Updated June 29

Editor's note: The Sovereign Neighborhoods project is very much a work in progress. There are undoubtedly hundreds of memories and vignettes not present here, but it is time to publish the material we do have because a) it is fun, and b) people reading it may be inspired to send their own stories of life as kids in Abilene.The project will be updated and re-published as new material arrives. We begin with Nancy Shoemaker . . .


My block, 1800 Chestnut, was the perfect place to grow up. There were playmates to find and adventures to be had in nearly every house on the block. Traffic was light and there were concrete sidewalks populated with horned toads. It was easy to learn to skate, ride a bicycle, and to find one's place in the social structure of the time. I had Kay Altman across the street, Bob Denham next door, Alice Fisher across the alley behind, and Teresa Smith one house away. There were others and I loved to play with all of them.
- Nancy Shoemaker, Travis and Bowie

I went to Bowie. I started there in the 3rd grade and we lived at the very end of Sayles Blvd. It was a perfect place to ride our bikes all over, play football, baseball and walk to the Metro Theater. Linda Simmons moved in in the 4th grade and I was forever late getting home because I had to see one more show. She, Max Mossholder, my brother David and I used to do everything together. We would usually meet at Linda's house because her parents and ours were friends and would play croquet for hours.
- Barbara Stevenson, Bowie

We lived on Sycamore Street, I believe it was off of East South 11th. When I was about 9 years old we moved to the South part of Abilene. I lived on Over St. which was one block south of South 20th. I went to Bowie Elementary (which was built in 1951) We moved into a brand new house and the only thing beyond our backyard was a pasture with horses in it. We put the lawn and trees in after we moved there.
When growing up, there was a vacant lot on the corner across the street, with mesquite trees and we would play and play and play over there. Play jacks on that cold front porch, ride our bikes and stay out late and watch the lightning bugs and sit on the front porch and enjoy the evening breeze. I would rather be outside than inside. But would of course go in to watch I Love Lucy.
- Edna Cole, Bowie

At one point we had a “club” and built some sort of underground “fort” across the street from the school. To be a member of the exclusive club one had to be initiated. This entailed having hot wax dripped on your ankle. If the initiate yelled, you might not get to be a member. I’m sure the fort situated on a vacant lot covered a very small number of square feet, but to us it seemed massive, a complex of underground rooms in the darkness. It was probably no more than a few feet deep, covered with boards and metal, with dirt thrown on top. But it served its purposes to hide out and use when we had “clod fights.”
- John Odam, Valley View

Our house was at 1118 Green St. Four blocks to the west of Green St. was Mockingbird Lane, and west of there was the Planet of the Unknown: BB-gun territory.
What we considered a good workout was chasing a DDT truck dispersing a cloud of toxic smoke for 16 blocks, while devouring an Eskimo Pie we had retrieved from the neighborhood ice cream wagon. DDT also went good with a Dreamcicle. After hosing down for 30 minutes in the back yard sprinkler, we made our way into the house for the best home-cooked meal in town. You were always welcome to stay.
Then it was out the doors for the neighborhood sunset. We played marbles, tops, yo-yos, kite flying, Red Rover, kick the can, while it was still light. As the sun set, it was hide and go seek, and the gathering of lightning bugs. On our backs, we could make a wish on a falling star, how far is far, how is there no end, I wish I may, I wish I might . . . “You kids get inside and clean up, it’s past your bedtime!!”
- Jerry Grider, Fannin

We moved into a new house at 1502 Green Street in 1953. The street behind us was Burger, and past that only pasture land. I remember the red dirt that would not come out of our clothes, especially white socks, and red ants that could sting like crazy.
We then moved just across Catclaw Creek to 1517 Graham Street. Our “block” ran from North 12th Street to North 18th Street. I remember David Winkles lived on one end and Travis Cranfill at the other end, and so many others in between. Donna Day lived down the street and she had a piano. (My one wish in life that we could never afford) She and I went to the movies on some Saturdays and almost always went to the book store next to the theatre. I think I bought every Nancy Drew book that was published during that time. Can you imagine, I had 25 cents to spend. I went to the movie, bought a drink and Jr. Mints and still had money left over for a book. Sometimes we would venture across the street to Minters or Grissoms and try on hats. My mother would have had a hissy fit if she knew we did that!
- Ann Coppedge, Fannin

Our address was 1926 South 19th. Evidently Abilene wasn't prepared for all the "war babies" so the schools were overcrowded when I started to 1st grade. I went mornings only in 1st grade at Alta Vista and in 2nd grade I was an afternoon student. My husband says we were the Alta Vista Roosters but I don't remember that. He was a year and a grade older and was in the old building. First and second graders were in the new building and really didn't take part in much since we only went half a day. When I went to third grade Bowie Elementary was finished so I became a Bowie Bobcat.
The community seemed to be a lot safer for kids in those days than it is today. I guess Mother drove me to Alta Vista and picked me up in 1st grade, (no school buses) but I remember walking home by myself in 2nd grade, and it was pretty far to our house. I always hurried so I wouldn't miss my favorite radio program--Big John and Sparkie. It came on at 5 or 5:30.
-Holley Purcell, Alta Vista and Bowie

It was a late June evening in dry, dusty West Texas. The year was 1951. "Daddy, Are we there, yet? It smells like we are home," I asked my father as I stepped over my sleeping brothers and popped my head up between my father's head and the open window. Smelling the tell tale smell of the Paymaster Feed mill on Treadaway Street woke me up. "Yes we are in Abilene now, Sister. Just a few more minutes and you will be in your bed." From Highway 80 he would turn onto Treadaway, following it to South 20th Street, just a little further and turning right to 1933 Belmont Boulevard. Then I could smell the mimosa blooms that told me I was really home.
No one was hungry because Aunt Faye in Ranger had seen to that earlier in the day. Not only did we have a cowboy breakfast of fried chicken, mashed potatoes, gravy, eggs, bacon, orange juice, homemade biscuits, toast from homemade bread, milk and coffee, but as we were leaving in the late afternoon, she sent a sack of sandwiches along with peaches from her trees to eat on the road. We always loved to visit Aunt Faye and Uncle Kirk in Ranger.
- Karen Lusby, Travis

My world was ending; I had to move from North Louisiana where my extended family lived way out west to Texas. I only knew about Texas from cowboy movies. When we finally got to our new home, Abilene, we lived in a rented house at 1641 North 21st St. My mother enrolled me in College Heights School. My new second grade teacher was Mrs. Morton. For the first time in my life I was in a new school that was really new. My classroom was in a new addition that had been recently opened. I didn’t get to know many people before school was out for the year. I do remember Allison Kay Tartt; it is hard to forget a pretty girl, even at seven years old. That summer my folks bought a house on the south side of town, at 818 Grove St.
- Larry Scott, College Heights and Crockett

