Here today, gone tomorrow
Jack Atkinson

For half a century or more it was always there at the red light in Twin City. One day last month it disappeared. It vanished into several large dumpsters. The old service station no longer was found to have any usefulness and it had little economic attraction. The old service station I first knew as Baxter's and later as Steve's served us well. In the 1960's I remember that it was a restaurant and our family dined there on Sunday's after church. For many years Steve Anderson collected late payer's telephone bills for Pineland, I being a regular customer. All of that has changed.

Garfield until this week had two local businesses known as Richard's and Peggy's. Richard's used to be Carl's and has been a Garfield landmark known widely around the area for decades. Peggy bowed out of business and we have a new one named The Pit Stop. Time will tell if it gets a first name.

Why would Richard's and Peggy's be so important to a little community like Garfield? There are lots of answers to this question. Service in the form of gas, food and drink. Information as to what is going on (and believe you me this is where to find out what is what). A place to congregate, visit and talk are other answers. Some come and sit for hours. There are no checkers games as there used to be at what I call Buck Johnson's station. I remember watching the old men play checkers on boards mounted on nail kegs. There is no bank in Garfield nor is there a pharmacy, so these stores help fill out our community's needs.

This last year I have paid close attention to Mr. Clint Kent, a regular sitter at Peggy's, and I have spotted him again at the Pit Stop. He drives in from his farm just outside Garfield and finds a good chair or bench outside. Occasionally, he sits inside when the weather is not too cooperative.

His daughter, Helen Harper, recently told me some of her dad's history. The most touching part of his story was when he was nine years old, made his first crop, and had to sell his goat (which pulled his cart to the fields) to pay the taxes on the land. At ninety he may be just sitting there chewing on his cigar, but he is holding a wealth of memories and history

While I referred to our town's well-known businesses as Richard's and Peggy's, I left out the last names: Johnson and Gay. I was told a story once about Garfield. If you are walking down the street and you meet a man you say "Good morning Mr. Johnson" and if he does not notice your greeting you say "I beg your pardon Mr. Gay." The original property owners of this area were Johnson's and Gay's and they met at the Fifteen Mile Creek which runs through the town.

Things stay rather evenly divided between these families. Just because Peggy Gay closed down, don't think the Gays are behind. The Pit Stop is run by none other than one of John Harry Gay's five daughters and her husband John Lee, keeping the Gay name in the Garfield business world. It may have worked to call it John Harry's in memory of Johnna Gay's dad. We lost John Harry Gay, Jr. in the last year or so. No doubt he was one of our most colorful characters. I am sure that there are many who can testify that he has always been a character, but in his later years he had a ball riding over his land whenever and wherever he wanted to. I rode with him one day down an old rail- road bed and what seemed to be unexplored territory. In fact he knew his way and we made it out without getting stuck. Getting stuck in his Lincoln was a daily routine for him. For many in the community, getting John Harry out of the ditch was a regular neighborly thing to do. He and Katherine were quite a pair and I sure do miss meeting him at the post office. I can go to "John Harry's" for my gas. Things and people come and go.--Jack Atkinson is our guest columnist and a resident of Garfield.

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