REMEMBER WHEN ?

[william faulk]

Hey Charlie..
Remember when...we still do it here..Bill

[edgarspencer]

I hate to admit it, but I remember when we did too. I love the color of the water you have there. Ours was a tad darker, No gators though.

[Dave Purnell]

That brings back memories of fifty years ago. It looks like just as much fun.

Dave

[Rick Losey]

yup - no gators up here, but my aunt did sit on shore ready to touch her cigarette to any leach we brought of the water as a passenger.

:p

[charlie cleveland]

heh BILL i sure do remember those days...looks like you boys are about to knock her dry...yep your water a whole lot better lookin than ours...we did not have gators in our old swimmin hole but today theres been a few gators seen...would like to relive some of them afternoons..thanks forreminding us of them days... charlie

[Grantham Forester]

yup - no gators up here, but my aunt did sit on shore ready to touch her cigarette to any leach we brought of the water as a passenger.

:p Reminds me of the scene in The Bridge On The River Kwai, when they used lit cigarettes to burn off the leeches from the muddy river they were traversing en route to the bridge--just before Commando Major Warden was shot in the ankle by a Japanese soldier- quite a story- I have only used leeches as fishing bait, walleyes seem to really like them.:whistle:

[WILLIAM STANELL]

I did it last week on a stream in upstate Pennsylvania. My boys and I go to the same stream as I did when I was 9 years old. Now I'm 47 and my boys are 9 and 11. They too love the feel of that sting of cold water and the feel of their 28 gauge VH SxS. The field I hunted in since 1978 is still there too.....The way is was and the way it will be.... Keeping the past in the present is the hard task I am always fighting to win.

[Steve McCarty]

I remember when we used to pond jump ducks from off of a farmer's pond in Western Kansas. We'd have to sneak along a plowed field to the pond. We'd spread out and approach the pond and jump up in unison. The ducks would somehow always move to the far side of the pond. Up they'd come and we'd always get a few. If they fell into the water, which they often did we'd be stuck. We'd draw straws to see who was going to strip and go in after the birds. That water was COLD.

Sometimes we'd do it twice in a day. The ducks were grain fed and good eat'n.

[Dean Romig]

Back in the late 50's there was a bend in the river bordering a cornfield belonging to an old Swedish farmer a mile or so from my house. Naturally we all knew the swimming hole in the river as "The Swede's" and most of the kids all around there, girls and boys, would go there on a warm summer's afternoon. Some of us would stay after dark and do some eeling if we remembered to bring a pole. Worms were easy to find... just flip over some cow patties. Skippy would often show up with half full bottle of his Mom's wine and we'd pass it around two or three of us thinkin' we were pretty big stuff. Great times those 50's...

[WILLIAM STANELL]

Yes they were and hope to make more

[charlie cleveland]

doc i hope all of us have many good days ahead and the health and sound mind to enjoy them...what a time the 50 s were...heck what good times were having now theve all been good... charlie

[Steve McCarty]

In Western Kansas we got our driver's license when we were 13 so we could drive to and from the farm. We weren't supposed to drive at night, but we all did. We seldom left town tho, which was three by five blocks. We had good street lights and we'd drive around town endlessly, smoking cigarets. There were always two competing cliques of kids, and we'd make cat calls at oneanother as we passed.

We drank 3.2 beer which was really about 1.8. We drank it like pop which it nearly was.

We'd drive into the middle of a prairie dog town, stop and shut off the engine (We called it a "motor".). We'd shoot for an hour or two. Shells cost us 85 cents a box for Long Rifles, or 55 cents for shorts. We shot our parents or grandparents old worn out .22 rifles; pumps, a few Marlin autos, and one ancient Marlin '92 that didn't work very well.

We were in the prairie near Dodge City. The wind blew and sun dried our faces. We were brown as berries. We swam in the Rattlesnake River which was the color of coffee and milk. Some guys "noodled" for fish, but not me. We caught "flatheads, big catfish which had an ugly large flat head which we nailed to a board and pulled off the skin with a pair of plyers. Strangly they tasted okay, but channel cats were better.

The fifties. Most of us were poor, but no one felt as such. Both of my parents were born and raised in that little town and their folks still lived there. One was the town dentist and the other owned the car/tractor parts place, so they did okay. I worked for one of my grandparents, farming. I made 30 cents an hour which kept me in .22's which was all I cared about.