San Angelo was my birthplace and for the most part my known universe. Then on an early spring day in 1952, I learned that my father was moving us lock, stock and barrel to a town called Abilene. I clearly remember hearing him say that the family and his new shoe store would fare better in this far off place.
For an eight year old boy, moving was a fate worse than death. How could a person possibly survive a summer in a strange place and with no buddies to explore for good crawdad fishing holes?
My father rented us a place on Jeanette Street, not far from South Junior. There were few kids my age on the block. So, my sister and I entertained ourselves by listening to music on the Motorola. There were nighttime serials along with frequent updates on General Eisenhower’s run for president plus how things were going in another far off place called Korea.
- Dale Thorp, Wylie

During the war, we lived with my grandfather on Orange Street, and I started first grade at Lamar. Then we built one of the first houses in Elmwood West, at 4090 Monticello and I went to Fair Park, Crockett and Bonham because Abilene just kept building closer schools as the population grew. I was in the first fifth grade class in Bonham, and we got to decide on the school colors, mascot and song. I remember my teacher, Mrs. Dotson, went to OU so we plagiarized the OU school song, and I gave an impassioned speech to the student body advocating the adoption of the song, and it won. Truly I thought I had won a Grammy!
- Nell Anne Walter, Lamar, Fair Park, Crockett and Bonham

With the 50's in Abilene, I was the "neighborhood grocery man's" daughter. There were no supermarkets and Dad's store known as H&H Grocery and Market located at 126 Graham Street or across from the Coca Cola Bottling Company. I found myself with chores of a 10 year old that required more personal attention than expected today from the supermarkets. Of course Mrs. Joyner brought the eggs into town every Saturday and I crated eggs into the foldout card-board cartons. Fresh brown eggs or fresh white eggs straight from the farm- no government inspections while the milk man brought the fresh milk from the J.H. Rucker dairy in SE Abilene with the cream still floating on the top.
My chores also included filling the "drink" box each evening with the glass bottles of Coke, Pepsi, 7-Up, Dr. Pepper, Sunkist, NuGrape and Barque's Root Beer.
- Genevieve Hitt, Valley View and Central

We had some classic neighborhood pharmacies in Abilene. The only store that is left is Barnes and Williams on the corner of North 7th and Hickory. Some of the others were: Atkinson’s on Ambler across from HSU, Medical Arts Pharmacy that was next to the First Christian Church on North 3rd owned by Zee Oswalt, Cook’s Drug on South 7th or South 11th, Shahan’s Pharmacy on South 7th, Nick Crain’s Pharmacy on South 7th and Leggett, and Jackson’s Pharmacy on Butternut. But, for me, the best of the bunch was my grandfather’s store, Robinson’s Pharmacy at 929 Butternut.
I don’t know but I would guess that most of the youngsters growing up in the early 1950’s remember the soda fountains in the drug stores more than anything else.
- Eddie Krieger, Alta Vista and Crockett

I remember Zee Oswalt’s drugstore best, because our family doctor’s offices were upstairs in the Clinic Building. In fact we called the drugstore the Clinic Drugstore. My favorite drugstore was downtown on Cypress, just north of the Farmers & Merchants Bank, where my mother worked. She worked on Saturday mornings, and I would go with her and go to the drugstore – I forget its name – and have a chocolate sundae, and then a strawberry soda, and read comic books, sitting there at the counter. Uncle Scrooge was the best. When I was older, I would ride my bike down there, across the tracks and all the way over to the north side. It seemed like the other side of the world from 417 Poplar St.
- Mike Wayman, Central

I had a little different perspective of the soda fountain and my memories of it are those of a soda jerk not a customer. When I was old enough to see over the counter, I got to know the fountain from the other side of the counter. Can you imagine a kid getting tired of all those wonderful treats like sodas, sundaes, milk shakes and ice cream. It only takes about two days to get enough.
- Eddie Krieger

Remember getting valuable lessons by just listening to adults tell stories? My Dad was one of twelve children; most Sunday afternoons we would drive to Anson where my grandparents lived and several of the twelve would be there. All of them seemed to be great storytellers. Because they were from a farming background, many of the stories were about severe weather and accidents with machinery. Of course, we heard the story of "I walked eight miles in the snow, uphill both ways, to go a one room school house to get an education!"
- John Marshall, Valley View

The first house I remember was at 3010 South 10th. Great place – the zoo was close by, as was Cat Claw Creek, and “The Football Stadium” was just across the street. Next door was Leldon Kelso, they had the best car in the neighborhood a Hudson Hornet. Down the street was Bill Teague and Benny Roe, across the street was Charles “Sonny” Williams and Bobby Martin, Jackie Harrison lived on South 11th, Eugene Purcell was west over to Albany Street and there were a lot of others. There had to be more as we never failed to have enough to make up a game of baseball or football as well as the Cowboys and Indian chases throughout the neighborhood.
The street was that nasty old caliche gravel that was either a mud pit or so dry dust clouds were always present. South 10th was a great street though there was a hill from Sayles Blvd. all the way down to my house.
- Dennis Pope, Alta Vista and Crockett

In that period of time before we started Junior High, what was our prize possession? For me, it was my bicycle. I remember that first bike and that first race. It was my birthday of either my sixth or seventh year and best I recall I was riding in a race that first day. The bicycle gave us some freedom to roam and explore surrounding neighborhoods. My bicycle gave me lots of freedom but many times use of that freedom got me in real hot water and usually a spanking when I got home. I have no idea how many times I got spanked for riding my bike to Fair Park. It was always Johnny Garner’s fault because he made me go. I always tried to explain that to Mom, as she was getting the belt out, but she only said, “Johnny didn’t make you do anything.”
- Eddie Krieger, Alta Vista and Crockett

What I remember most about growing up on Bickley St. in Abilene, Texas, was innocence and hopefulness. Radio was our entertainment medium, but it wasn’t as big as playing outside with my brother and neighbors like Ronnie Harter, a host of younger kids, and sometimes Diane Haddox from up the street. Our whole block softball games gave some kids six strikes because they couldn’t really swing the bat. Laughter and fun were the real goals.
- Buzzy McDonald, Crockett

I was blessed to have the best set of friends one could ask for. Some of them, in no particular order, were: Cheryl Little, (well, maybe she did top the list) followed by Jerl Franklin, Gary Morris, Dale Craik, Jerry Gilbreath, (“Jerry G.”) Jerry Burrow (“Jerry B.), John Marshall, Marian and Harold Hann, Wade Frey, Billy Dean Hunt, Lana Jordan, Frank White, Kay Hubbard, Jimmy Helton, Jean Cloyd and Joe Honeycutt.
The classroom itself was secondary. Sure it was a place to learn in the classroom, and I suppose I did, despite myself, but primarily it was the hub from which the spokes of extracurricular activities flowed. Obviously these were my time with these childhood friends, in class, on the playing field, and in the neighborhood, occupied most of my waking hours.
Jerl was probably the closest friend. We went to school together from the first grade on. He and his parents lived across the street from us. His mom and dad owned and operated the Grape Inn, the finest hamburger stand in town, situated on the corner of North 10th and Grape, next to Bourland’s Grocery Store, which later became Pearce’s Food Palace. They had hunting dogs in cages in the corner of their backyard. On the weekends they would often go coon hunting. I always regretted I was never along on those nocturnal excursions into the country.
Dale Craik lived on the corner of North 11th and Merchant; Jerry Gilbreath, one block due south, at 1749 North 10th, and Gary Morris lived a few blocks west on North 10th.
- John Odam, Valley View

