A slow Saturday in the Smith Sherlock Company Store
Gator and I met at 8:00 this morning. He had already loaded sarsaparilla into the ranger, so we walked over to the shop, hopped in and drove over to the Miner's Exchange Saloon. I spent the rest of the morning working in the archives photographing and digitizing invoices from the Smith Sherlock Company Store.
At noon, I walked down to the store and opened it. The first hour and a half was strange. A few large groups came by. Part of the group would come into the store and park would go gold panning. I never was sure who was with who, so I talked gave my introductory comments about the store several times more, I;m sure that was necessary. However, for some reason, even though there were quite a few people coming in and out, time passed slowly.
Among the larger groups were a couple of men that had worked or lived in South Pass City some time back. One says he had spoken to a woman, later to become his wife, for the first time on the phone in the store. The phone no longer has an outside line. The other gentleman told me he and his wife had wed on the walkway/steps of the store and that the restaurant had been opened for their reception. I had heard about this wedding- South Pass City lore- before.
After about 1:30, things quieted down and I had time to do a little computer work, but time still passed slowly.
In mid-afternoon, a woman came in with a lovely Scottish accent. I mentioned to her that we had Scottish products (several jams) in the store and showed her a jar. The producer, no longer in business, was located in Kirkland. She was quite excited- Kirkland is in the Orkney Islands and she is from the Orkney Islands. That was a bit fun.
I closed the store at 4:00 and Connie and I headed home after she picked up Gator from the saloon.
We ate dinner, read, and worked on various projects. From 7:00 to a little after 8:00 we had a really nice rain storm- the heaviest we have seen here this year. This cooled things off nicely.
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