The Shannondale Rag Pull
Happening in a couple weeks is one of my favorite events, what my family loving calls the Shannondale Rag Pull. The “rag pull” is a bi-annual clothing sale taking place over 3 days in rural Shannon County Missouri. For those that aren’t familiar with this area of the U.S. This is the heart of the Ozarks where the rivers are clear and the family roots run deep. I am proud to say this is where I am from. I anticipate the call from my grandma letting me know the dates. I have been attending this event with my mom, grandma, aunts, and cousins as long as I can remember and I haven’t missed many. I am thrilled that my daughter enjoys it as much as me. I think we love it so much because of the family and community gathering that it truly is. As an added bonus the prices range from a quarter per item on the first day down to a penny on the last day.
On a Thursday afternoon in the spring or fall of the year local ladies with their kids and grandkids, and a few random men that have been roped in stand outside of a building called the Timber Lodge. They are all catching up, chit chatting maybe a little local gossip and they are waiting for Gay, Kenny, Peggy, or another volunteer to swing those doors open at 4 P.M. sharp rain or shine. They all have a bag to put all the treasures in as they dig through the tables mounded up with clothes. The bag is an important piece in this ritual and the lack of a bag is a give away to a first timer. I carry my laundry bag from college. My mom has a bag that my grandma sewed for her to use specifically for the rag pull and others carry a trash bag. Whatever you use the bag is a necessity.
The doors open and the group of 30-50 neighbors and family push in close as they want to be southern polite but, they also want to get the good stuff first. When you get in the doors you see two very long tables with ladies clothing stretching the entire length of the dining room. The shirts and pants for sale are stacked high and start out folded neatly but, quickly turn into big mounds as the diggers get to looking. Down the left side there is window where your kids will have to have a homemade brownie or a hot dog. Also, along that wall and into the corner is housewares that have been donated from the locals for the sale. There are several doors off the main room leading to the kids clothing, toys, coats, and men’s clothing rooms. There books stacked on a fireplace hearth and shoes lined up on old wooden church pews.
In my family we attack the sale as pack. Each one of us looking for ourselves as well as keeping in mind what might be the style and size of the others. I like these jeans but, if they are one size too small, they will fit my sister. My aunt’s granddaughter in a 4T so I’ll grab these jammies and so on and so forth we move from table to table and room to room. Usually at about the 1 hour mark we gather up in a corner out of the way and sit in the floor. By this point we are dragging our bags across the old hardwood floorboards. To me this is the fun part. Each person begins pulling the items from their bag one at a time for a more in-depth review. You decide what you actually want to buy or picked up for someone else. We make a discard pile and we talk. We enjoy these few minutes we have to just be family. At this point we gather everything up and head up to the front and get in line at one of the two tables where you check out and pay what usually ends up less than $10. We hug and say our I love you’s and head back to our busy lives. Our bags and are hearts are full.
I have often wondered where the clothes come from and what the history truly was to this event. I thought I had been told that the clothes come from St. Louis but, I wasn’t really sure. So, I was able to reach out to one of the official Shannondale Community Clothing Sale committee members, Peggy McCampbell. Peggy filled me in with what she knows and it goes much further back than I ever imagined.
The sale began at the Shannondale Church in Shannondale Missouri in the 1930’s at the height of The Great Depression as an outreach to a hurting community. At the beginning the clothes were only donated by the local community and sold for $0.05 per item. At some point St. John’s United Church of Christ in St. Charles, Missouri began donating clothes to the sale. In the 1950’s the sale moved about 2 miles down the road to the newly built Timber Lodge in Timber, Missouri which was larger and the new community gathering spot although the Shannondale name remains to this day. Ena Griffin no longer stays overnight to get up and make homemade donuts but, the community volunteers give so much and show God’s love to the rural people that live here. All the proceeds go back to pay for the use of the building, snacks, and to put on the next sale. If you don’t have a grandma to make sure you get to the sale on the right day you can join the Shannondale Community Clothing Sale Group on Facebook and be there with us at the next sale.
Timber Lodge
Some of our crew waiting for the doors to open- Fall 2021
More waiting…
Shopping!
