REMEMBER WHEN ?

[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

[Stepmac]

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.

[Stepmac]

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.

[Twice Shooter]

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

[Dean Romig]

Originally Posted by Bill Murphy

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

[Grantham Forester]

Originally Posted by 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.

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.

[Stepmac]

Originally Posted by Grantham Forester

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

[Stepmac]

Originally Posted by Grantham Forester

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]

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