Submitted by Rebekah Sheats
Roughly one hundred years ago, on March 27, 1925, two local banks (the Bank of Monticello and the Farmers and Merchants Bank) informed the Jefferson County public: “Commencing Thursday afternoon, April 2nd, and until further notice, the undersigned banks will close at 12:00 o’clock” on each succeeding Thursday afternoon.
This notice was nothing new in Monticello. Local businesses had been closing their doors most Thursday afternoons since the start of World War One—and perhaps even earlier. (During the war, members of the Home Guard had spent the free afternoon each week drilling for potential combat.)
After the war, businesses continued to close Thursday afternoons, though this closing was generally limited to the summer months—which, in Florida, referred to April through September. The main exception to this rule were the local drugstores. In 1930, Monticello had three of these: Johnson and Son, Simmons City Drugstore, and Hicks Drug Company. These three businesses alternated their Thursday afternoon closings, ensuring that one store remained open each week in case of emergency.
Thursday afternoon closings were one hallmark of life in small-town Monticello. Another hallmark was optimism.
For example, in May of 1930 the Monticello baseball team won their first league game with a score of 11 to 1 over the rival Valdosta team. An excited fan noted: “Monticello was in her old form, playing as high class ball as you see anywhere.”
The following week, Monticello lost to the neighboring team from Tallahassee. Will Bulloch, editor of the Monticello News, optimistically noted, “The Monticello baseball team won the game with Valdosta last Thursday brilliantly, and very brilliantly lost the one with Tallahassee. Not so good. But stick around and they’ll win another one soon.”
Baseball news that season took second place to the results of local elections. For months, the pages of newspapers had been cluttered with ads taken out by prospective state senators, county commissioners, and members of the school board, all hoping to win in the upcoming primaries. When voting day at last arrived, the town filled with candidates and voters. “Monticello was a lively little city last Tuesday night,” it was noted in June of 1930. “It was hard to find a place to park a car.”
Summing up the results of the election the following week, the Monticello News offered a bit of optimistic, old-time advice to politicking, observing: “The election is over now, and everybody’s happy, or seems to be, and might as well be. At least half of the candidates in every election have to lose.”
Optimism was in high demand in those days. So also was good, hard work. Monticello had little patience with those who spent their lives tearing down others rather than building up the community. As Hicks Drug Company put it:
“Real towns are not made
By men afraid
Lest somebody else gets ahead.
If everyone works and nobody shirks,
You can raise a town from the dead.”
Hard work often paid off, as in the case of an unexpected fire on May 28, 1931. On that fateful day, a fire started in Ruddy’s Bargain Store, a small local establishment located on the east side of Cherry Street (where TheFirst Bank currently stands). The fire, whose origin was never determined, began at the back of the store around 4:00 in the afternoon. It would have been quickly located and extinguished on a regular day, but this was a Thursday afternoon, and downtown Monticello was deserted.
By the time someone noticed the fire, smoke was billowing out of every side of Ruddy’s small building and seeping through the ceiling into the adjoining dry goods store owned by Adolphus Bishop.
An alarm was finally sounded, but (it being Thursday afternoon) the fire truck driver was not at his station. Undaunted, several young men commandeered the truck and raced to Cherry Street to douse the rising flames. Their quick thinking and hard work proved successful, and the fire was quenched before it damaged the structure of the building. Much of Ruddy’s stock (and Adolphus’ next door) was damaged by smoke and water, but the stores were saved.
“The eager and willing young men did good work and kept the fire from damaging other property,” noted the news report of the incident.
The young men’s names have been lost to history. But, due to its timing, the event has gone down in the annals of Jefferson County as a typical day in Monticello, a day characteristic of the town’s quaint business schedule.
In closing, Will Bulloch expressed everyone’s thoughts when he stated, “the fire happened at the most inopportune time.”
The moral of the story? I suppose there could be two morals to this tale.
Moral #1: If a job needs doing, don’t complain because the other person isn’t doing the job. Get up and do it yourself!
Moral #2: If a fire breaks out in your downtown business in Monticello, be sure it doesn’t happen on a Thursday afternoon.
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