Jot ‘Em Down Store

Canned Goods

• apple juice
• apricots (whole, peeled)
• apricots (unpeeled)
• asparagus
• beets, pickled
• black-eyed peas
• brussels sprouts
• cherries
• clam chowder
• condensed milk
• corn, cream style
• corned beef
• crab meat (30 cents)
• dog food
• dried beef
• grape juice
• hominy
• kidney beans
• lima beans
• mushroom buttons
• navy beans
• noodle soup
• olives, green
• olives, jumbo ripe
• peaches (40 cents a can)
• pears
• pickled pigs’ feet
• pineapple juice
• pineapple
• plums
• pork ‘n’ beans (10 cents a can)
• salmon, red sockeye (65 cents a 9-oz. can)
• sardines
• sauerkraut
• spaghetti with meatballs
• spinach
• string beans
• sweet pertaters
• tomaters

Fresh Produce

• apples
• avocadoes
• bananers
• cabbage
• carrots
• crooked neck squash
• grapefruit
• horseradish
• lemons (380 to the case)
• lettuce
• oranges (176 to the case – used to be 225 to the case)
• pertaters
• pumpkins
• sweet pertaters
• tomaters
• watermelon

Other Groceries

• apricots, dried
• bacon
• bakin’ powder
• bakin’ soda
• banana flavoring
• beans, dried
• bread (10 cents a loaf)
• breakfast food (aka cereal)
• brown sugar
• butter
• cheese
• cocoa
• coconut, shredded
• coffee
• cookies
• corn meal
• crackers (in the barrel or by the box)
• dog biscuits
• eggs
• Fig Newtons
• flour ($1.15 for a 48-pound sack, also available in a 24-pound sack)
• gingersnaps
• graham crackers
• ham, peanut cured, from Georgia
• ketchup
• lard (by the bucket)
• lemon flavoring
• molasses
• oleo margarine
• oyster crackers
• peaches, dried
• peanut butter
  • chunk style
  • plain style
• peas, dried
• pepper
• Pepsi-Cola
• pickles (in the barrel)
• prunes
• rice (5 cents a pound or 6 pounds for a quarter)
• salt
• shortnin’ (Gold Leaf)
• sorghum (by the gallon bucket)
• spaghetti
• sugar (18 pounds for a dollar)
• syrup
• vanilla extract
• vinegar
• yeast

Dry Goods

• bolt goods
  • ginghams
    • spotted color
  • percales
  • silk
  • calicos
    • yeller polky dot
    • green polky dot
• dress patterns
• galluses
• gingham dresses
• girdles
• gloves
• hair ribbons
• handbags, beaded — with “Come to Memphis” in red and green beads on the back side (ordered by Abner’s papa)
• handkerchiefs
• lady’s hats
  • with ostrich feather (special price, $1.00)
  • with flowers
• men’s hats
• men’s slacks
• neckties
• needles
• nylons
• overalls
• pillows
• pin cushions
• rick-rack
• shirts
• shoes
• stockin’s, cotton lisle
  • plain or ribbed
  • black or white
• sunbonnets
• thread
  • black, darnin’ cotton
  • black, #60
  • white, #50
• underwear, long red woolen

Tobacco Products

• cigars
• corn cob pipes (10 or 15 cents)
• pipe cleaners
• smokin’ tobacco (15 cents a can)
• snuff

Discussing the Inventory

February 18, 1935:
Lum: Jest look at that shelf there. There’s pork’n’beans and apricots and axle grease. There’s a can of tomaters and bakin’ powder… all stacked in there together. And most of that’s upside down!

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September 23, 1935:
Lum: What’s this item here? Toters?
Abner: Oh! Taters! That’s a ‘A’ there. Taters… eatin’ taters.
Lum: What’s this? Rise? R-I-S-E. Rise?
Abner: Yeah, we’re plum outta rice.
Lum: Rice! Sech spellin’. Look at this. Flour. F-L-O-U-R. You mean flour to bake bread with?
Abner: Yeah, eatin’ flour!
Lum: Fer goodness sakes. F-L-O-W-E-R!
Abner: Well, I never thought that looked right. I figgered they’d made a mistake.
Lum: Figgered who’d made a mistake?
Abner: Why, whoever it was that put that printin’ on the sack. I copied it off the sack.
Lum: This next item you got down here. S-P-I-N-I-T-C-H.
Abner: Yeah! Spinach!
Lum: That ain’t… err… didja copy that down off’n the can?
Abner: No. We was outta that.
Lum: I never thought that looked right. You spell that S-P-I-N… spin… spin-nitch… I guess that’s right.
Abner: Did I put down lard on that list there, Lum?
Lum: Lard? No, there ain’t but one more item here and it’s, uh…
Abner: I guess I musta fergot it. You better put down a case of that, ’cause we’re smack-dab out of it.
Lum: Wait a minute. What is this other item here? G-R-E-S-E.
Abner: Oh, well, that’s it! Grease! Lard!

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September 24, 1935:
Abner: That reminds me, too, Lum, you know I told you ’bout that vanella extract’s been disappearin’ down at the store. I found out where it’s been goin’ to. Cedric’s been gettin’ it. He’s usin’ it for pre-fume!
Lum: Vanilla extract fer perfumery?
Abner: Yes, sir! Every time we get on that store I get hongry. Smells like somebody’s bakin’ a cake in there.
Lum: Hmph! I swan to goodness. That boy is a sight.
Abner: No tellin’ how much of that stuff he’s usin’. Just pours it all over hisself. Got the whole store to smellin’ like vaneller. We oughta just stop handlin’ that vanella flavorin’.
Lum: Well, you better speak to him before he starts in on the bananer or lemon or some of them other flavorin’s.

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January 26, 1940:
Abner: Well, fer the lands’ sakes! What’n the world happened, Lum?
Lum: Don’t ask a bunch of silly questions. Get me a shirt and a pair of over-halls from over there and bring ’em back here. On back in the feed room.
Abner: Why, you’re wringin’ wet! Did ya have a accident?
Lum: You don’t think I’d do somethin’ like that a-purpose, do ya? Hurry up and get some dry clothes fer me!
Cedric: You’re li’ble to catch the pneumoany, Mister Lum, cold as it ’tis.
Lum: I know it! I grannies, if it ain’t one thang happenin’ ta me, it’s six dozen of somethin’ else.
Abner: Didja fall in the mill pond?
Lum: No! I never fell in no mill pond! And stop askin’ a batch of questions. I don’t wanna talk about it.
Abner: Here’s some 34/38 over-hauls. But we ain’t got your size in a shirt.
Lum: I don’t care what size it is, just so it’s dry! Get that’n there on top.

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