Wow! Some days I think I have dementia. I can't remember things. I think that happens to all of us, because the world moves at such a fast pace (in a New York Minute) and we all have "stuff" on our plates in our homelife plus medical conditions can weaken one's ability to completely recall things. Today I thought I might see how much I can remember about kidlife in Greenview. So.... I thought I might do a bit of strolling down an old time Greenview Memory Lane today.
When you were a youngster, how do you remember your morning progressing? I remember my dad getting up at about 5 or 5:30am in order to hear the farm reports each morning. The house was noisy because the radio came on and it was "squawcky" as I used to call it.....static on some stations. So with the noise, I couldn't sleep so I got up early too. Sometimes my dad listened to the farm reports on a local radio station, but most of the time he listened to WLS and sometimes WGN. The broadcaster would tell all the listeners the current market cash prices for beef and pork per hundred weight at Chicago and St. Louis markets and then give an analysis and give their opinions regarding when to take your stock to market. Then reports were given on grain prices. In the fall, my dad used these reports to determine when he was going to harvest his crops.....in order to get the best price per bushel. All of this would take at least an hour and a half of listening to that squawcky radio. Sometimes my dad liked listening to the Chicago traffic helicopter reports on WGN...I think he liked this because helicopters were such an oddity to us country folks. At this time we still ran out into the yard to watch an airplane go over our heads.
In the evenings it was a treat to listen to WLS and the Grand Ole Opera and shows like Groucho Marx and he always listened to the Indianapolis Race on radio. Radio was a way of life at our house....and our black and white television was typically viewed by us kids.....Captain Jinks, Salty Sam, Pegwill Pete, My Friend Flicka, Sky King, Ozzie and Harriet, Father Knows Best, Lassie, Leave it to Beaver, Little Rascals, The Lone Ranger, Ted Mack Amateur Hour, The Three Stooges, The Honeymooners, I Love Lucy, The Invisible Man, Ed Sullivan Show, Rin Tin Tin, Sea Hunt, This Is Your Life, Fury, Gunsmoke. These are just some of the shows I faithfully watched.
When my dad was listening to the farm reports in the morning, my mom and later on it was me, would get breakfast. My dad liked to start the day with a full belly so it wasn't a healthy breakfast.....it was bacon, eggs, ham, potatoes, toast, etc. cooked in pork lard which came from Billy Ross Edwards' butchering place.
After breakfast, the kids would start to get ready for school and my dad put on his overalls and long sleeve shirt and his cap and left for the day. Us kids didn't take our lunch so we only had to put on our clothes as we always had to take our bath at night because we always got so dirty during the day and weren't allowed to go to bed with "dirty feet".
I remember my dad was the peanut butter fudge maker around our house. He had his own recipe which I sometimes use even in today's world. When he would come in the house after we got out of school, with a sack containing fresh cream and a new jar of peanut butter, we knew he was going to make his famous fudge.
Our days at Greenview Schools were usually quite uneventful. I remember during one Christmas season in maybe 2nd grade (or 4th), a student stole Christmas presents from under the tree. We all knew who did it but the teacher took care of it.
One day Mrs. Tholen got mad at two boys and took them into the big closet in the back of her classroom in the grade school basement - across from the girl's restroom. She broke a paddle over one boy's hiney too.....no names mentioned in case he is reading this.
I remember running through the underground tunnel in the grade school. Past the furnace which made funny noises and then into the gray colored tunnel over to the gym. We were lucky we didn't have to go outside to get to the gym. I remember talking to Mr. Davis (Paul) the custodian as we walked/ran past the furnace area. Of course we had to go outside to get to the lunchroom and the high school kids had to walk from the high school in rain, snow, heat and cold. I loved those lunchroom cooks....and I loved the chili with peanut butter and honey sandwiches (sammwiches as I called them).
I remember the boys in our class acting up at Dixon Mounds and were hanging from the trees....we got kicked out and I think banned from there. LOL And this went on our class' record with the school board too!!!!!!
I remember Mrs. Ingham helping us make plaster of paris and paper mache and taught us how to use newspaper to make the planets of the universe and, then we hung them from the ceiling. She taught me how to remember the nine planets and their position away from the sun by learning the following: "my very eager mother just served us nine pickles" I only had to look at the first letter of each word ....but, of course, I had to make sure I didn't mix up Mars and Mercury but I remembered that by thinking Mercury was what measured the hot sun temperatures and if I couldn't buy a Mars Bar on earth I could go next door to Mars. Back then of course Pluto was considered a planet unlike today. I also remember Mrs. Ingham making some horrible gum drops made with juicy fruit gum and cottage cheese in them....in later years I know that she was a good cook because I had her cookies several times, but some of those concoctions she brought in for us to sample in 6th grade were ICKY! I would say with a lot of conviction, I believe I learned the most from Mrs. Ingham and Miss Flo.
A dear classmate friend, Ken D. just reminded me of the time one of our classmates set off the fire alarm in 1961....the fire trucks came too! He got this from his diaries from years past.....see it is a good thing to document history.
After we got to the high school classrooms, but I think we were still in middle school, a teacher wore her dress wrong side out.
During high school, a teacher was dumb and walked in front of our PE class while playing dodge ball.....and was hit on the head. She later died.....and everyone said it was due to the hit on the head.
I remember the awful Freshman initiation when I had Roger Hinricks as my senior and boy was I a slave... he was mean to me. I had to eat raw green persimmons which pucker you for all day and then large whole onions. I literally got sick to my stomach. Then honey on my head with flour over the top. I remember a very tall person having to ride a tiny tricycle around the gym floor I think for all of the initiation program.....Ken, was that Jody?