Some, but not all, of the schoolmates that lived near us were; Clara and Ronnie Cheek, David Beck, the most beautiful girl named Susan across the street on the corner, Carolyn and James Toney, Jerry Osborne just around the corner, Martha Dusek not far from there, Carolyn Gillis near her, and my idea of perfection, Allison Tartt, lived just over on Swenson. The very special boy that lived directly across the street, Johnny Miller, was the very first boy I ever kissed (blush).
- Ann Coppedge, Fannin

I remember very little about the first grade at Travis Elementary School. My teacher was Mrs. Day and she had to bathe and delouse some of the students in a metal washtub on the playground. Some of them did not know how to talk so she spent time working on that as well.
-Nancy Shoemaker, Travis and Bowie

Valley View Elementary was a red brick building with a long hallway running down the middle with the classrooms on each side. It was un-airconditioned and heated in the fall and winter with radiators along the outside wall. They rattled when first turned on in the mornings, but once warmed up, kept the classrooms nice and toasty. The desks were dark wood; all attached to two “rails” so you couldn’t scoot them around and mar the floor. They had lift-up desk tops and seats with an ink well in the corner. That showed their age, because we didn’t use the hole except to stuff things in.
I was at Valley View the first through sixth grade with very good teachers: Miss Heathington in the first, Mrs. Pearce in the second, Miss Calfee in the third, Miss Collins in the fourth, Miss Ellis in the fifth and Miss Lance in the sixth. I assumed they had first names but that was something that was not shared with the students, or if it was, long forgotten.
- John Odam, Valley View

I started the third grade at Fannin Elementary on the first day it opened. My teacher was Mrs. Alva Wilson, and she will always be the teacher I remember the most. That year at Christmas we put on a spectacular play, “The Littlest Angel” starring Freddie Martinez. The Three Kings were quite funny, and I think Jerry Grider was one of them, which explains why they were not solemn, but funny. It was a fun year and lots of friends were made that are still friends today over 50 years later.
- Ann Coppedge, Fannin

School was started at Alta Vista for the first two years. Fairly long walk across Sayles Blvd. The neighborhood went as a group; gaggle is more like it, with the older kids in charge. What a drag. My sister was four years older and that was even worse, as she was in charge. After that a new school was built, Crockett Elementary. Best teacher I ever had was the third grade, Mrs. Christopher. She was the best as I gave her the rubber lizard on the shoulder treatment in the lunch room and she did not kill me.
- Dennis Pope, Alta Vista and Crockett

It was a cold day when the fourth grade began and I had Mrs.Caffey for a teacher. Saying that she ran a tight ship was an understatement. Academically it was a successful year but not without a price. Miss Caffey called anyone who appeared to be slacking in any way to the front of the class and made them bend over and receive "licks" with a large board. This included girls, but I managed to be very invisible so was not afraid for myself.
Life went on and another high point was the fact that when I walked home from school with Carolyn Featherston, we stopped at the Dixie Pig and got a cherry coke. I think it only cost a dime. Later our block was transferred to Bowie Elementary and things were never the same. Fifth grade at Bowie brought slumber parties in Linda Simmon's basement where we discussed the facts of life. Linda was very well informed.
- Nancy Shoemaker, Travis and Bowie

I attended Valley View until the 4th grade and at that time my home address was 2126 Washington. It was later renamed Parramore because of confusion with Washington Blvd. on ACC Hill. A short street with 3 houses. It intersected Kirkwood on the West and ended at Cat Claw Creek where we (primarily my brothers and their friends) dug the caves, and on the east end it ended at Dr. Jim Alexander's mesquite pasture with his horses. I could write a book myself on that area of Abilene, from Victoria to Kirkwood, and N. 1st to N. 9th. Then in the 4th grade we moved to 626 E.N.10th on the ACU Hill, and I went to Central Elem. Across from Dad's store was an "elite" apartment complex for that time. Mrs. Hilgenburg owned it and she later married R.A. Bible-Bible Hardware on Walnut St.. This apartment building was a dorm for ACU when the college was located in the Coca Cola Building. Her tenants were really "top notch" people - i.e., CPA's and retirees. East of this on N. 2nd, was Lankford's Manufacturing, Pat Lankford class of '59? They manufactured government uniforms if I remember correctly.
- Genevieve Hitt, Valley View and Central

My first home was in Abilene on Cedar Street just south of St. Ann's hospital (which is long gone). We moved to Buffalo Gap Rd. when I was 5. I went to Wylie Elementary School, along with Dick Nowell, Dale Thorp, and David Bozarth. Wylie was not the school that it is today, it was just a little country school, 2 classes per grade and almost everyone rode the bus. One vivid memory is being told by the older kids about the principal's electric paddle. I guess he just plugged it in and ran it till the utility bill got too high.
- Richard Crowell, Wylie

The best thing about being a Central Wildcat was the slide. It was actually a steep-sided, steel fire escape, from a second-floor classroom window down to the ground, but it was steeper and slicker than any other slide at any playground in town. When school was closed, we would get a handful of dirt and scoot ourselves up the slide from the ground, throw the dirt down ahead of us, and slide like the wind, screaming all the way. In the summer, we had to wait until evening, until the slide cooled off a little.
The second-best thing I remember about Central was Mrs. Dunwody, my teacher in the second grade. She was brunette and beautiful.
-Mike Wayman, Central

I was consumed with jealousy over the fact that Gena Jay had Miss O'Lachlin for her third grade teacher at Alta Vista. According to Gena, Miss O'Lachlin spoke in an Irish brogue, was beautiful, and told wonderful stories about life in Ireland.
I felt very deprived because I had Miss Jackson at Travis. Never mind that Miss Jackson held us on her lap, taught us to pray daily, told us that Coca Cola would rot our stomachs, allowed us to push our desks next to our best friend's, let us bring bottles of water with us to class, and read to us daily from politically incorrect books like "Billy and the Major." She also shared the view that Vonnie Looper's golden curls worn in the style of Goldilocks was just the best thing ever. She let Vonnie explain to the class that her mother rolled up her hair with rags.
-Nancy Shoemaker, Travis and Bowie

When school started in the fall of 1951 I was enrolled in Crockett Elementary school, another new school along with Bowie and Fannin and a year or two later Bonham in Elmwood West. My home on Grove was just two houses south of South 8th St. My neighbors on the other side of 8th went to Fair Park. That third grade year was one of many new friends and experiences. Friends, Jack Harrison, Frank Teagarden, Nell Ann Walter, Pat Wright all of us in Mrs. Armstrong’s class. Others joined us there over the next three years, Don Rogers, Jerry Don Griffith, Jerry Paris and others I can’t recall.
- Larry Scott, College Heights, Crockett and Fannin

