Buddy, can you get a dime?

Dead in the Afternoon
Episode Three: Cofield

- by Marvin T. Jones

Talmadge Reid's store had a garage and a barbershop. T.W. Jones and Tal cut each other's hair. His prominence in the community called for much service as a pallbearer - his only day off. For many years, he was the treasurer and trustee for Pleasant Plains Baptist Church - "one of the best", according to his friend and colleague, T.W.

Tal had one of the few gas stations with a sheltered lane, which was good for business at rainy times. Here in this 1977 photograph, he is standing at the spot of his 10-cent triumph. Please note the "Sealtest" sign in Tal Reid's window.

My brother, Howard, told me about a moment that cracked the silence of a summer afternoon in Cofield . It took place during his clerkship in Daddy’s store, T.W. Jones’ General Merchandise.

It was another one of the those afternoons that was fatal to any earthworm that would find itself on dry dirt, grit, gravel, sand, sidewalk (Cofield had a sidewalk) or pavement. Leaves didn’t stir and shade was precious. No one had an air-conditioned car then, so few had their cars out in the hot afternoon. Virtually everyone hid from the heat.

Yet, while sitting next to the icebox, near a fan, in his slightly air-conditioned store, Daddy saw three little-little ones bouncing from across the train tracks behind the train station’s warehouse. The oldest, a girl, clenched something in her hand. They came towards the store, but before crossing the street, the trio turned toward Talmadge Reid’s shop and service station. Daddy figured that the kids were buying candy from his friend and colleague.

But they didn’t. They left Tal’s store after a couple of minutes, and the oldest girl’s fist was still clenched. After crossing the sun-baked road (Route 45), the threesome entered our store. They rushed up to look at the varieties of penny candy: chocolate covered coconut candy, Mary Janes, Kit Kats, Bit-o-Honeys, Jawbone Breakers, Dubble-Bubble, Palooka and fireballs. Howard and Daddy saw that they had a dime. With it, they could get a couple of Baby Ruths, Butterfingers, Black Cows, Clark Bars, Zagnuts, Hershey bars (with and without almonds), Almond Joys, Mounds, Zeroe bars, Bit-o-Honey bars, Fifth Avenue, M&Ms, or Sugar Babies and Daddies. We had ice creams supplied by Mayola. Tal Reid was a Sealtest dealer. Daddy sold Jack’s and Murray’s two-for-a-penny cookies – Tal sold Nabisco. But the kids still didn’t buy.

After Tal’s and Tupper’s offerings were considered, they left for James Bazemore’s store. They stayed for a while. Tal and Tupper were now watching to see what the three would bring out. The children still bought nothing, but headed in a diagonal across the intersection - the one that was the center of our world - it would lead travelers to Tunis, Harrellsville, Winton and Ahoskie. They returned to Tal Reid’s – the end of their traverse. The kids left with their purchase and bounced back towards the railroad tracks behind the train station warehouse.

The sun was high that day, my friends, when Talmadge Reid, Tupper Jones and James Basemore all stepped out of their businesses, but only to the edge of the shade provided by the store shelters. Tal Reid raised the dime high, showing it to his neighbors, and declared, “I got it! I got it all!”

archives|home