Caddess Radio & TV Repair was
located on Back Street behind the current (2002) Bank of Vaiden.The current Bank of Vaiden building was
originally known as the second Summers’ Grocery, and was built to replace the
former Summers’ Grocery building, which was destroyed by fire in the mid-1960s, along with several other
buildings on Back Street, including a pool hall, and an unoccupied building
that contained junk and old farming implements.The Radio & TV Shop was spared.
The original Bank of Vaiden was
built in the 1890s,
and operated as such until it moved into the new (second Summers’ Grocery)
location in the early 1970s.The original bank building later became
(and is currently) the VaidenCity Hall.
In some of the following photos,
you will see the old Vaiden Courthouse (1905-1989)
in the background.The building was
built in 1946
by my Grandfather John Cleveland Hambrick, who
owned the Hambrick Blacksmith Shop on Back Street,
which later became known as (Carl) Austin’s
Dry Cleaners.It originally sat only
about 20 feet south of Summers’
Grocery, across a small alley.At one
time a gristmill sat between the back of Summers’ Grocery and the second Hambrick Blacksmith Shop/Caddess Shop (see the location
in the photos below), until the gristmill was torn down in the 1960s.
In 1946, Grandfather Hambrick
decided that he needed a new building for his Blacksmith Shop, and built the
building in the photos below.His
son-in-law, Wilson Caddess, originally operated the Radio & TV Repair
Shop in a rented room above the old Vaiden Hotel.The Vaiden Hotel building was later
occupied by several other businesses, including the J.G. Fullilove
Grocery, Holmes Rexall Drug Store, the Vaiden Theater, and others.Roscoe Rosamond owned Rosamond’s Barber
Shop, at the rear of the Vaiden Hotel site on Back Street.Ironically, when the original Summers’
Grocery was destroyed in the 1960s
by fire, Mr. Summers moved temporarily into the former Fullilove’s
Grocery building until the new (second) Summers’ Grocery building (now the
Vaiden Bank) could be built.Upon
completion, Mr. Summers moved into the new building (currently Vaiden Bank)
until his (Summers’) death in 1968.In the early 1970s (approximately 1973) the Vaiden Hotel/Fullilove Grocery building/Vaiden Theater/etc., was
destroyed by fire (arson).
Upon the death of Grandfather Hambrick in 1951,
my Grandmother, Exyah Bond Hambrick,
put the new shop up for sale.Wilson Caddess (now Exyah’s
son-in-law) moved the Radio & TV Repair shop into the building you’ll see
below in the photos.Caddess operated
the Repair Shop until the late 1960s
when transistors replaced vacuum tubes as a means of radio and tv amplification.At that time, Caddess focused his work solely on the Vaiden Water Department
until his retirement in 1990 after 41 years as Water
Superintendent.In the
early 1980s,
the Vaiden Bank bought the Caddess Radio & TV Repair Shop and razed it
for additional parking space.In
exchange, the Vaiden Bank built Caddess a shop at his home, which he used
until his placement in the VA Home in Jackson,
and subsequent death on 11/18/1997.
Wilson Monroe Caddess (06/18/1917 – 11/18/1997),
was originally from Doddsville,
MS, but moved to Winona at an early age.He married Louise (Aunt “E”)Hambrick,
who worked at the Chenille Plant in Winona,
MS, in addition to being a
homemaker, active in community organizations, and babysitter for children in
Vaiden throughout the 1960s and 1970s.
Front
(South Side) of Shop – the rear of the new (current) Vaiden Bank/second
Summer’s Grocery building is to the immediate right in the photo – the rear
of the old Vaiden Bank (built in the 1890s, and currently the Vaiden City Hall)
building is to the left of the rear of the new Vaiden Bank – the front of the
former Lee’s Grocery is in the middle of the photo – the space between the
Shop and the rear of the new Vaiden Bank building was the former location of
the gristmill