In what he termed those “dreary days before automobiles,” Houston County historian Sumner
Sheldon noted that residents, who even though were “starved for entertainment, amusement and companionship,” desired a reason to party. It was not thought proper to “hold a jollification just for the fun of it.”
One excuse for organizing a social gathering was the long-popular, multi-purpose American tradition of a basket social or box social, which not only provided entertainment but also served as a fund raiser for the host school or church. And then there was the socially-accepted intrigue of boys meets girl. “I never heard of a basket social being held except as a school or church benefit,” recalled Sheldon.
Each unmarried girl in the neighborhood prepared a picnic lunch to feed two and packed it in a basket or box, which was carefully wrapped in such a way, maybe in newspapers, to disguise the identity of the preparer. The wrapped baskets were placed in a corner or some out-of the-way location and were watched to prevent any snooping while everyone enjoyed preliminary activities.
After an hour or two of visiting or dancing, it was time for lunch. All baskets were placed on a table. One basket at a time was selected and held up for auction. The auctioneer lauded the size, weight and attributes of each basket and urged cash bids from the men and boys in attendance.
The highest bidder would unwrap the prize in which he would find the name of the girl who had prepared the lunch basket and would be his guest for the picnic.
Married ladies were encouraged to participate as well. Every husband could identify the wrapping of his spouse’s basket. Sheldon noted, “I don’t know if the conservative social structure of 70 years ago could have survived the shock of a husband’s buying a basket not packed by his wife.”
One good cause for rural school teacher Helen Doyle was to finance a new teacher’s chair of her own choosing. Then a student in school term 1914-15, Sheldon would some decades later see that chair again. “Miss Doyle must have bought a good chair as it was in good condition after some 40 years of hard usage. I bought it at the dispersal auction of our school’s equipment at the time we joined Houston’s school district.”
As a girl, Helen Doyle had walked from her home in Ridgeway to Mound Prairie to meet with the school board. After she was hired to teach, she walked all the way back home, surely more than 10 miles – all in the same day.
At the time, young Sumner did not understand why he was taken to his first social, but he remembered being very excited. His sister Lois helped pick out which dress he would wear.
“Yes, little boys wore dresses in those days,” he noted. It must have been in early autumn since
the weather was warm when folks crowded into the small school house. He did not remember much else since he soon fell asleep, only to awaken when his brother brought him a piece of cake from the basket he had bought.
Sheldon claimed his only experience as an active adult participant came during the autumn of 1931 at age 21 when he sought to bid on the basket of the teacher at the Crystal Valley School, who had “staged” the event. He had only “two whole expendable dollars.” He waited and watched until auctioneer Whatley Burfield held up a basket wrapped in a St. Paul Pioneer Press newspaper. Assessing this must be the basket he desired. “I bid away my whole two dollars and got the basket.” His assessment had been astute – “two dollars well spent,” he declared.
Basket socials were well-attended events, not to be missed. Bud Eglinton finished his chores “extra early” and walked six miles to Hokie (as Hokah was known to most folks living on Mound Prairie) to borrow a horse and buggy. “I didn’t have no horse or nothing in them days …
“People began comin’ early, most walked and them that didn’t have no buggy, come in lumber wagons. We had a big turnout, the school house was full, and we was short of room in the school yard for all the rigs. One young feller come all the way from Crystal Valley with his horse. I helped him find a place to tie his horse.”
One former Houston County rural school teacher, Mabel Beckett Eglinton, opined that basket socials served a purpose in addition to raising funds and providing an evening of socializing. “It was difficult for young people, girls especially, to become acquainted outside their own neighborhood. The Germans had a three-word phrase, which exactly explained what was expected of girls of my day. In English the words are “church, children, kitchen.’
“It was possible for a girl to take a basket to a social, have it bought by a boy and both, totally unacquainted, could meet, visit, eat lunch together and sometimes, dance together – all socially acceptable.”
However, Eglinton noted there were challenges and chances for disappointment. To be a complete success, a basket social required a surplus of men and boys in order for all baskets to be sold. “Consider how devastated a young girl must feel if her basket has no buyer. It can be a mistake to have more than one or two socials in a season as human emotions can become very tangled.”
It was often critical that the “right boy” purchase the basket of the right girl. “You can be sure that jokesters will try to mix things up.” The best auctioneers knew how to handle things so that baskets went to the right guy.
Sources: “Now and Then” newspaper columns by Sumner Sheldon, published September 25, November 6 and 13, 1986 by the Houston Gazette and Country Journal
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