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Be honest, now. When was the last time you took a walk around your neighborhood to see how everybody’s chickens were doing?
Well, OK, you probably haven’t done that lately. In fact, there’s probably a lot of other once common things that neither you nor the folks who live and work around you have done in a long time.
Let’s look at a few.
Play baseball in the street: Every day after school, the boys who delivered The Times Leader (then an evening paper) would gather at a corner near my family’s house to await the truck bearing bundles of the day’s edition. While waiting, they’d play a pick-up game of baseball, interrupted of course when the rare car came along. No worries about extra innings: the game ended when the truck appeared.
Cut the grass with a push mower: Yes, there once was a time when lawn mowers did not come with engines that could power a fighter jet. You had to lean forward mightily and shove the thing, meanwhile cursing yourself for not having cut the grass in a month.
Wash your car at Kirby Park: Well, this is going to take some explaining. For many years the area’s water company charged a flat rate per customer, but you had to pay extra if you used a hose. To avoid that dreaded fee, many enterprising people would drive their cars to Kirby Park, hook up the hose to one of the faucets in the picnic area and get to work. Why Wilkes-Barre’s police never raided this clandestine car wash is beyond me.
Watch a movie twice at one sitting: The system today is that a theater is cleared of customers as soon as the movie has ended. I’ve often wondered what would happen if you hunkered down and tried to stay there for the next showing, but I’m sure your fate probably wouldn’t be pretty. Anyway, it used to be that management didn’t care if you sat through four showings, though you’d probably go out and buy some more Mason Dots to make things look good.
Go dancing downtown: There used to be big dance halls on Wilkes-Barre’s Public Square and on South Main Street. They prospered in an era when couples and singles alike flocked to any place where an orchestra played and there was a dance floor. Don’t ask me how the young adult crowd amuses itself these days. I do know, however, that social dancing is about as close to most people’s lives today as Aztec ritual sacrifices.
Sleep on the floor in summer: Yes, folks, your older relatives’ tales of how they beat the heat in July and August are true. The floor was where you’d find the closest thing to comfort in a time when air conditioning was something that only actors in big-budget movies set in ritzy Manhattan hotels enjoyed. An alternative heat fighter was draping a towel soaked in cold water in front of a very noisy fan.
Oh, those chickens: Many years ago. it was common for people even in our urban areas of Wyoming Valley to keep livestock on their properties. Through the first half of the 20th century you could see cows, horses and who-knows-what in your neighbors’ yards. The creature of choice and the one with the longest tenure was the chicken, an urban family’s very own egg factory.
Well, things change. Some of us really miss those Kirby Park faucets, though. Today you could save some serious cash.
