G. Y. Lowe, 1929

When I was five years old, I lived with my parents and baby brother, Jimsie, on Spring Street, and Daddy was a volunteer fireman. On some night in October 1929 the fire whistle (siren) blew and Daddy or Mother found out from Central that G.Y. Lowe Hardware was on  fire. We had only one car so I suppose that Daddy drove it to the fire station, leaving Mother with me and Jimsie. I understand that it was a pretty big fire and that Mother became afraid to stay at home. All I remember is that she somehow took us over to her friend "Wood's" (Mrs. O. S. Wood) house on Jefferson Street. I remember very well standing in the street in my bathrobe looking at the fire. The building was gutted and restored to become, eventually, Howard Hardware, then, now, Poss Ace Hardware. I understand, also, that my grandfather, W. T. Johnson, had been in the hardware business at about the same place until he moved "out of town" into the next block and built his own building in 1898.