Jackie Harrison somehow made a crow into a semi-pet. It would sit on your arm and we could feed it bread. The crow got to be a regular visitor at our house also. Does anyone not remember having a Horned Toad in a shoe box. Remember Easter and getting new shoes at Thornton’s department store. We got two colored chickens with the shoes one year. Being original we named them hunt and peck. Not sure what happened to them but we had an extra chicken dinner a couple of times that year.
- Dennis Pope, Alta Vista and Crockett

A Jeanette Street neighbor was in the produce business and knew that this new kid needed a distraction. So, he offered me a python snake that had taken a ride in on a fresh stalk of bananas from South America. Wow! My summer just got interesting and having a snake attracted lots of new neighbor’s interest along with guys my age from several blocks around. Buddies at last! My sister and I had started a little bi-weekly neighborhood newspaper so we could get to know people. So with great fanfare we announced the arrival of the feared python snake in our newspaper. What got the neighbors really upset was the headline several months later telling of its escape!
- Dale Thorp, Wylie

And the lions at Fair Park Zoo! My brother and I were certain that if they ever escaped they'd head straight for our back door on Peach St., and when our parents left us alone for an evening to go dancing at the Petroleum Club, we'd barricade the back door and stand watch with butcher knives and our BB guns. Just when we'd get settled down, one of those lions would roar, and we'd have to go back into our terrified alert mode. Those lions could really roar, and they did it every evening. We could have been in the Serengeti. That still amazes me when I think about it. It made my neighborhood almost as romantic as the African plains, and I always thought those lions might have been part of the reason that Johnny Gerhart ended up spending most of his life in Africa. They had a powerful subconscious effect, and Johnny lived even closer to Fair Park than I did.
-Mike Boren, Alta Vista

Much has been reported about how loud the lions could roar at the Abilene Zoo. We could hear the lions from the Abilene Zoo (when the breeze was out of the south) but it was always a little confusing because that sound was very similar to the sound my Dad made when I hadn't cut the lawn just right.
- John Marshall, Valley View

My grandparents lived 2 blocks from the zoo. When I would spend the night with them, several of my cousins would stay too and we slept in the living room on a pallet. My grandmother would leave the doors open so the breeze would flow through the house. I don't think a one of us slept a wink, the lions would really roar. We slept pretty close to each other. We were not afraid to walk over to the zoo in the daytime and went there often.
Edna Cole, Bowie

I too remember the sound of train whistles, Fair Park lions roaring, and some kind of horn blown at the State School to mark the time which I could hear from my house on Chestnut.
- Nancy Shoemaker, Travis and Bowie

The zoo and the animals was also a place to visit regularly. I remember the Lions roar as have others. Windows were open at night and all kinds of sounds were present to go to sleep to. Never will forget the chimpanzee that people gave cigarettes to and he would smoke them. Between my house and the zoo was an old horse race track. Jackie had a flying saucer model with some kind of engines that we lit and the silly thing flew so far out into that old race track we never did find it. The track wasn’t there long as it was torn down just as it was becoming a great fort of the old west.
- Dennis Pope, Alta Vista and Crockett

The summer of 1952 ended and the new house out on Buffalo Gap road was ready. Yikes, another move to a new home… plus I learned that I would be riding a bus to a school called Wylie, since we now lived “out in the country.”
Actually, Wylie was a great place to make friends. The bus ride collected everyone who lived nearby so it was not long before there were lots of guys to go shooting our b-b guns with or fishing for catfish in local stock tanks. Many of the nearby families had cattle and horses, so I took a liking to both. Before long my father decided that he wanted a horse hobby. Quarter horses became his passion and I quickly became his full time barn boy...rising for chores early each morning with the radio alarm set for “On the Farm” with Harry Holt! We started out with a cutting horse that was too much for any of us to ride without praying for our life, so after a trade or two we had several great horses.
- Dale Thorp, Wylie

And what about the DDT trucks? They used to spray the alleys regularly, and we loved riding our bikes down the alley behind them at breakneck speed, riding in the white cloud of spray and crashing into trash cans and each other. My mother was furious at me for doing it, but I loved the smell of DDT in the morning. It reminded me of.......victory.
- Mike Boren, Alta Vista

At 417 Poplar St., you could hear things coming. Trains, thunderstorms, the Popsicle cart, the DDT truck. I could make out the distinctive whiny sound of the pump motor on the DDT truck, in plenty of time to get into the back yard and see the white cloud rising out of the trees a block away. It was as if they ran this thing just for us kids.
- Mike Wayman, Central

My mother's family were all Baptists but Mother said as a child she would look out her window every once and a while and Parson Gerhart would be standing in the middle of my grandmother's rose garden with garden shears cutting my grandmother's roses to take to someone sick in the hospital. When my sister was involved in a serious automobile accident in college and had to be hospitalized in Hendricks for weeks, she always had a roomful of floral arrangements. The Parson would arrive on the scene every few days and ask Elaine which arrangement she could do without because he had just discovered one patient who was very sad and had no flowers, and he would be more than happy to take one of hers to them for her.
- Nell Anne Walter, Lamar, Fair Park, Crockett and Bonham

One of the biggest treats that I think of often was getting to go with Parson Gerhart, Johnny, and Harry to Mrs. Brown's boarding house for lunch. If there was ever a better spread laid out on a table, I would like to partake of it. I can still see Parson paying the lady (probably Mrs Brown) as we went into the dining room. She sat at a small table and would put the money in a cigar box. After lunch the diners would take their plates and glasses to the kitchen after they were done eating. A different time that becomes more valuable as the years accumulate.
- Eddie Krieger, Alta Vista

Parson Gerhart was a devout Episcopalian but he was totally devoted to ALL the faithful. There were only three families in Abilene who belonged to the Greek Orthodox church, and they all ended up at the small Heavenly Rest church. He was such a scholar that he loved the Old Testament and made friends with the Jewish families in town. I remember him saying that one of his greatest thrills was when the First Baptist Church's minister had an emergency, and he called The Parson to see if he would mind preaching at the service. Of course, he said yes, because he said he could hardly imagine getting to preach in front of so many people!
- Nell Anne Walter

I can't remember when I didn't know John Gerhart. Until we moved the first time that I can remember we lived just three houses down Highland Street from the Gerharts. How lucky I was to be a part of that great neighborhood. John was known as Little John in those days to keep from being confused with Johnny Garner who lived between us. We had great fun in those early years: climbing trees and playing Tarzan, playing "kick-the-can" till well after dark with the Gerharts’ front yard usually being home base, having a foot race at least every week or so down the street because I was determined to out run Johnny --never did--, wrestling in Johnny’s front room with his Mom, Eleanor, watching from her arm chair as I was always having to yell "calf-rope" when Johnny put his deadly scissor hold around my middle--I never won one of those wrestling matches either.
- Eddie Krieger

Eddie's memory of the Boarding House is a favorite memory because after Confirmation Classes, the Parson would always take all the class to lunch there. To this day I don't remember a thing I learned in Confirmation Classes, but I'll never forget all the fun we had at lunch afterwards.
- Nell Anne Walter

