July 25, 2022 - My mother was a beautician for over sixty-five years. She usually had around forty standing appointments each week. I have often wondered how she could stand on her feet for eight to ten hours a day, but she did.
When I was pre-school age my favorite of her customers was Belle Taylor, or “Miss Belle” as I called her. She was my favorite because she would always, without fail, bring me a tasty treat from her small store. She would consistently bring me a package of gum, a candy bar, or bag of peanuts whenever she came to my mother’s beauty shop weekly. I would make it a point to be hanging around the shop when it was time for Miss Belle to arrive.
Belle Taylor was the wife of Oscar Taylor who owned and operated a small store at the intersection of East Columbia Street and Highway 147 east of town. The store was demolished some years ago and a modern convenience store sits in its place, however, it faces south while Mr. Taylor’s store faced north.
The store was a prime target for vehicles as it was directly in the path of cars south bound on highway 147 if they failed to turn right or left. I can recall only one time that a truck plowed into the front of the building, doing considerable damage.
An interesting thing about Mr. Taylor’s store was the concrete storm cellar that he built in the early 1940s on the west side. It was common in this era for families to dig out “storm cellars” near their home for protection against tornadoes. Most of them were simply large holes in the ground supported by wooden beams and plank walls, with a wooden trap door. However, it seems that Mr. Taylor spared no expense when he built his cellar. I was never allowed to go inside it but the metal vent pipes and concrete slab were clearly visible from the outside.
In the early 50s we children were trained to “duck and cover” in the event of a nuclear bomb attack from Russia. The storm cellars then took on another function, bomb shelters. I recall hearing adults discussing the ‘atom bomb’ scare and their desire to run into Mr. Taylor’s concrete storm shelter for protection if a bomb was ever detonated near our town. Of course, it could accommodate only a few persons at a time.
I have often wondered what happened to this storm/bomb shelter. I can only assume that it was filled in with dirt, leveled, and the new store built over it. Miss Belle and Oscar have both gone on to their reward, and their store with residence attached is only a memory. I hope someday to find a picture of Oscar Taylor’s store so that I can file it away in my memory bank, along with the treats that Miss Belle favored me with so many years ago.