[Steve McCarty]

More about the fifties in a small Kansas farm town.

Town was really one wide main street with a block and a half of stores that faced one another across the street. There was a movie threatre, the De Lux and a "sundries" store that had a drug store inside and a soda fountain...and racks of comic books, which we all read and seldom bought. They cost a dime.

A coke was a nickle for an 8 oz glass and you could get a cherry, lime or lemon coke. They'd squirt some of the sirup in there for flavor. We bought malts, or root beer floats which I think cost 20 cents. They had little round tables in the rear of the store and we'd all sit there drinking our drinks while gabbing with the girls, who always had a "crush" on one of the boys. By the time we graduated from high school every boy had pretty much dated every girl in town and visa versa. They married the one they ended up with and then after a few years divorced and married the one they really liked.

Over fifty years later that town is little changed. They are planning to tear down the De Lux, which has been vacant since the 60's and is crumbling. All of my parents, grandparents and great grandparents are gone now and reside in the cemetery north of town. I visit there from time to time to recall those people whom I loved.

Some of the kids I knew never left. Old men and women now.

[Bill Murphy]

Unlike you guys, I have absolutely no recollection of the fifties. I'm much younger than the rest of you fellows.

[Tom Carter]

I took this picture last Wednesday in Bennetsville, South Carolina. Some of you may remember shoping for these items. cheers, Tom

[charlie cleveland]

i remember the nickol cokes and 5 cent candy bars and the dime punch boards that some of them had a saturday night special as the winner a little 22 that was very cheaply made....and hoy about porter walls on car tires and them little transistor radios...and no age limit to buy a gun or ammo...them 22 shorts were 49 cents at thewestern auto.. i worked on farm for 50 cents a hour by the day they paid 3 dollars l liked getting paid by the hour...paid for my class ring took me 3 weeks to get enough money to pay for it...got 3 dollars a day helping a fellow measure cotton...we did not know times were hard back then all i studied was sun down and payday..... charlie

[Grantham Forester]

More about the fifties in a small Kansas farm town.

Town was really one wide main street with a block and a half of stores that faced one another across the street. There was a movie threatre, the De Lux and a "sundries" store that had a drug store inside and a soda fountain...and racks of comic books, which we all read and seldom bought. They cost a dime.

A coke was a nickle for an 8 oz glass and you could get a cherry, lime or lemon coke. They'd squirt some of the sirup in there for flavor. We bought malts, or root beer floats which I think cost 20 cents. They had little round tables in the rear of the store and we'd all sit there drinking our drinks while gabbing with the girls, who always had a "crush" on one of the boys. By the time we graduated from high school every boy had pretty much dated every girl in town and visa versa. They married the one they ended up with and then after a few years divorced and married the one they really liked.

Over fifty years later that town is little changed. They are planning to tear down the De Lux, which has been vacant since the 60's and is crumbling. All of my parents, grandparents and great grandparents are gone now and reside in the cemetery north of town. I visit there from time to time to recall those people whom I loved.

Some of the kids I knew never left. Old men and women now. This appeared in the anthology "The Best of Gray's" edited by Ed Gray. The story is called "The Prairie Queen" written by Jack Curtis. I also read that Yankton, SD (very Eastern part of the State) was one of several areas where captured German POW's were encamped, and put to work on WPA and CCC type projects.

[Dean Romig]

Unlike you guys, I have absolutely no recollection of the fifties. I'm much younger than the rest of you fellows.


:biglaugh:

[Dean Romig]

Delivering my morning newspapers just after first light to the staccato sounds of gunfire from the October 20 opening of pheasant season all the way through the end of the waterfowl seasons in December.

Walking to school with that wonderful smell of burnt nitro powder on the air knowing I would only get an hour or so of hunting after school before legal shooting light ended.

Some of my favorite memories of those days.

[Tom Carter]

Bill, I can easily believe you have forgotten the 50's. The older you get the more you forget. Cheers, Tom:bigbye:

[Steve McCarty]

This appeared in the anthology "The Best of Gray's" edited by Ed Gray. The story is called "The Prairie Queen" written by Jack Curtis. I also read that Yankton, SD (very Eastern part of the State) was one of several areas where captured German POW's were encamped, and put to work on WPA and CCC type projects.

I don't understand. I just wrote it. SM

[calvin humburg]

Whats the name of the small town is KS Steve?

[Steve McCarty]

Whats the name of the small town is KS Steve?