I attended church with several members of the class of '61 during the 1950's. In Sunday School, it was always a challenge for the teacher. There was a lot of poking, hitting and talking. I remember one poor guy who, after totally losing control, would resort to "let us pray." This ended the noise for a short time.
- John Marshall, Valley View

My mother’s parents were the other two special people in my developmental years: George and Ethel Morris (Po Po and Mo Mo). Their home was a weekend retreat and a special place because of its location, being as close to the heart of downtown Abilene as a residence could be. They lived a half block from the Paramount Theatre, next to the Wooten Hotel. In the next block south on Cypress was the Majestic Theatre, across from Grissom’s Department Store. On the corner was the Queen Theatre and one block over on Pine was the Texas Theatre across the street from the other main department store, Minters.
-John Odam, Valley View

My Aunt and Uncle were Oliver and Cleo Howard and I was very close to them, they were like my second parents and I spent a lot of time with them. My Uncle would take me to school sometimes and I was so proud to arrive in style in his white Chrysler. He was the Mayor of Abilene for a while.
- Edna Cole, Bowie

My Dad had a generous heart. He charged family's groceries until pay day and at times even beyond pay day. Families had needs and Dad would make sure the children had food regardless of the paycheck and how it was being spent - perhaps on booze which had to be "bootlegged." I have a vivid memory of a new "extended" family that had moved into our neighborhood. Looking back now I believe she had 5 children and he had 4, both by previous marriages. The couple had met Dad and he agreed to charge the groceries. However, when a 5 year old with golden curls and probably a hand-me-down dress came into the store and picked up 2 rolls of toilet tissue, walked up to the counter without any sign of money, Dad asked, "who is the for?" The reply, as only an innocent child could respond, "all of us." This brought a moment of laughter and years later a smile to my face as I can hear my Dad chuckling at the expression.
- Genevieve Hitt, Valley View and Central

My Dad and Granddad had a deal with Foremost Dairies where Foremost would paint signs for specials on the windows once a month or so and their products would be used in making the specials. My least favorite was the 19 cent banana split special. The special was made with a banana, two dips of ice cream, two toppings, and whipped cream and cherry. I’d like to have one right now. And, to add insult to injury; after the special was over, I’d get to wash the tempra paint off the store windows. Dad was building my character I guess.
Another job Dad gave me was making deliveries on my bicycle. Yes, we delivered.
What a deal! I got 10 cents a delivery. Sometimes I’d take stuff from our store on Barrow clear across Sayles to the South Jr. area. It took me years to figure out what was going on. For a meager 10 cents Dad was getting me out of his hair and keeping me busy for at least an hour and he always had a backup for the real delivery man.
- Eddie Krieger, Alta Vista and Crockett

My parents somehow managed to keep from me the fact that we were poor. Didn’t everyone get those great tasting beans slow cooked in the crock pot? I just knew that my dad was a fireman studying to be an accountant in night school, and that he had won some medals in the war. Years later I would learn about the bravery he wouldn’t talk about, and the sniper’s bullet that wounded him.
Dad once fought a lumber yard fire that went on for days. It must have been exhausting and harrowing, but what I remember was visiting the fire site where wives of the fireman had set up a food station. They had bologna sandwiches on white bread with miracle whip. A mom offered me one. I’d never had one before. I thought I’d died and gone to heaven.
- Buzzy McDonald, Crockett

Jerl and I took piano lessons at Miss Lasley’s Little District School of Music. Miss Nancy Craig Lasley lived in a beautiful white house in the second block of Grape. I’m sure this was an effort by my mother to try and get me cultured and instill some discipline in me. No matter how much Miss Lasley would get on me to practice, practice, practice, I seemed to always find other fun things to do other than stay cooped up in the house pounding away at our stand-up piano.
My piano lessons took place at an obscene time of day: 7:15 in the morning two or three times a week. I would ride my bicycle the nine blocks or so south. In bad weather my dad would pack my bike in the trunk of his 1949 green Chevrolet and take me on the way to work. As instructed, I would ring the front door bell three times to alert Miss Lasley I was there. I would go in and fire up the space heater, warm my hands and start playing. Soon she would enter from another part of the house and clap her hands to the rhythm of the piece. It was all classical music by the masters. All of the music books had yellow covers. I would labor through the lesson for thirty minutes or so before hitting the road on my bike to make it to school on time for Safety Patrol.
Wednesday afternoons was the time for more class in the building in the yard behind her house. There were many pianos there and we would play through chords and learn the circle of keys. That is where I first met kids, mainly girls, from the south side of town. Molly Caldwell and Linda Wright, among them. Later we would graduate to criticism class. We would have to perform pieces to the satisfaction of Miss Lasley and more “senior” students before we could move to the back row. After every one had performed, we would have hot cider and cookies for refreshments before our parents would pick us up. It was about the only time we were able to stay out on a school night.
- John Odam, Valley View

Eddie Krieger and I were forced to take "speech lessons" at Caroline Blair's house on Sayles Blvd. I am not sure what our mothers were thinking and I only remember that I got to wear an evening dress at the recital and that Eddie was pretty miserable about the whole thing.
- Nancy Shoemaker, Travis and Bowie

My very best friend (since the third grade), Peggy Cook, lived just across Catclaw Creek from me. There was a small wooden bridge that was safe to use if it had not been raining a lot, and the creek flooded. We met there a lot, when it was too late to go to one of our homes to visit. Jackie Henson lived on her side of the bridge. Peggy and I would work for weeks before the West Texas Fair and Rodeo to get matching clothes to wear. It always rained during the fair, but we didn’t care, we really just wanted to see who was there and if they looked as good as we did! I think our best outfit was the khaki and black one, but one of the rides was too much for Peggy and we had to leave early because she wet her pants. Ah, such memories.
- Ann Coppedge, Fannin

The family joined the “Range Riders” where there were weekend rodeos and quarter horse shows at the association grounds located somewhere off Treadaway Blvd. or the Winters highway. By now I had a Palomino horse named Pinky, learned to ride barrels and to do a little roping. There were other events too, like catching greased pigs! Believe it or not that event was my first memory of meeting Jimmy “Bubba” Partin! However, the big deal about living in the country was that after school and on weekends (after chores and homework were done), friends and I would be off for hours on end exploring Elm Creek or Lytle Lake or just me riding Pinky with my dog Bingo following close behind. Even Charlie, the white rock barn rooster, often tried to join us. We went everywhere… and the only caution I remember getting from my folks was to be sure to close any gates I opened to ride on others property! Freedom! No Fear!
- Dale Thorp, Wylie

The guest list at my third grade birthday party included Gena and Janice Jay, Jarry and Billy Tiffany, Nell Anne and Elaine Walter, Linda Wright, and probably Carol Kerfoot and Eddie Krieger. I do remember the birthday parties. There were no cakes from Krogers or mothers in capri pants. The mothers wore dresses and heels to these occasions and only the fancier parties had sugar spun flowers on the cake. The social event of the year was Barbara Brooks' party. She had every toy known to the time and we all found ourselves playing with them in the social pecking order that was ours.
- Nancy Shoemaker, Travis and Bowie

