Nov. 24 through time
100 Years ago – 1924
More on the list of manners compiled by Martinsville High School students: Mailing Letters and Carrying Notes – If given letters to mail, never read the addresses; A note sent by hand should be left unsealed, but the one to whom it is entrusted should seal it as soon as it is entrusted to his hand; Gentlemen – When the hat should be raised, not tipped: when speaking to a lady; when offering a seat in any place to a stranger; when restoring any article a lady has dropped; when at the door of the building, the man steps aside to let the lady enter; when he addresses or takes leave of a lady in a street … Servants – Be careful to speak courteously and kid to all domestics, they are just as human as we.”
75 years ago – 1949
The purchase of 580 acres of land by J. Frank Wilson and H.A. Ford from Fieldcrest Mills was announced. Houses would be build on that land, between Fieldale and Collinsville. Marshall Field and Company had bought 2,000 acres of land before building their factory and most of the houses in Fieldale; those houses had been sold to employees.
1960
It was Thanksgiving in Martinsville.
Frank’s Food Fair prices: can of tomatoes, 10 cents; colored oleo in half-pound sticks, 15 cents; pork chops, 39 cents a pound; 10 pound bag Russett baking potatoes, 55 cents; oranges, 29 cents a dozen; Autocrat ice cream, 49 cents for a half gallon. S&H Green Stamps given with purchases.
50 years ago – 1974
Open an account at First National Bank of Bassett and get a free gift: $50 to $499, ladies’ clutch purse or man’s wallet or coin purse; $500 to $999, choice of Sheridan silverplate candy dish or 24- piece El Dorado tumbler set; $1,000 to $4,999, 10-inch Corning Ware covered skillet or Toastmaster electric corn popper; more than $5,000, Toastmaster electric drill or Copal digital alarm clock.
25 years ago - 1999
Southeastern Eye Center was in Mountain View Plaza beside Cato, and cataract surgeon C. Richard Epes, M.D., worked there.
— Information from museum records and the Henry Bulletin and the Martinsville Bulletin.