Bucklin, 27 miles ESE of Dodge City.

[Steve McCarty]

This appeared in the anthology "The Best of Gray's" edited by Ed Gray. The story is called "The Prairie Queen" written by Jack Curtis. I also read that Yankton, SD (very Eastern part of the State) was one of several areas where captured German POW's were encamped, and put to work on WPA and CCC type projects.

Not sure what you mean here Grantham, but if you think you saw my piece in an anthology edited by Ed Gray, then I am flattered! It squirted out my fingers just a few days ago. Here is some more:

One of the most memorable things about Western Kansas to me, was to stand in a wheat field and turn and look around and as far as you could see you were the tallest thing in sight....The peak of one's straw hat reached above everything else.

There was a special smell to the wheat as it rippled in the constantly blowing, searing wind. It baked your face nut brown and brought crows feet to the corners of your eyes, even when you were sixteen. It felt as hot as the surface of the sun, but as hot and humid as it was, one did not sweat. There were no dark brown stains in the middle of your work shirt, like they show in the movies. The sweat, which must have been on the surface of your skin evaporated immediately. Sometimes it left a thin white salt stain on your skin and maybe around the brim of your hat. My God it was hot and dry!

Alone for twelve hours a day, going round and round in the shimmering field of wheat on a puffing red painted tractor would have been lonely if one did not have ones self to comensurate with. If you weren't before, you became friends with yourself on that tractor. You and yourself would have long conversations and learn all kinds of things. From time to time you had to stop to pull weeds from the round, razor sharp blades of the oneway or grease the bearings with that tool they named a machine gun after. You'd pump the handle and sqeeze the black goo into the grease zirk until it bubbled out of the bearing like some science fiction monster. Daydreaming, however; was dangerous. Several times a season some farmer would fall asleep and tumble off of the tractor and be run over by the plow.

Sometimes a baby rabbit, or pheasant would run into the furrow in front of your right front tire. Seldom did it jump to the right and safety, even when I shouted at it to do so. I would watch as he stumbled and tired. Eventually I'd have to slow down or even stop so that the little critter could get away. I never ran over one. We were friends, after all and we shared the experience of the hot summer day in that dusty wheat field.

[charlie cleveland]

nicely said steve...i bet calvin can relate to this storey.... charlie

[Grantham Forester]

Steve, did I understand you correctly in your post? You recently wrote about your growing up in Kansas? The Prairie Queen was the name of the church, the area was settled by Swedes and Norwegians, Haavik, Skofer, Eggebrotten- it was all the same in "The Prairie Queen". I'm not critic, but I think Jack Curtis captured the rural American farmer spirit very well in his writing-- "Ya, we get the Monkey Ward Catalog, and when it shows- Good, Better, best- we always order best-- Nice gun, have to watch that safety though- me, I just got an old Nitro Marvel, but they all shoot the birds-- lines like that paint a picture of Sivert Haavik like Van Gogh did with "The Starry night"- IMO anyway. Like to see your story, the Dakotas, Nebraska, Kansas, Iowa, Montana, Idaho-- truly our "Heartland" even if you are not a hunter!

[Dean Romig]

nicely said steve...i bet calvin can relate to this storey.... charlie

I'm certain of it Charlie. He couldn't be any closer to the earth.

[Steve McCarty]

Steve, did I understand you correctly in your post? You recently wrote about your growing up in Kansas? The Prairie Queen was the name of the church, the area was settled by Swedes and Norwegians, Haavik, Skofer, Eggebrotten- it was all the same in "The Prairie Queen". I'm not critic, but I think Jack Curtis captured the rural American farmer spirit very well in his writing-- "Ya, we get the Monkey Ward Catalog, and when it shows- Good, Better, best- we always order best-- Nice gun, have to watch that safety though- me, I just got an old Nitro Marvel, but they all shoot the birds-- lines like that paint a picture of Sivert Haavik like Van Gogh did with "The Starry night"- IMO anyway. Like to see your story, the Dakotas, Nebraska, Kansas, Iowa, Montana, Idaho-- truly our "Heartland" even if you are not a hunter!

Whew! Grantham, I didn't even have to duck and you just went way over my head! There was a nice little book entitled Byrd, or Bird; Kansas. It captured the unique qualities of growing up in those dusty little farm towns. The town I grew up in, Bucklin, Kansas, was the birthplace of both of my parents, so their parents, my grandparents, lived there too and I was related to a bunch of the folks who lived in that little burg.

