In a history of the country Wales I read this line about the occupation of the country by Roman Legionnaires back in the early days of the first millennium. 

     "The army represented wealth on a wholly unprecedented scale. In Caerlen, a legion of 5,300 men with money to spend was a magnetic attraction. Outside the walls of the fort, a .township developed.to profit from the money of the soldiers."

     That very provocative line reminds me of an experience of my cousin, Orlando Sexton. 'Lando owned the drugstore in Walnut Ridge, Arkansas. I don't need to explain to the cognoscenti that Walnut Ridge is on the direct route Hoxie to Memphis - just the other side of Paragould.

     When I knew it, Walnut Ridge was a sleepy little village. My grandfather's axe-handle factory gave some employment, and the Frisco Railroad brought traffic. 'Lando's drugstore took care of all medical and notional needs.

     In the early 1940s, the United States, contemplating wars on every continent, was arming in the hope not to be drawn into the conflicts. One summer, the peacetime army played war games in the backwoods of the river bottoms near Walnut Ridge.

     Payday coincided with leave day.

     'Lando opened for business, as was his custom, at 7:30. 'Lando was sold out of what the GIs wanted by 8:00 and of everything else by 9:00. He refused an offer for the cash register, but did sell the clock from the wall.

     The times of the rest of this story are approximate as a result.

     He borrowed a truck from his father-in-law. He drove it; Bessie, his wife, drove their car. They loaded up in Memphis with anything they could lay their hands on, drove back to the store, reopened, sold out, closed, drove to Memphis, bought everything they could lay their hands on, drove back to the store, reopened/, sold out.

     As 'Lando said, he could have kept it up for hours, but the soldiers only had a short leave. During his last period of selling he got rid of everything, including the old wooden pharmaceutical cabinets with glass shelving above and camphor-wood drawers below.

     When I visited the store years later, it was brave in glass-brick, chrome, and stainless steel. The only ante-bellum relic was the cash register. Ante-bellum World War Two, that is.