I had never ever had a “friend” birthday party before, so I was very excited. The birthdays before were with aunts and uncles and my two brothers and parents. They were fun, but having friends over to sit around the dining room table and sing happy birthday to you, well it just doesn't get better than that. Sharon Johnson, her younger sister Katy,Johnnie Whitaker and her older sister lived across the street. Kay Altman and Bob Durham lived on Chestnut around the corner. Nancy Shoemaker on Chestnut and Alice Fisher on Oak came with Holley Purcell. They were all among the guests. I felt so proud to have a “friend” birthday party. Thirty minutes after everyone had gone home, I lookedinto the china cabinet and saw the little bubble-gum baseball bats that were to be the favors. "We forgot the favors," I cried to my mother. "Who has a party without favors." I was just horrified for my mistake.
- Karen Lusby, Travis

Don Connelly lived across the street for awhile. He and I got in trouble once for putting sand in my dad's gas tank. Dub Galbraith lived right behind me across the alley. He was usually in more trouble than I was. Dub often challenged me to race him to school at Bowie. For a long time I was faster and would win. He was so happy on the day he finally beat me. We used to trade funny books. Mother would get annoyed because I would have really nice books with the covers intact and his were kind of beat-up looking. It didn't really matter to me because I hadn't read his. Sometimes I got to go in his back yard and play touch football. He had enough brothers and sisters (Gervis, Julia, Deborah and Candy) that with a few other kids we had enough to play. Dub would come and swing on the big swing set Daddy had made for me. Once when we were swinging he accidentally kicked one of my cats real hard and hurt it so bad that Daddy had to put it out of its misery with a hammer.
- Holley Purcell, Bowie

I remember riding my bike to Alta Vista when I became a 6th grader and thinking what a long, hard trip it was. In reality it was only about 10 blocks. But, to an 11 year old, it was miles!! I remember that Bob Cluck and I were patrol boys on the corner of Sayles and 11th St (crossing guards would be the term used today I believe). Cluck was a Captain and I was just a lowly patrolman, so he bossed me around a lot.
- Jerry Fitzhugh, Alta Vista

When I was on Safety Patrol, Abilene High was still in the old building, directly behind Central. I always got stationed at the street crossing at S. 2nd and Peach, right by the old Eagle Gym, and all the high school boys crossing the street there would thump me on top of my white helmet and comment on my bravado. Worse than that, the high school girls would laugh.
- Mike Wayman, Central

Safety Patrol was one of the first big deals I was able to participate in. We got to wear white helmets and white belts, which held a big badge. This made us feel very important. I “made lieutenant,” after some period of time with duty on my own corner. This meant I got to check the “patrol boys” at two corners on Merchant. I was never promoted to captain, to have responsibility for all four … that remained outside my pay grade.
The good thing about this experience was that I had the corner of North 10th and Merchant and Cheryl Little had to approach the school from that direction. That meant that I got to see her at least once or twice a day and no doubt it was there that she first came to my attention.
- John Odam, Valley View

Who else was a safety patrol crossing guard? Wearing that white belt with the badge was just like being King Kong.
- Dennis Pope, Alta Vista and Crockett

How I wound up in the bushes at Cobb Park with Genevieve Hitt escapes my memory. We were in fifth grade, and going to Cobb Park had something to do with school, a field trip, a picnic. We snuck off into a big clump of bushes where nobody could see us, and we kissed. Genevieve was blonde and fair, and the first girl I ever kissed, there in the Cobb Park bushes. I will never forget that.
- Mike Wayman, Central

First love, first kiss, oh, what a moment of bliss. It was the 6th grade football picnic where we took our trip into the bushes, and, oh, how my stomach did a flip with that kiss! We were going steady in the 6th grade which included his silver ring with turqoise setting worn every day around my neck. It was really great when rainy days or cold weather found us square dancing on the wooden floors of Central Elementary. I remember his beautiful mother, I've never forgotten her name, June, picking me up in a dream car by today standards, a '54 Olds hardtop. There we were riding in the backseat as boyfriend/girlfriend..... Oh, my goodness, such innocent memories of the '50's.
- Genevieve Hitt, Valley View and Central

One of my fondest memories is showing up at the Metro Theater on Saturday afternoon in a new pink shirt with the collar turned up hipster style, black pants with a narrow blue suede belt and blue suede shoes (honest, I had a pair). I was in the fifth grade and in the process of discovering girls, and I sat down next to Gena Jay. Karen Haynes, later to be my first love, was on the other side of me, and during the Movietone News, she whispered to me, "She'll have stars in her eyes for a week if you put your arm around her!" It took me fifteen minutes to work up the courage, but when I did, the effect on me was dramatic. Gena and I never became an item, and I have no idea if she ever had a single star in either eye, but I was hooked on romance forever that afternoon.
- Mike Boren, Alta Vista

The all important third grade changed my life forever. Gena Jay and I became best friends even though she attended Alta Vista. We spent every Friday night at one house or the other. She lived on Sayles Blvd. and we were allowed to play on the boulevards. The most memorable game for me was one in which we kissed the lampposts on Sayles. We were practicing in case we ever had the opportunity to kiss a real person. (We did and I'm sure we were well prepared.) - Nancy Shoemaker, Travis and Bowie

Kirby and I could mow two lawns on Saturday morning with his dad’s new gasoline-powered lawnmower (the only one within miles). Kirby and I had a pretty girlfriend by the name of Sue Proffitt. Sue lived up the road from us near a good crawdad hole on Catclaw Creek. Our first date with Sue was to the Paramount Theater. Her mom drove us there and we split the cost 60-40 (the mower belonged to Kirby’s dad).
After three or seven months, Sue fell in love with some other guys. We were heartbroken for 13 or six minutes. Kirby took up with someone close to his house. He hated to walk. I went five crawdad holes up Catclaw Creek to Ambler Ave. to the home of “the triplets:” Janice, Joyce and Carl Berry. Joyce and Janice were hard to tell apart. Janice was my girlfriend and she was the first girl I ever kissed. I think it was Janice, it was so dark down there in that cellar.
- Jerry Grider, Fannin

Cheryl had beautiful brown hair and a charming smile. I would say she was proper and reserved, rather than call her shy. I eventually got up the nerve to ask her to “trade discs” with me and we began to go steady. Mother would take us to the “picture show” on Saturday afternoons. I would splurge and send 25 cents and take her to the Paramount. We would walk home afterwards and sometimes I got up the nerve to hold her hand. Even getting her to the movie was a major accomplishment. I would call her house and if her parents or brother would answer…. I would hang up. Either I didn’t know what to say or else I was afraid they wouldn’t let me talk to her.
- John Odam, Valley View

