Bettye Kate Holladay (Smith) shown in front of the school store.

(In this picture, the school store faces south, just east of the

central building. It was later moved across the street, facing

north, and the "new" high school was built on that corner.)

Sunday, October 8, 2006

(This article is taken directly from the pages of the 1991 Leader-News supplement, "A Trip Down Memory Lane", created for the WW II Classes Reunion held that year. The articles in the supplement, including this one, were written by Bettye Kate Smith, local historian.)

[EDITOR’S NOTE: This article was taken from an interview with Quentin Bellomy on July 31, 1991.]

"No story about the early Littlefield schools would be complete without mentioning something about the ‘school store’, or actually the ‘cafeteria’, which it originally started out to be. It became a combination of both.

"The first cafeteria was a little one-man store operated by J. E. Chisholm, Sr. Mr. Bellomy wasn’t sure, but thought it was opened not long after the central school, or grammar school was built, because, ‘it was there as long as I can remember after that building was put up. It was just a little room that was put beside the school to supply the kids with a few things they needed.’

"Mr. and Mrs. J. P. Spinks bought the store from Mr. Chisholm and opened the one that almost everyone remembers that sat on the corner of First Street and Lake Avenue, where the junior high now stands. The building was there until 1956, when the ‘new’ high school was built, and it had a cafeteria. Free lunches came in about then, and the school store / cafeteria was strictly a school store from then on.

"Quintin Bellom and his wife bought the store in 1936 from the Spinks and operated it until 1966. Mr. Bellomy stated, ‘No one could have had a better or more pleasant business for 30 years……it didn’t seem that long.’

"’The hours were perfect and so was the schedule. When the schools turned out for vacation, so did I. I could spend the time with my family, when most people were having to work. I was off all summer. It was such a pleasant business with so many pleasant memories and associations. I never had any trouble with the students or anyone. Maybe that’s why I’ve lived so long.’ (Mr. Bellomy is 83 as of this writing.)

"Mr. Bellomy married Emma Ruth Jones, who also graduated from the Littlefield schools. She had a kindergarten class in a room of their home on West Second Street, so she was able to help in the school store during the ‘rush hours’, because her young students didn’t keep the same school hour schedule the other students had.

"In the ‘30’s and ‘40’s, the cafeteria was the big thing, with sandwiches (usually ham or pimento cheese) selling for 20 cents and 25 cents. Drinks were a nickel each.

"You could buy a penny cedar pencil (a best seller in the ‘30’s) or two-for-a-nickel #2 pencils. Most kids bought the 10 cent ‘Big Chief’ tablet, because it was pretty big. But sometimes, they would buy the really big ‘Big Chief’ for 25 cents….. it was really big!

"There was penny bubble gum that you could buy a pocket full of pretty cheap, and ‘Black Cow’ suckers were big sellers, two.

"During the war, the sweet stuff was pretty hard to come by, especially anything chocolate. People were thrifty with paper, too. You remember, we rolled our adding machine tape back up, backwards, so we could re-use it.

"’I bought lots of candy from T. O. Shaw, from 1936 on. There were times during the war that you could get a few things, and T. O. always remembered to let me have as much as he could for ‘my kids’, when he could get it,’ states Bellomy.

"Mr. Bellomy plans to be at the 1991 World War II Classes reunion in August, if his health will permit. He plans to come for the day’s activities. He now resides in Lubbock. He states he is very anxious to see all the teachers and kids and feels he had a closer relationship with the students than any of the teachers did. After all, he saw them from the time they started to school until they either graduated or left, where the teachers only had them for a year or two.

‘Mr. Bellomy has been to two of the previous reunions, and it never ceases to amaze people as to how well he remembers each and every student, with very few exceptions. ‘It isn’t always easy to recognize everyone, because my eyes aren’t as good, and people do change.’ But call a name and Mr. Bellomy can tell you of instances he remembers about that particular person. This is quite a feat, when you consider how many kids have passed before his eyes during a 30 year period of time. Yes, Mr. Bellomy and the school store were as much a part of our school years as were the schools, the teachers, and our classmates."