|
I came to Crane June 30, 1936. There were two hotels. The Savoy was on North Gaston about where Molina's(100 S. Gaston) is now. The other was the Blair Hotel next to Herman Plate Gulf Filling Station at 6th and Gaston. The Blair had small rooms along a corridor with a bath at the end -- single story, of course. I stayed there for several nights before I found a place to board and room at Lula Scott's house. The Savoy was a large two-story building. At this time the imposing Neeley Hotel was not built. This is a bit rambling but that is the way my thoughts and memories come back to that time. The lady who ran the Blair Hotel was Grace Blair, whose husband was the Crane County Sheriff. The Crane Food Store which I came to Crane to manage was in the building where Bobby Butler's jewelry store is now. There were no electric meat saws or slicers in those days. We used a hand saw, a long steak knife and a cleaver. In the meat market we had a fat cone of twine over in the corner which fed the twine up to the ceiling, over to the meat counter and down where it hung. We could wrap a package, reach up and grab the twine, tie it up and use a "butcher's knot" that would let the twine break in two. We would then mark the price with a marking pencil. |