted) and a quarters worth was a bag full! It was a real special treat to visit these stores.

When you walked the sidewalks, you would know half the people and sometimes it seemed that our parents knew everyone in town and they’d always stop and talk. When you were promised a toy and were trying to get to that store, it seemed to take forever, especially running into all those folks. But it was an exciting time, for the prices were just right. If you had a dollar you were rich, you could buy several toys on that one trip!

And when the family went to town, it would usually be an all-day trip. Buying shoes, material or clothes, just whatever was needed, it could be found downtown. If dad got tired of looking at clothes he could always find men to stand around on the corner and talk with, or he could walk down to the hardware store. If that didn’t work, he could walk just a little farther north or south of the square and look at new Chevrolets and Buicks. Mama could look at pattern books and buy fabrics from many stores to make new clothes for the family. If the kids needed new shoes, there were many shoe stores with varying prices for everyone. Mama could even go up to Mashburns Beauty Shop and have her hair washed and set, getting ready for Sunday church. Once the downtown shopping trip was over, we could walk down to Knights Fish Market and buy fresh mullet for mama to cook for our supper.

I remember my Mama talking about stores giving out tickets each week. You would tear off half the ticket, drop it in a box and keep the other half. On Saturday afternoons all those boxes would be dumped into a large box or barrel, and a drawing was held on the Courthouse lawn at the Grand Stand on the east side. Merchants would donate items for the drawing: toasters, mixers, irons, decorative items and other things. They would draw one of the tickets and if the number called out matched yours, you won a prize. Since they always had very nice prizes, it was a big draw for people to hang around waiting for the drawing that day. You had to be present to win, so the crowd was always large. Mama won quite a few prizes over the years and so she’d be in the crowd waiting for that drawing.

I remember walking around the square and hearing preachers, belting out sermons from the Grand Stand. A large, captive audience would stand around and listen as a fire and brimstone sermon was preached. And the crowd would stay and listen, reverently, and I remember hearing, “Amens and Hallelujahs” coming from people in the crowd agreeing with the sermon.