Show Ogden Anecdotes Peddlers were part of commerce By IRENE WOODHOUSE Special to Standard-Examine- r Ogden’s first merchants were men By door-to-do- or sales- when the population had soared to almost 10000 these peddlers were still an important part of life in the residential areas They were not beggars nor dealers in secondhand wares They were tradesmen who went directly to their customers and avoided the cost of operating shops and stands For the privilege of conducting business in this fashion they purchased licenses to peddle from the city The usual fee was 50 cents a month Downtown merchants paid more Dr Driver is listed in city records as paying $50 for the same period for his drug store — the largest in Ogden Early peddlers realized that the woman of the house held the purse strings It was she who decided what extras a family might have An example of this is an early entry in the record book showing Owen Roche paid $150 for a license to peddle accordions for two weeks Despite the fact that there were two music stores in town he probably sold his stock in the prescribed time since there is no later entry for renewal The benefits were not solely economic While women were pleased with the bargains they obtained as one woman put it “It really did my heart good to be able to buy something for myself without the whole town knowing how much I paid for it” In the early days of her marriage my mother bought regularly from Mrs Groo who brought sewing supplies and “lady items” in a black card1888 board suitcase It was decided by my mother and her sisters that she came because my father sent her Therein lies the story Though he had been in America more than a decade and was most charming and sociable at times he exhibited a stubborn sense of English propriety that was hard to believe If he thought something was improper it was not permitted Period “Utah immigrants” they had been hired in San Francisco by the Central Pacific Railroad and had worked their way to Utah When their jobs with the railroad ended they stayed in Ogden and became farmers During the summer and early fall they loaded carts with lettuce tolightweight matoes radishes green onions celery spinach chard and squash Up and down the streets they went hawking their produce Children were excited by these men They followed and dared each other to get close to the cart When their games became annoying the peddler brandished the big knife he carried to trim vegetables Waving both arms he yelled in Chinese at them scattering them in all directions Another man handled them quite differently but with the same results He was the scissor sharpener He carried the tools of his trade the grinding wheel its frame and the smaller whetstone in a canvas sling on his back When there was work to do he set up shop in the dooryard and worked quietly pretending not to notice the children He saw them inch closer and when they were almost touching him he plucked a hair from his head and deftly cut it with the sharpened knife That simple act carried greater warning than any threat he might have made It was the newsboys produce men and notions peddlers who broke the work routine of the housewife and made life interesting IS two-wheel- One morning my mother asked him to stop at the store on his way home that night and buy some things for her Like other women she sewed for her family and among the items were thread bias tape snap fasteners and colored rick-rac- k He read the list then handed it back to her “I don’t mind getting pins and thread” he said “but I’m damned if I’ll buy the nitchey-notche- y ladies wear on their underpants” Shortly after that Mrs Groo appeared at my mother’s kitchen door There in the relative privacy of the “woman’s world” my mother bought the trimmings for her children’s clothes From the peddler’s black suitcase came other delights : Tiny silken pillows that were scented with lavender and lemon verbena sold for a nickel or a dime heart-shape- d sachets of rosemary and pine needles were offered as suitable “gifts of remembrance” There were talcum powders smelling like roses or lilacs and perfumes like and lillies-of-the-vall- ey violets Peddling was not limited to the esoteric goods Many oldtimers remember the produce vendors Most colorful were the Chinese farmers Not truly ed ‘Network 90’ stars fill the void left by ‘Saturday Night Live’ with a repertory cast composed of people from improvisational theater As performers like Chevy Chase Bill Murray John Belushi and Gilda Radner left the show it seemed they took the “SNL” vitality with them The repertory troupe was rebuilt for the 1980-8- 1 season with performers schooled largely in stand-u- p comedy and the show was a flop from the start “SNL” was restructured a second time with help from Toronto’s Second City improvisational troupe but the writers’ strike in Hollywood intervened before the show could begin to reclaim lost ground “I think they’ve realized that to do the kinds of things they want you’ve got to have experience working with other people on stage working off of other people” says Catherine O’Hara a member of the Second City cast in Toronto since 1974 “You develop a shorthand after a while” says Joe Flaherty who performed with Chicago’s Second City troupe before moving on to Toronto to help create the company there “Bad ideas are usually tossed out a little quicker — you know how to deal with one another on things like that “And working with others helps develop characters on their own or in relation to other people” the characters are Flaherty says “In stand-u- p supposed to stand alone and that technique just doesn’t work with others on the stage” Miss O’Hara Flaherty and Eugene Levy another Second City performer were in town for the afternoon to appear on NBC’s “Tomorrow” show They’re among the stars of NBC’s “Network 90” late-nigcomedy program broadcast after Johnny Carson’s “Tonight Show” each Friday All seven members of the “Network 90” repertory 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