Howard in the 1960's

[Teresa]

There was some young men and women ( from 18-30) talking the other evening about school and how it was when 'they' were in school.
I had to laugh.. because I remember my mom and dad talking about their school days..and I sat with utter amazement about how different it was for them than for me.
So at my time in  high school ..which was in the 60's and early 70's..it was my turn to tell some stories ...
When I started talking and telling them what we used to do, they sat there with the same look of amazement that I have had so many many times. 
We thought we had it soooo bad... but now when I tell about it..compared to what goes on in the schools now.. we had it soooo good!
I remember when we had open noon hours. And we had an hour. We could leave the school and go home or up town or drive around.. or walk around.. That hour was ours to have and spend any way that we wanted. The pool hall was open from 9:00 in the morning to midnight at night...every day except Sunday. Girls back then didn't go into the pool hall.  It wasn't that we couldn't.. but we didn't. Reputation you know..
But all the boys did. And some went on their noon hour to drink a pop and play a game of pitch with the old men who hung in there all day. lol
And we had the Plaza grill and Theatre. Was there anything like Freddy Rhodes hamburgers? And he made the hugest french fries.. and the price usually depended on how many sips of the "devils nectar" that he had that evening..
And what about those great big grape gum balls that he had?
There was a single feature (with 3 cartoons) on Sunday, Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday.. The show changed and then you had a double feature with previews and 2 cartoons on Thursday, Friday and Saturday. Babe Rhodes would set in the booth outside and sell the tickets, and then later haul herself up the stairs to tell us all to shut up or she was going to "kick us all out".
poor old woman.. We just gave her fits.
*sighhhh* Those were such fun memories.

Driving around "dragging main street" .. where there were so many cars in a row that people couldn't even back out of the parking spaces for the whole 2 blocks. That is when Cobb's Food Market, &  West's Grocery store open till 10:00 and Winn's cafe was open until 11:00.  Batson's Drug store was open until 9:00. Waldo Gray was still in his barber shop cutting hair sometimes until 10:00.
Okay.. let me see.. ( and I just got off the phone from my mom.. and she helped jog my memory on the buisness's. )
Starting at the South end of main street on the west side, moving North... to the best of my memory.
(correct me if I am wrong) there was:

Then and ( Now::::in parenthesis)

Barger's Lumber yard,(  Poplar Pizza  )
Hebb's Auto Supply & Ed Heck's Repair Service.(  Lanning's Auto)
Brown's Feed Store ( Tiffiny's Second Hand shop )
Howard City Library ( same)
Poor Jess & Audrey's Furniture ( Daves Grocery was ..now Cookson's Pack Pro )
Cooley's Beauty & Barber Shop (  Country Corner Beauty Shop was .. now Kathy's Tax Service)
Dr Claypool ( Medical Clinic)
Dallas Roberts Shoe Shop and Saddle Repair ( empty)
Howard National Bank

*next block*
Batson's Drug Store ( same)
Waldo Gray's Barber Shop
Mertle's Coffee Shop & Cafe ( Jean Gray's handcraft items)
Western Auto Store  (  Cookson's Hardware ) 
Hebb's Family store (empty)
Winn's Cafe ( C& O Cabinetry)
Cobb's Grocery Store (C& O)
Optometrist (empty)
County Extension Office ( empty)
Government building ( Senior Center)

On the corner was Millard Cox's Service Station ( across the street from the Cox building )
Then Gene Cookson's Electric Shop ( Hud Houses)

( across the street from that was:)
Doc Buchele's office ( back part of the old empty bank on the corner)
Kennedy's Gas & service station ( Nungessor's building)

*Around the corner (east) moving to the south..:*
Original Howard National Bank ( same but empty)
American Legion ( 2nd Hand Store)
Vicks Western Clothing and Shoe Store (gone)
West's Food Market (gone)
Grayson's Five and Dime (  ASCS office.)
Perkins Hardware ( empty)
Lynn Perkins ( same)
Slim Gray's apartment ( Flint Hills Church)
PCA ( same)

First National Bank  ( same)
Pool Hall ( same)
Plaza Theatre and Grill ( gone)
Howard Courant Citizen Newspaper ( free clothing place)
Hubert Horning Attorney ( empty)
Kiner's Grocery Store ( Welfare and Farm Bureau)
Museum ( same)

On the side streets and on the highway:
Doc's Reed's Dentistry ( Donut Shop)
Odd Fellows Hall ( storage)
Laundry Mat  (storage)
Elk Country Abstract ..Pauline Miller ( Same..Sue Bauder)
Noel Mullendore Attorney ( empty)
Rex Tarwater Attorney (empty)

Howard Post Office ( same)
Fornchell's Insurance ( Insurance office)
Eubanks Garage ( Signers Garage)

We also had :
Toot's Drive In ( same)
Parker's Service Station ( Criger's Car Wash)
Cooksons Service Station & Cafe ( Mickey's Welding)
Harrod's Welding Shop ( Construction offices)
Howard Locker & Ice Plant ( empty)
Crisp TV Repair  & Appliance's ( residence)
Ella Maye Beauty Shop
Gray's Flower Shop
Ethel Helm's Beauty Shop
McDonald brothers Propane
Elwood Miller Plumbing ( residence)
Spurrier -Watt Funeral Home ( Zimmerman  Funeral Home)
Prairie Heritage Hotel ( Tiffany's Junk Shop)

There were a lot of business's then ..and the memories are overloading me as I write and remember.
But that is for another time..