I did not spend most of my youth there, but living there made the biggest impact upon me and I recall the experience as the most important and memorable of my young life. I also adored my grandparents.

There were many Swedes in Kansas. Tall blond haired farm boys. We lived on Pawnee land and my grandfather showed me Indian camp sites and the hollows left by collapsed pioneer dugouts. I met men who had known Bat Masterson, who was the Ford County sheriff for a term, leaving there after Wyatt Earp and Doc Holliday left. Bat did show up in Tombstone, but he didn't stay long. I also knew men who had lived in Dodge in the 1870's and not a single one of them recalled either the Earps or Holliday. Come to find out Doc Holliday was only in town for three months and Wyatt spent most of his time in dives and saloons. He didn't come in contact with the "normal" people in town. Wyatt was in his late 20's and didn't show up in Tombstone until he turned 31.

My great grandmother lived in a little farmhouse on the north edge of town. Here name was Eva. She kept chickens and still had an egg business and she made cakes and pies for the hotel (it burned) until she went to the "Hill House" when she was 97. She made a grape pie! She was born in 1887 and in 1900 lived with my great grandfather in a dugout on the prairie. She was bitter about how hard they worked and suffered and chagrined that her husband died so young, at 63. She lived to 99.

[Steve McCarty]

Steve, did I understand you correctly in your post? You recently wrote about your growing up in Kansas? The Prairie Queen was the name of the church, the area was settled by Swedes and Norwegians, Haavik, Skofer, Eggebrotten- it was all the same in "The Prairie Queen". I'm not critic, but I think Jack Curtis captured the rural American farmer spirit very well in his writing-- "Ya, we get the Monkey Ward Catalog, and when it shows- Good, Better, best- we always order best-- Nice gun, have to watch that safety though- me, I just got an old Nitro Marvel, but they all shoot the birds-- lines like that paint a picture of Sivert Haavik like Van Gogh did with "The Starry night"- IMO anyway. Like to see your story, the Dakotas, Nebraska, Kansas, Iowa, Montana, Idaho-- truly our "Heartland" even if you are not a hunter!

LOL; just re-read this post and NOW I understand it. Oh, well; too many martini's I guess.

Of course we all had the Monkey Wards Catalogue, and the Herter's one too. I used to love paging through it dreaming of owning the guns, but I never bought one. Lee Harvey Oswald put them out of business.

An Amazing thing about Bucklin was that while it only housed about 800 souls it sported a complex social structure, with well established cliques that did not talk. Oh, the men did, but the women pretty much kept to their own group. And gossip! The people in that town took it to a high order! My wife tells the story of sitting in those iron chairs on the front porch along with my grandmother, mother, aunt and cousin, all women. Pat didn't say a word, she just sat amazed at the skill and depth of the gossip. y grandmother was 90 and my cousin 25, but that did not matter. They were equals on that gossipy front porch. There were no secrets in that little town.

In the 50's after we returned home after a trip my other grandmother would pick up the phone, there was no dial; the operator would answer, (she worked at the telephone switchboard just down the street), and say, "Hi Melinda, say I've been gone for two weeks (Melinda already knew this.) and was wondering what is going on in town?" Melinda would fill her in. Nope, no secrets at all.

The town was located where it was because of an artesian well. They used to have a water trough right in the middle of main street. The city fathers decided to provide water to the citizens for free. The result was the place looked like a little oasis with large emerald green lawns, mature cottonwoods and spritely flowers, all this surrounded by the vast, empty prairie.

[Fred Preston]

I believe Oswald got his shootin' iron from Klien's of Chicago, the same place I got a Webley .455 with case of ammo for $12 when I was 14.

[Steve McCarty]

I believe Oswald got his shootin' iron from Klien's of Chicago, the same place I got a Webley .455 with case of ammo for $12 when I was 14.

Yep, a Mannlicher Carcano carbine 7.35 as I recall. They attached a rinky dink scope for a extra buck or two. I think Oswald invested about $14 for his entire killing machine.

Boy did he screw it up for the rest of us!

I visited the Texas Book Depository building once and leaned out the window next to the one that Oswald shot through. That one is barred from the public by sheets of plexiglass. But from my fantage point I could get a pretty good look at where his shots landed and they were not very far away! The last was kind of a 'hope shot' but it was a hit nevertheless.

What a shame! Then we got LBJ....don't even get me started!