The Story of my Life
Louise Virginia (Weir) Frasier

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TEENAGE ENTERTAINMENT - 1925-1932

BOX SUPPERS
 


 

             If the church or school needed to raise money they had a box supper.  At these parties or suppers everyone had food for it was a pot-luck – all the women took food.

             But the girls and some married women took baskets or boxes all decorated up.  The auctioneer sold these to the highest bidder and whoever bought the boxes ate with the one who made it.  These couples could leave the crowd to eat.

             The married women always knew how much their husbands could afford and let them know which box belonged to them.

             If a girl really liked a boy she tried to let him know which box belonged to her.  The bids would start as low as a dime.  Some actually sold for 25 cents, but most for a dollar.  Sometimes the older men would pay as much as five dollars.

             I remember once a gang of boys ran the bid up on a box to eight dollars so the boy had to get money from his friends to pay for the box. Then he found out he’d been tricked and the box didn’t belong to the girl he thought it did but a very shy girl.  In the long run that turned out OK for they fell in love and got married.

                        These suppers raised around 30 to 35 dollars each and were held twice a year.  The money was used to buy new hymn books, coal for the heater, oil for the lamps or sometimes for an organ, piano, or church pews.

             Louise Weir Frasier

    January 1, 1992