AULD’S GENERAL STORE Houses, schools, churches, halls, stores and other buildings, which through the years become focal points in the life ofa community, develop a history and take on a personality. Such a one was the store in Freetown and with the help of the memories of the ticking clock which hung high on the wall at the back ofthe store, I shall try to write some of the things which the clock knew but could not tell.

The clock was big and it was wound every Saturday night. I do not suppose that many customers ever heard its loud tick as they bought their supplies and chatted with one another, but at night when the people had all gone, and my father and I were there alone doing the final ‘putting away’ for the day, I would suddenly become aware of its loud tick, and think, “What stories it could tell if it could talk?’

Like all rural stores of the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, this was a general store. It consisted of three separate but adjoining buildings, the center one being the main store. Some five or six years after my father became the owner of the property he was appointed Postmaster, and one section of the main building was partitioned off for use as a post office.

On the left, as one entered and beyond the post office, was a long heavy, sectional counter behind which were kept groceries, tobacco, candy and school supplies, and in front of which the customers were served. On the right hand side was the dry-goods section, and on the shelves behind this counter were bolts of cotton, rayon, silk, velvet, lace, etc. In boxes were ladies’ and gentlemen’s underwear, stockings, socks and gloves. In the various glass showcases on the counter were spools of thread, needles, pins, ribbons, buttons, bindings and other necessities for the dressmaker. I can remember, too, a case containing hatpins, fancy hairpins, jewelry and other knickknacks. At the back of the store there were dishes and various other items for use in the kitchen. At Christmas time these things temporarily disappeared, and toys, dolls, sleds, skates, hockey sticks, and Christmas decorations took their place. Then we called it the ‘toy departmenti

Upstairs there were four rooms, two of which had closets under the eaves. One room was a storage place for unpacked goods, and another contained hats and articles of clothing which had gone out of style. One ofthe closets was filled with boxes of out-of—date school books, and for me this was a treasure house, and many of the treasures were carried home to be read aloud by an ever—willing grandmother.

The building to the left of the main store was called the ‘back shop’, and in it were kept nails, paint, shovels, forks, axehandles, binder twine and hay rope (in season), kerosene oil, a puncheon of molasses, and often a barrel of salt herring. It was here that eggs, brought in by customers, were candled and graded according to quality and size, and then shipped out. In the winter, sides of beef and pork would sometimes

hang here as well.

The third building, to the right of the main store, was divided into two parts by a partition extending its whole length from north to south. The part nearer the main building was called the ‘boot department’, and here both men’s and women’s dress boots were kept, as well as rubber-boots, men’s work boots and children’s boots. In the north end of this section was the office. As time passed, the ‘boot department’ became less important, and for a few years in the late twenties Truman Brooks operated a barber-shop in this room. The other part of this building was the tailor-shop where, for many years, Mr. Charles Beairsto, Mrs. Beairsto and their son Ben carried on a fine tailoring business. After Mrs. Beairsto gave up her part of the work, Miss Gertie Murphy replaced her.

Besides bringing in eggs, customers brought in the butter, chickens, geese, ducks, turnips, grain, hay, pork and beef. For the storage of these commodities before shipment, it was necessary to build a warehouse beside the railway tracks. In a letter written by Robert Auld dated November 22, 1911, he reports having loaded three tons of pork on that day, worth $450.00 profit $9.00. There are also records of pressed hay, oats, geese, ducks and potatoes being shipped.

During the first three decades of the century the business always employed two full time clerks. In the year referred to above, the male employee was George Murphy, and the lady clerk was Belle Cameron (Mrs. Roy Burns). In later years Nettie Dammarrell (Mrs. Eustace Reeves) and Rene Arbing served as clerks. Some of the male employees were Jarvis Trainor, Ernest Taylor, Nelson Mackay, Loring Rayner, John Ross, Everett Francis, Wilfred Curley and Earl Houston. Additional help would be hired as needed, for warehouse work.

In the early 1920’s the potato industry began to assume an importance in Prince Edward Island, and the soil in Freetown and vicinity seemed well suited for the growing of this crop. The result was the establishing, over a period of five or more years, of three companies Austin A. Scales, Simmons & MacFarlane and Lewis & Lewis. All three became growers of large acreages of seed potatoes and soon were shipping, not only their

own crops but those of their neighbors. Within a few years these companies were handling all the produce

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