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Edgar Holmes' special spot on the Square 2013-03-28 - 424 Public Square, Columbia, KY - Photo by Ed Waggener. World War II Veteran Edgar Holmes had a special spot on the Square in front the Adair Annex. Today he was remembering his first job Downtown, when he worked for the late Vernon Yarberry at a small gas station Mr. Yarberry had on the back of the lot the Annex now occupies, at the corner of Greensburg Street and Monroe Street. "I made a dollar a day," he remembers. "That was good money in those days," he said. At lunch time, he'd go to the W.I. Ingram grocery store, where he'd buy a nickel's worth of cheese. "You paid a nickel for the cheese, and you got to eat as many soda crackers as you wanted, from a barrel." Cokes, or "dopes" were a nickel, he said. "But I liked to buy a bottle of milk . . . I believe it was a nickel or dime. It had a paper top you pulled off, after you shook the milk up." It was in the days before homogenized milk, he said." And the cream separated to the top. It was quick a meal for a dime or 15 cents, he remembers, though it may have been a bit higher percentage of a day's pay than even a high dollar meal at meal at Moore's Lunch or Tap's Diner might be today. And the cedar item: Mr. Holmes makes those, crafting them in his car while he's watching the passing show Downtown. But he asks that no one tell the police. "I believe they made it illegal to whittle downtown a few years ago." Didn't have time to check that out, but just in case, don't tell the Whittle Patrol. - EW Read More... | Permalink | Comments?

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