Ida Light Bridges -- Grocery Lady

 

Ida Light Bridges

Ida Crutchfield Light was born on May 21, 1904 on a farm in the Oak Grove community of Trigg County, Kentucky.  She was the youngest of fourteen children born to John J. Light and Emily Catherine Thomas Light.  Ida had a twin sister, Ada Litchfield Light who lived only a few weeks and died on June 9, 1904.  Ida’s siblings were Mattie Patterson Light, born in 1879; John Wesley Light, born in 1882; William S. “Little Billy” Light, born in 1885; James Samuel Light, born in 1886; Francis Herbert Light, born in 1889; Elzie Bertram Light, born in 1890; Annie Light, born 1892; Lucy Nora Light, born in 1894; Robert Thomas Light, born in 1896; Mamie Adeline Light, born 1898; Starkie Light, born in 1900; Ethel Light, born in 1902.  

Even though born into a large family, Ida did not live in a large household as several of hers siblings died in their childhood and the older siblings were married.  Her father, John J. Light, died before she reached the age of one.  She always referred to her older brother, John Wesley Light, a bachelor, as her father figure.

On November 13, 1921, a Friday the thirteenth, she always recalled, she married Peyton Thomas Bridges at the courthouse in Clarksville, Tennessee. Pate, as he was known, was the son of Ghent Alfred Bridges and Nettie Cunningham Bridges. Ida was only 17 when she married.  Ida and Pate had four children,  A son, born in 1922, named Alfred Wesley after her father-in-law and her brother, died at the age of four in 1926 from diphtheria.  Their three other children were Chester Keidell Bridges, born in 1925, Juanita Katherine Bridges, born in 1929 and Charles Kenneth Bridges, born in 1944.
Ida and Pate lived in the Maple Grove community of Trigg County during the early years of their marriage.  Pate worked as a salesman for several companies during those early years and Ida was a housewife.

In the early 1940’s Ida and Pate moved to Cadiz, Kentucky and started on two careers.  Pate began operating a grocery truck where he delivered groceries throughout the county which was known as a rolling grocery, a self-contained vehicle where customers could select what they wanted from the stock.  In addition, they opened a restaurant in downtown Cadiz, known as the Bridges Café.  It was at the café, that Ida entered the workforce.  She was responsible for all aspects of the restaurant operations including the kitchen and the customers. She worked a waitress and as the chief cook.
 In the late 1940s, the Bridges’ gave up the operation of the restaurant and opened a small grocery store on Jefferson Street near downtown Cadiz. This was one of several small grocery stores that were located throughout the small town of Cadiz at the time.  One main difference of this grocery store was that it was the base store for Pate’s rolling grocery business where he daily restocked his grocery truck from the grocery store.  

Miss Ida or Miss Ida-Pate as she was known became the main operator of the Bridges Grocery store.  She ran all operations of the grocery, from stocking grocery products to being the chief sales clerk for the store.  After her husband died in 1962 she continued to operate the grocery store and all its operations without the rolling grocery element, until she retired in 1967 when the grocery closed.  During those years as a “grocery lady” she was well known in the community and especially liked by the kids in the neighborhood who stopped by the grocery store on their way to and from school, located just a block away, to warm up by the pot-bellied stove and buy candies and goodies from Miss Ida-Pate.  During that time, all grocery stores were closed on Sunday, but many times, Miss Ida-Pate would receive a knock on her house next door, asking if she could open the store so they could get that needed loaf of bread or quart of milk. Miss Ida-Pate always welcomed those Sunday customers.

Ida Light Bridges died on April 12, 1985 at a nursing home in Hopkinsville, Kentucky.  She was buried next to her husband in the East End Cemetery in Cadiz, Kentucky,

Ida as a waitress at the Bridges Cafe

 

Ida and Peyton Bridges

 

Peyton and Ida Bridges Tombstone

LINEAGE:  (Ida Crutchfield Light was the daughter of John J. and Emily Catherine Thomas Light and the granddaughter of Stanley and Emily Ann Light Thomas. Stanley was the second child of Starkie and Mary Bridges Thomas.  Starkie was the fourth child of James and Mary Standley Thomas.  Mary was the seventh child of Drury and Charity Cohoon Bridges.)

NOTE:  This leaf is published on this Mother’s Day Weekend 2022 in honor of my mother, Ida Light Bridges, who taught me to love and honor my wonderful Thomas and Bridges family.  It is with her inspiration that I am able to write this blog.   "I love you, Mama!"