Clara, Thanks so much for your thoughts on the building. We were looking at the abstract the other day and the earliest recorded sale the property was 1881. Unfortunately no idea when the building was built. We’ll just keep asking everyone. We didn’t know Brinkmans owned the oil station next door though. Mike was digging around in the attic yesterday and there were no clues up there. I’ve been in the basement (it was the oil pit and coal storage) and don’t remember seeing anything down there. Our house has the date in the foundation (1906) which is kinda cool. I keep hoping we’ll find something like that.

Thanks Mel, I made a sugar free pound cake with strawberries and whipped cream. Being a diabetic limits those fun goodies. But it was pretty good just the same.

One of my memories of Brinkman Auto occurred about this time of year–during the World Series. This would also have been about the time new car models came out each year. When I was in high school, we had a full hour for lunch (on the days we didn’t have band). On those days we could walk up town to Webb’s Drug Store or Brinkman Auto to see the new models. I recall Brinkman Auto giving visitors new yardsticks when we came to the store. What they had to do with new cars, I don’t know.