Gambling on the Big Rock

I love story tellers, and one of the best I ever met was Gwynn Hayes of Sanders, Indiana. When I met him he'd been a school teacher in the elementary school in Sanders for 46 years! His father had also ran a the country store in Sanders. When the store was open and Gwynn wasn't teaching, he worked at his father's store. So, he had lots of opportunities to hear everything going on in Sanders all through his life! When I knew him in the early 1970s he must have been in his 50s or maybe his 60s.
I spoke to him several times, but the time I remember most was sitting on the counter in his father's store for most of three, maybe four hours, hearing him tell story after story about life in Sanders, Indiana, from the 1930s to the present, the 1970s. The store where we sat was empty. I don't know how long it had been closed. It, like so many small businesses so necessary to people in a prior day no longer was. Better roads and cars that could took people shopping to the bigger towns around.
Some of Gwynn' stories:
--Some cars of his early days had what he called "gravity flow" gas tanks, meaning there was no pump to carry gasoline form the gas tank to the engine. The gas just "flowed" by gravity to the engine. He said in the hilly area around Sanders people with those early automobiles frequently found themselves backing up hills--so the gasoline would flow into their cars' engines.
--A railroad that served the area was called the "Pumpkin Vine" because it made so many twisting turns in that hilly country.
--A popular spot in the town on paydays was a place known as the "big rock." It was a flat sheet of rock on which no grass or other plants grew. And, on paydays the men would take their pay up to that big rock to gamble. Gwynn said one fellow gambled away all of his money except for 10 cents. So? The man took that 10 cents down to the ice plant in Sanders, bought 10 cents worth of ice (which was a big chunk), put it in a bucket, filled the bucket with water and, presto, he had ice water! He took the ice water back up to the Big Rock--where he sold drinks of that cold water until he got enough money to get back into the game!
--"Biggam" McCammon ran a cafe in Sanders during Prohibition. That was the period when it was illegal to sell booze, beer, whiskey etc. in the United States. There were rumors that "Biggam," so called because of the size of his fists, sold illegal spirits at his cafe. And, wouldn't you know two Horse Thief Detectives, the so-called "police arm" of the Klu Klux Klan, showed up one day determined to arrest Biggam. They didn't. Story goes that Biggam didn't use his fists, only a gun he kept under his counter--which he pulled out when the two Horse Thief Detectives pulled out their badges. Biggam then proceeded to fire several shots into the ceiling of his cafe, to which the Horse Thief Detectives promptly set to flight. It is said they forgot a vehicle they'd brought with them or didn't want to take the time to get in it--and ran a good ways back to where ever they came from. I think I would have liked Biggam!
There were many more stories that Gwynn told and one day I will add some. Just know it was awfully nice hearing him tell all those stories in that store. I still remember how sunny the place was when he started telling me and then how it had grown to twilight when he finished. He told stories that long.