Everything I have gone over is a memory. You have your memories and I have mine. This is something that can't be taken from us unless we suffer from a mental incapacity which renders our memory useless. Let's hope none of us have to go through that. This little stroll down Greenview's Memory Lane didn't cost us a penny and it was a nice visit with the past. Something that causes us to smile and remember even more thoughts of the past. Thanks for coming with me on my stroll. There are still lots of memories I have but I'll save them for another day.
Greenview's Old Train
Do you remember the old train which went through Greenview? I received some wonderful information from my friend Ken Dirks.
From the information, the train was operated by Gulf, Mobile and Ohio (GM&O)and went from Bloomington to Jacksonville and went through Greenview two times a day on it's way to Kansas City and back to Bloomington. On the Southbound journey, it left Bloomington at 8:00 and went through Greenview at 9:28. On the return, it went northbound Greenview at 5:02 pm and arrived in Bloomington at 8:00pm. Greenview was 53 miles rail-wise from Bloomington. The train made its last run on April 14, 1960.
A truly funny memory was forwarded to me by Ken Dirks and he gave me permission to pass it on to you. This is his quote: "My dad and my uncle Emp Crawford would tell about catching this train at Curtis, taking it to Bloomington and then changing trains and going on to Chicago to see the 1933 World's Fair. My uncle still had his receipt...I think it was $13 round trip. The highlight of the Fair was seeing the stripper Sally Rand perform her famous "fan dance". What a story.....I'm sure they probably loved to "LQQK" at Miss Sally do her fantastic fan dance!
So that you could see a picture of the old train which went through Greenview, I copied a picture from a site run by R. Leonard. I couldn't find a copy write on this photo.
March 28, 1959 at Bloomington
GM & O train
Both Ken D. and I remember the day our class took a trip from Greenview to Petersburg on the train before it stopped running through our town. We were met by the school bus and then taken to New Salem for a picnic. I remember my mom got to go with us on one of her few outings. I know I have related my story before about seeing a black man walking from the area of the rail yard and this scared me because at that time, we had no black persons in our town. Everyone in town talked about how some black persons were staying in a train car parked in the rail yard in the north part of town. I don't think there was ever any trouble related to this.
Some of you might remember that two of our dear residents, Web and Marie Madison were hit by a train on September 17, 1965. Marie died at the scene and Web died on September 22 from his critical injuries. This must have been a different train than the GM &O. Over the years we had other persons killed by trains east of town on another train line.....Vince Evers was killed by a train and then Bill Beachamp and Donnie Beachamp and Donnie's son were all in the car (Donnie's son was critically injured) with Donnie and Bill killed. Some of you might have known my cousin Bill Winterbauer and his wife Dorothy and their daughter from Middletown who were killed on the north Middletown Blacktop by the train east of town.
The rails and posts of our in-town railroad were removed over the years and grass now grows where a train once ran.....the valley of the tracks still remains in a some areas. The train station was bought by one of our citizens, Karl Downing, who lives in the old stone mansion just immediately south of Greenview. Karl moved it to rest behind the stone house, just east of the high school. He made some repairs to keep it from deteriorating. I know at one time he wanted to completely restore it. What a great thing for him to care enough about Greenview to assure a piece of our history remains.
What's To Eat At Our House Tonight
We are having a Breakfast pizza....homemade style. I buy a pizza mix in a pouch at Walmart and it's their brand...cost is $.44. I make the dough and let it sit for 5 minutes and then spread it in my biggest cookie sheet (mine is huge) which has been spread with a thin layer of olive oil. The crust is thin, but that's what I'm striving for. I bake the dough for about 5-7 minutes at 425 degrees to get it set....not sticky upon touching. Then I take it out and let it stand until I'm ready. I buy country white gravy in a package....the only packages I can find makes two cups so I only use one-half the package with l cup of water. After the white gravy gets thick I spread it on my slightly baked crust. Then I add chopped onion, chopped low sodium ham, chopped smoked turkey sausage (low fat & sodium), canned mushrooms, and top with a bit of mozzarelli cheese and pepper. Bake at 425 until the crust is brown - oven temps vary so be sure to watch carefully. You can use any ingredients you want....but the gravy is good with any kind of ingredients. Yummy!
Thought For The Day
The palest ink is better
than the best memory.
--Chinese Proverb
When you come see the old town, view it with new eyes. There have been changes over the years with the loss of buildings due to fire and the birth of a new Casey's on the highway. If you stop at Casey's and watch the people you probably won't know anyone. We pull up and watch for a few minutes and don't know anyone and we live in rural Greenview. The town population has overturned. It isn't the same by any means....but the town is much like it was. Lazy and down-to-earth, but with some additions of drug problems and theft problems we didn't have before....but still a good town. See you there sometime.
3 comments:
Wonder if that underground tunnel between the old school and the gym is still there, and they simply covered it with dirt? I remember my dad always listened to Spizz Singer give the farm reports on one of the Springfield radio stations...Spizz is a name you can't forget. I also remember when the polio vaccine was first introduced and we all had to stand in line in the grade school gym getting our shots, and hoping that we wouldn't cry I believe that it was Jody who had to ride the trycle at high school initiation.
Ken Dirks
I think that is one of the local stations my dad used to listen to. I also remember him listening to WHOW in Clinton....which carried Uncle Dave Macon. Hmmm...good question on the old underground tunnel.
I should have said....I remember my dad talking about listening to Uncle Dave Macon....I don't remember him...I think he died when I was a real youngin. LOL Carla
Post a Comment