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

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.

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.

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

Remembering
 

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

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

Reminds me of a Yankton, SD story
 

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.

:biglaugh:

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.

Age
 

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