My family went to a church near our neighborhood which will remain nameless to protect the innocent. My favorite memory there was the pastor’s wife. It seemed to me that they had a multitude of children, and I suppose by the time she got all of them ready for church, she must have been exhausted. Each Sunday we would all watch her sleep in the choir loft, during the entire service, singing and all. Bless her heart, she got them all there, though.
- Ann Coppedge, Fannin

All the kids were scattered out, we just saw each other at school. No free lunch programs but the school fed the children that really needed the meals, after they were old enough they helped serve in the cafeteria. At Wylie they lined us up once a year for vaccinations.That was quite an ordeal, lots of squalling and bawling (the polio scare among other reasons I guess).
- Richard Crowell, Wylie

The VFW Clubhouse was a stately white home with a white iron fence, which we walked the iron pipes when the sidewalk was too hot-before flip-flops.. Pat Clayton class of '61 was a playmate that would swim with me. The pool was on west of the clubhouse. It had a "tadpole" pool out front and then the larger pool was really "huge" in the mind of a child. I would think it was 50 feet across and maybe 100 ft. long? with a high diving board and also lower one. Dr. Lindley's Animal Clinic, a rock building, joined the west side and sat on Cat Claw Creek Bank, with that being the end of N. 1st -a gravel road. There was a large grey house where Stuart Lindley (class '58?) lived with his parents and they made Lindley Sandwiches and delivered to various stores, Dad's included.
- Genevieve Hitt, Valley View and Central

Many of my fondest memories have to do with being raised in that drug store on Butternut. Of course, having a terrific grandfather had a lot to do with those memories. He opened the store in 1943 about four months after I was born and from that time on I spent a lot of time there until he and my father opened the store in Southwest Park Shopping Center at the corner of South 14th and Barrow. The soda fountain in drug stores was a gathering place for business men and other workers before work or during breaks as well as for families out refreshment or a treat. I remember my grandfather drinking coffee with his customers and the many drug salesmen that would come in the store. He would always order a half-cup of coffee.
My grandmother baked the big Gooch hams from which they made ham sandwiches at the fountain. She also made the pimiento cheese and the ham salad for the store. I remember the smell that came from her kitchen as that ham was cooking. A ham sandwich can’t be found as good as those were, especially when combined with a bag of Fritos and a Coke. That would cost fifty cents give or take a nickel.
- Eddie Krieger, Alta Vista and Crockett

I remember when margarine had an orange circle at the top of the container and you had to mix it with the contents. I remember when milk was delivered to our homes and thick cream was at the top of the bottles. I remember the Banner Company on the corner that turned from South 14th street to Belmont Blvd. At one point blocks of ice could be bought on that site, but I think it was before Banner took over the corner.
- Nancy Shoemaker, Travis and Bowie

The milk was delivered to the house every other day. Left the bottles on the porch at night and next morning it magically appeared. I will bet everyone in the class made it to Mrs. Baird’s bakery at Christmas, freezing your back side off, waiting to go through the bakery and getting that little loaf of bread they gave everyone. That brings me back to Thornton’s department store and their windows at Christmas time with all of the animation.
- Dennis Pope, Alta Vista and Crockett

Next to the presents, viewing the Thornton's Christmas display window was the most important thing about December in my childhood. We had a Christmas ritual in which we squeezed grandparents, parents, the whole family into the car to see Thornton's display. It seemed magical at the time. (Now it just seems magical that we could all fit into one car!) Thornton's began to build the display right after Thanksgiving. They built suspense by putting up a curtain to cover that corner window as they worked. Crowds gathered just to look at the curtain. Everyone was hoping to be the first to see the wonderful scene.
The display most prominent in my memory is that of a large, beautifully dressed Santa in a lovely Christmas setting of tree, fireplace, and stocking-hanging elves . They were all moving to the sound of very loud Santa laughter. We were not used to seeing windows
with moving parts, much less ones that laughed raucously. "Ho, Ho, Ho" could be heard for blocks and disturbed neighbors as far away as Amarillo Street. After many phone calls complaining of mysterious laughter, Thornton’s quieted Santa's joy a little. This slight adjustment did not dampen the enthusiasm of the crowds. Five years after the event, my little sister was still insisting that Santa's true name was "OH HO HO," and that perception continues to be a family joke to this day.
- Nancy Shoemaker, Travis and Bowie

What I remember most about growing up on Bickley St. in Abilene, Texas was innocence and hopefulness. Radio was our entertainment medium, but it wasn’t as big as playing outside with my brother and neighbors like Ronnie Harter, a host of younger kids, and sometimes Diane Haddox from up the street. Our whole block softball games gave some kids six strikes because they couldn’t really swing the bat. Laughter and fun were the real goals.
- Buzzy McDonald, Crockett

Probably no one except me remembers the two vicious street gangs that ruled the "turf" on Peach and Jeanette streets and the other turf on Meander and Amarillo between S11 th and S14th street one summer. I don't remember which one I belonged to, but we called ourselves the Dogs and the Fish. I think I was probably a Dog. At least I hope so. Fish don't promote much fear among their enemies. That particular gang war went on for probably.......two weeks. We rode our bicycles into enemy turf regularly, and us Dogs had a plan had we ever actually captured a Fish. We were going to take them into the vacant lot in front of Eddie Baldwin's house on Jeanette St. and stake them out on a red ant mound like little Apaches. I don't think anyone ever got caught, and the appeal of gang warfare in our hood soon abated, especially after the leader of the Fish, a wildly precocious kid named Leslie King, moved away. We moved on to better things, like toy soldier forts and clod fights.
- Mike Boren, Alta Vista

The boys participated in sports in school and during the summer played Little League Baseball. The Key City and Dixie Leagues held sway on the south side of town. I was in the Key City League. The two leagues shared a park off South Treadaway behind Mrs. Baird’s Bakery. During these summer games we got to meet folks from other schools. Jerry Fitzhugh and I played for the Gooch Packing Company team the first year I played. The next year the team sponsor became McIlwain Ford. We were called the Crestliners, after a new model of Ford. We learned sportsmanship, some times the hard way. We won a lot of games over the years, but we always had a tough time with the Dividends team, led by Billy Monk and Gerald Williamson.
- Larry Scott, College Heights and Crockett

I think back about how I spent my summers during this time. Little League baseball was at the top of the list. I played in the Key City Little League for the McIlwain Ford Thunderbirds from age 8 to 12. Summer mornings found me headed to the Fair Park recreation center for games of pool, ping pong, darts, dodge ball, etc. I would normally be accompanied by Jackie Harrison who lived on South 11th and Barrow Streets (actually one house off Barrow, I believe). Weekends were consumed by baseball games, trips to Abilene State Park and the freezing waters of its swimming pool and the special trips to the swimming hole in Cisco below the big dam.
- Jerry Fitzhugh, Alta Vista

