Back in the early 1900’s when Alto had a lot of thriving businesses, merchants were always looking for ways to draw more people into their stores to shop. One of the favorite ways was to sponsor a TRADES DAY, usually on a Saturday, with all sorts of incentives to get customers into the stores.
At the urging of the Alto Herald editor, Alto businessmen set up their first TRADES DAY on June 6, 1911. About 50 merchants offered various premiums, some more than one, with some unique qualifications: Mrs J M Fleming won a hat for bringing the largest family of girls to the millinery shop. Luther Rozelle got 2 pounds of Brown Mule tobacco for having the largest mule. W J Cummings brought in the oldest Studebaker wagon and got a new spring seat for it. There was a 5-way tie for the ugliest man – John Townsend, Will Harry, Claude Haney, C O Lanier and Tom Lanier each got a box of cigars. Some of the prizes were duplicated. For instance Miss Zona Wilson won a bottle of pickles and also a parasol for being the best-looking old maid. To read more about Alto in 1911, see the winning “article to boost Alto” by Mrs J F Wood of Redlawn.
The 1913 TRADES DAY celebration was even bigger, featuring a more exciting two-day plan . While many of the Friday activities had to be canceled due to rain, Saturday was filled with activities. I wrote up this celebration in great detail in a column about a year ago.
Since the Heralds from 1917-1927 are missing, we do not know whether any more Trades Days were held before 1934, but if they were, they were soon forgotten. The October 4, 1934 Herald boasts of ALTO’S FIRST TRADES DAY. The focus of the celebrations in the 30’s seems to be on getting people to buy from local merchants instead of ordering from Sears Roebuck or Montgomery Ward. Merchants began to give away cash prizes about once a month.
The 1935 TRADES DAY was really something special. The main attraction was a hot-air balloon ascension by Dare Devil Dan Lee of New Orleans. The balloon was a miniature model of the U S Navy Stratosphere Balloon, the largest in the United States. Mr Lee dropped leaflets into the crowd, some with lucky numbers for prizes on the back. The balloon story really leaves us hanging. Mr Lee offered to pay $1.00 a minute to any boy or girl over 21 who would go up in the balloon and make a parachute jump. I can’t imagine that at least one of the Alto “good ol’ boys” (or girls) would not give that a try, but if any did it was not reported the next week.
In later years, the Lions’ Club sponsored some Trades Days, trying desperately to get people to shop at home, but none quite so elaborate as these and unfortunately none that could keep people from driving to Jacksonville or Nacogdoches.
I was surprised that there weren’t more trade days photos in the Stella Hill Library archive, but I did find this good one from the 1913 parade. I used a cropped version above, but here is the full image
