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 early 1960s, along with several other
buildings on Back Street, including a pool hall, and an empty building.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.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