I loved the promise of a Saturday morning spent in a darkened theater, enjoying Junior Mints, Candy Cigarettes, popcorn, and a coke while watching a new Western or war movie, a serial like Superman, and cartoons, like Tom and Jerry, Droopy, Bugs Bunny, and Daffy Duck! No special computer graphics for these movies and cartoons! Afterwards, I never got used to coming out of the movies into that bright West Texas sunshine!
Since we lived on the south side of Abilene on Oak Street, the Metro Theater, located on Butternut and maybe 10 blocks away from my home, was my “cultural” Mecca where I was entertained, educated, and informed about the bigger world. (Remember the News Reels?)
One of the funniest moments I remember in the Metro came during a movie about an Egyptian princess who lived very lavishly in her court and dressed (for the 1950s) very revealingly. It was a tense, dramatic moment: her court advisor had just told her army had lost the battle with the invading Roman army, and now the country was to surrender to the victors. After a dramatic pause, the Princess, racked with emotional duress and concerned about the future, asked: “But who will cook for me? Who will bathe and dress me?” while gesturing to her handmaidens. It was deathly quiet until a young, male voice from the audience yelled out: “I will! I will!” No one could hear the movie for the next 5 minutes because of the audience’s laughter!
- Hilmer Swenson, Travis

In the summertime you never stayed in the house, too much to do outside. The only in house entertainment was a radio, which sat on top of the refrigerator, and Saturday mornings you could listen to “Big John and Sparky.” The best thing of all for me was being in the Knot Hole Gang and going to the baseball games for the Abilene Blue Sox. I even got to be bat boy for a couple of games for the visitors. At one game my cousin from Amarillo was visiting and we were bat boys for the Amarillo team. They gave us all of their broken bats, and a glove. We spent the next day nailing the bats back together to hit rocks with out in the parking lot of the football stadium. Many a home run went over the rock fence of the stadium.
- Dennis Pope, Alta Vista and Crockett

Remember when Abilene had a professional baseball team called the Blue Sox? When a player would hit a home run, people would push dollar bills through the backstop screen and the player would go around and collect them. The Blue Sox had a player/manager named Mac Phaduneack (Fa-du-ne-ack). When a hit was needed at a critical time in the game, the fans would chant "we want Mac, we want Mac."
- John Marshall, Valley View

When living in San Angelo, I had been a Cub Scout and earned all three levels of achievement (Wolf, Bear and Lion) along with numerous arrowheads. Well, through Aldersgate Methodist Church I learned about Boy Scouts and Troop 72. Now this was a place to meet up with great guys! It was with Richard Crowell, Bill Autry, Tony and Bill Bell, Bill Lebus, Truett Austin, Johnny Gerhart and many others that I learned of Camp Tonkawa, explored for flint arrowheads on the cap rocks around Buffalo Gap, camped out (making sure to trench around the tent just in case it rains) and built survival skills like cooking with a cast iron Dutch oven over a campfire made without matches.
- Dale Thorp, Wylie

Our big treat was the ice cream man, and his music calling to us like the Pied Piper. He could temporarily break up any game. Sometimes we would get to buy something. It was intermittent reinforcement for being mostly good. We didn’t have any stores in our Crockett Elementary School neighborhood, but we had parents that would let us all come play, build forts, play tag, Simon says, Monopoly, checkers, or even games we would make up. Chiggers didn’t matter. It was a time of innocence, warm summer sun, occasional trips to the VFW swimming pool, camping outside, seeing the flood down our street as a chance to play instead of a threat, and politics was wearing a button just as if we had picked a favorite team. We were naïve to the knowledge that the shoe store X-Ray machine was harmful.
- Buzzy McDonald, Crockett

We would walk over to the Metro for Sat. shows and as I recall I could see the movie, buy a pickle and pop corn for a quarter. The two old maid owners would come through with their flashlights and whap us on our knees if we had them on the back or the seats in front of us or if a boy had his arm around a girl they would take care of that too. I was always jealous of Linda Simmons - was sure she looked like Elizabeth Taylor.
- Barb ara Stevenson, Bowie

I do remember living close enough to walk to the Metro Movie Theatre where I watched movie marathons every Saturday for twelve cents. You had to pay twelve cents instead of nine when you turned eleven years old.
- Nancy Shoemaker, Travis and Bowie

There was a grocery store on South 11th with wood floors. This was a favorite spot for the smells and being able to sell the soft drink bottles we had gathered up from everywhere to sell for two cents apiece for bubble gum with baseball cards and hopefully enough extra for a movie at the Metro Theatre. As I recall my first movie was only 10 cents. You used some of the baseball cards to attach to the fork of your bicycle with a clothes pin as an engine noise maker.
- Dennis Pope, Alta Vista and Crockett

The most memorable bicycle adventure was shortly after I got my bike. I decided to go see Popie, my grandfather, at the drugstore on Butternut. I have no idea how long it took me to get there from Highland but I’m sure it was awhile because I couldn’t have been more than six or seven. It didn’t take me nearly as long to get home as it did to get to the store. I arrived at Popie’s store thinking I was about the smartest little son of a buck that ever lived. In I walked knowing that Popie would be so surprised to see me and so proud of me for coming to see him. He was surprised all right but not in a good way. He grabbed me up and took me to the pharmacy and called Mom and my grandmother, Nana. Seems like they had been looking for me for some time and had no idea where I was. Well, they found me and it wasn’t a real happy experience. In a matter of minutes I was in the car, the bicycle was in the trunk and I was on my way home. Popie, who was my best friend, didn’t even invite me to have a coke.
- Eddie Krieger, Alta Vista and Crockett

Many hours from ages 5 to 12 were spent near the radio. There were kid shows like the Lone Ranger and Space Cadets that were great. Listening to the action on the radio, you had to paint your own universe. In your mind, I could see the Space Cadets finding a source of rocket fuel on the surface of Uranus to escape back to earth. I could see Silver and Scout with their riders, Lone Ranger and Tonto, thundering across the plains even to Fort Phantom Hill. And late in the evenings, the Shadow knew what evil lurked in the hearts of man! And don’t forget the Inner Sanctum, either! It was really scary in a darkened room! It would, to use a modern term, “creep me out”! And that creaking door they used to open and close the program would send chills down my spine and pop out those goose bumps!
- Hilmer Swenson, Travis

Carol Ann Little lived 3 houses down across the alley. Her parents owned the wrestling arena in Abilene. Sometimes I would go over to her house and help her fold, address, and stamp the wrestling circulars they sent to their regular customers. They had a little travel trailer in the back, and sometimes we spent the night in it.
- Holley Purcell, Bowie

Sometimes in the summer it got so hot you couldn’t play outside because the sidewalks were too hot to walk on barefoot. I loved it when a thunderstorm would come up on a hot day like that. Everything totally still and hot on the glider on the front porch, and the cicadas singing in the trees, making the only noise in the world. Then in the northwest I could see a little rim of cloud, and it grew higher and darker as it got closer, and then the thunder started, faint at first but enough to shut up the cidacas, or “locusts,” as we called them. Then the rain would hit. Down at the corner there was a dip in the street, to channel runoff. As soon as the dip was full of rain, I’d run down there and wade. At the bottom, the rainwater was warm from the hot pavement, but up at my shins, it was cold.
- Mike Wayman, Central