[Janet Harrington]

About the only correction I see is the welfare office and Farm Bureau.  The Farm Bureau is in the office that SRS had for a few years and next door is the Marla Foster Ware attorney's office.  Mrs. Ware also serves as the county attorney for Elk County.  Mrs. Ware and her husband, Bob, own the building and Farm Bureau leases their space from them.

In Batson Drug, which used to be the old Post Office, many, many years ago, we have the pharmacy, the gift shop and the soon, (?) grocery store that will be going in.  Julie Perkins and her husband, Patrick, have worked hard trying to get this grocery store business going.  The freezer and walk in are in place behind the pharmacy which used to be Noel Mullendore's attorney office that Marla Ware first started out her attorney business in.

[Teresa]

About the only correction I see is the welfare office and Farm Bureau.  The Farm Bureau is in the office that SRS had for a few years and next door is the Marla Foster Ware attorney's office. 

This is the 1960's.
It was Kiners grocery before Gene Cookson bought it and turned it into the ASCS offices.
My sister worked down there then ..which was in the late 70's.

[Sherry]

Teresa,

In the 1960's, wasn't Dr. Claypool's office close to where the library is today? I DEFINITELY remember that place. When I was seven, I kicked a needle out of the nurse's hand there and three of them had to hold me down to give me that shot. Of course, I was yelling my head off the entire time, but to add insult to injury, when I walked out to the waiting room, I saw a classmate sitting there. Since he heard me, he teased me about being a baby when I returned to school. Who could forget such trama? 

-Sherry

[Teresa]

No.. Dr Claypool's office was where the clinic is today I think.
But it wasn't remodeled then of course..
The library is the same place as it always was.

And I remember my daddy had to take me in to Dr Claypool's off ice . I needed stitches in the palm of my hand. Of course they had to "try" to give me 3 shots to deaden the pain.. ( I screamed bloody murder.. and he snapped at my dad saying,"You better get your daughter in control because I am not going to put up with this." And with that he jerked my hand around and they proceeded to hold me down and give me those damned shots!
I really don't think my dad has ever gotten over his "mad'.. at the lack of compassion or bedside manner.
Dr. Claypool was not known for his gentle mannerisms.

Dr Buchele on the other hand was as gentle as a kitten.
Bless his old heart.
What in the world would Howard have done without his dedication to this town?

[Sherry]

Teresa,

Funny how perceptions are different. I always thought that Dr. Claypool was the nice one and Dr. Buchele
was the grouchy one. (Or maybe it was Dr. Buchele's wife that was grouchy - she always scared me!). But considering we have two incidences of Dr. Claypool holding children down....... maybe I should change my perception!

I didn't see Dr. Claypool's office on your list. Wasn't it somewhere in-between the library and the Howard National Bank? Or is my memory really clouded!

-Sherry

[Teresa]

(Or maybe it was Dr. Buchele's wife that was grouchy - she always scared me!).

She scared everybody.. I think even Doc. 

I didn’t see Dr. Claypool’s office on your list. Wasn’t it somewhere in-between the library and the Howard National Bank? Or is my memory really clouded!

-Sherry

It is there now.. thanks for telling me.

[Sherry]

Teresa,

Is the swimming pool still in operations? Back in the 60's, my girlfriends and I lived there in the summertime. Our days consists of watching Let's Make a Deal at 12:30, then walking to the pool when it opened at 1:00.

And what ever happened to Solomon's bell? There was nothing more fun that having a gang of kids go and ring the bell; then run like crazy so as not to get caught by old man Solomon. It is amazing Mr. and Mrs. Solomon left the bell in their yard for all those years. I am sure we disturbed their sleep many of nights. They must have been saints!

And while we are reminiscing..... I wish Francis Perkins was still alive. I would like to thank her for what a fantastic teacher she was. She scared the bejesus out of me (and I'm sure most other kids), but thirty plus years later, I can still rattle off my multiplication facts within a snap of a finger. And snap her finger she did (until you came up with the correct answer)!

Life in Howard back the 60's was good. We didn't know how good we had it!

-Sherry

[Janet Harrington]

We all have teachers that we can remember.  One of my favorites was Mae Roberts.  She was Dallas Roberts mother and she lived here around Howard.  She taught 5th grade at Severy, so she drove there everyday.  When she had some kind of monumental birthday, maybe her 60th, my class was her 5th grade class and we managed to pull off a surprise party for her with the help of another teacher.  I brought records to play that were from her growing up years and we had cake and kool-aid.  Probably took up a collection for a gift.  I can't remember. She was one of the best teachers I had.  She was always so loveable and laugh alot.  She taught us geography by pulling a map down, letting us stand there with our backs to the map, then she would give us some location to find such as Nevada and the first one to find it after she said go, got to go to the next round.  I did learn my geography that way.

[Jody]

That had to be Kathryn Tarwater attorney, not Rex.