Each week we’ll take a step back into the history of Great Bend through the eyes of reporters past. We’ll reacquaint you with what went into creating the Great Bend of today, and do our best to update you on what “the rest of the story” turned out to be.
While some weeks, we look back in history at the major events in the nation and the world, and take a peek at how they affected life here at home, some weeks there just wasn’t much going on in the world that resound with people today. That’s why this week, we have the refreshing opportunity to simply enjoy a look back.
Paving the way for drag racing
On Oct. 24, 1958, readers of the Great Bend Daily Tribune learned a “Top-Notch Drag Strip” would become a reality in Great Bend. An agreement between the San-Ore Construction Co., black-topping contractor that recently worked on US-281, the Sunflower Rod and Custom Association, and a group of local business men to raise the $16,000 necessary to blacktop cap the 2000 foot long former runway had paved the way for what was being touted as, “the finest drag strip in America because it has the features of long length, no hills, wide open spaces and the safety of perfect smoothness.”
At that time, it was estimated that the national championship drags provided Great Bend with $40,000 extra income each year.
Sound advice in any decade
Marian Hester offered the kind of good advice that today is rare in her story, “Well Designed Furniture Proves Good Investment by Housewife.” Rather than urging young people outfitting their first home to purchase living rooms full of furniture on credit, with no payments for a year, she suggested careful consideration and frugality. “A young married couple may find it desirable to buy only basic pieces and multiple-use pieces at first, and end tables and extra chairs later.” Attention to quality was also part of her instruction. “It is much better to have a few good pieces than many inferior ones. Unattractive, poorly constructed furniture is an expensive purchase at any price. And frequently low-price replacements are very costly.”
On the back page, Peschka-Doerr Furniture Warehouse, by the way, was advertising a Saturday only special on occasional rockers for $12.95 a pieces. “Ideal for bedroom, living room, in fact anywhere in your house. Fine selection of colors and covers, spring base, hardwood frame.” They also claimed to be “out of the high rent district” and promised shoppers they could name their own terms.
Hoola hoops
The local Safeway store was in the paper twice this week, first following a donation of a complete set of Funk and Wagnalls Encyclopedias to Great Bend High School. Later that week, the grocery store sponsored a hoola hoop contest.
“Miss Gerry Crawford, 7, and Miss Myra Bivins, 11, won the hoola hoop contests at the Great Bend Safeway Food store Saturday afternoon…Both winners are eligible to compete in a regional contest at Wichita in the future.” The question is, did they compete, and if so, how did they do? If our readers know, please drop us a line. We’d sure like to know.
Dem bones
Earl Monger of Macksville was featured in a Sunday edition story. Painter by day and amateur archaeologist during his spare time, Monger and his wife had found the remains of a prehistoric dog, and various pieces of pottery and bone carvings from 1,300 years earlier.
“If he runs into a snag or thinks he has something out of the ordinary, Monger may send a piece of his find to the Smithsonian or to Dr. Carlysle Smith at Kansas University’s museum of natural history,” Tribune editor Everett Brown said. Many of Monger’s finds were on display at the Fort Larned museum.
According to the Kansas State Historical Society, Monger later went on to help find the exact location of the spot where General Winfield S. Hancock destroyed an encampment of Cheyenne and Sioux warriors near Ft. Larned, effectively showing the Plains tribes that
there would be no safe havens. His story is recounted in a 2007 issue of Kansas Preservation.
State of the art armory
On Oct. 26, the Ralph B. Praeger Army Reserve center dedication was ceremoniously performed by Maj. Gen. Derrill M. Daniel. He was the commanding general of the XVI Corps, Omaha and a World War II veteran. The 89th Division band from Wichita performed. The site was given by the City of Great Bend in 1956, and had previously been used for high school pep rallies and a place to fly model airplanes, the story said. It was built entirely from federal funds. Made for 200 men, it was the first reserve armory of its type with air conditioning. The armory still exists today for the Army Reserve , even as several other armories across Kansas have been closed.
Gossip and new shoes
In a column titled, “Getting more complicated to grow up in this modern age,” AP writer Hal Boyle reflected on how simple it was growing up in the “old days.”
“Then, the guy with the most gossip was the guy who went around the neighborhood cutting grass, pushing a muscle-propelled lawnmower.
“Then, a man would pay $7.50 for a fancy pair of shoes. He would let the fellow who pushed the lawnmower break them in. Then when he put them on himself, the first thing he would do would be to get a nickel shine.”
Today, the idea of someone else breaking in our new shoes would give most the “heeby-jeebies,” with visions of disease being passed. And those new shoes likely cost 10 to 15 times as much.
Date night at the movies
On Friday, Oct. 24, the Crest theater presented Cat on a Hot Tin Roof, starring Elizabeth Taylor, Paul Newman, Burl Ives, Jack Carson and Judith Anderson. The movie, based on the Tennessee Williams’ Pulitzer Prize play, was one of Taylor’s signature rolls.
Meanwhile, at the Great Bend Drive In, Friday and Saturday must have catered to the teen crowd. A triple feature was showing. First, Robert Mitchum “blasts the screen” in Thunder Road, then came “Live Fast, Die Young,” followed by “Girls on the Loose.” But on Sunday, Rock Hudson starred in “Battle Hymn,” followed by “The Way to the Gold”
Long gone is Great Bend’s drive-in, and today, the Crest is home to community theater productions.
Out of the Morgue
Local happenings in 1958