Nov. 22, 2005 - 23:00 PST

SIMPLER THEN

When our family was Heather and I, a boy in kindergarten, a one year old girl and a baby girl, we lived in a house just a few doors from a grocery store, across the street was a drug store, a doctor�s office, and a pool hall. Closer to our house than the grocery was a hardware store. Other than me getting to work I had no need to go elsewhere, except for our forays to the nearby park. We were near to city bus line, so getting to work or relatives houses was quick and easy.

My income was fair, I think. But economize we did so as to have a few extra goodies for us all. There were occasional ice cream cones and a bit of store bought candy now and then. But we had to control the out-go so that that it didn�t exceed the in-come. Heather had learned from her Mom how to make a nice goody that we all enjoyed. I don�t remember the proportions of the ingredients but they were butter, heated in a pan, cocoa and powdered sugar stirred in along with an egg and a dash of vanilla. The resultant concoction was spread on a graham cracker and another graham cracker on top, she would make enough to do a whole bunch of graham crackers at a time. A poor man�s Oreo one might say, they went so good with a nice cold glass of milk.

Seems to me that bread was a dime a loaf and a can of salmon was ten cents too, during those years and salmon patties were a payday eve staple for us, other prices of foodstuffs, clothes and so forth was within a person�s income.

This time was somewhat before the time that discount stores became the rage, but we would comparison shop at nearby grocery stores -- places we could easily reach via public transportation.

That was also before malls began to proliferate, so most every thing one wanted to buy was downtown. And downtown was not a misnomer. Our state capitol was on a hill, with residences continuing east of there gradually rising in altitude slightly. But downtown went from the base of Capitol Hill down to the Platte River. Every type of store and department store was �downtown,� from hardware, mining supplies, staple groceries onto infinity. Automobile sales went south on Broadway Street out to almost the boonies. Even Hallack & Howard Lumber was just before going upon the Colfax viaduct � the far end of downtown.

The theater district was downtown as well. Oh, there were the neighborhood theaters that we kids went to when we were little and where the folks would take us on �bank nights,� or grocery nights where now and then Dad or Mom would have a ticket called. I remember one instance when Dad won three bushel baskets of groceries. Dad carried one home while Mom and I waited at the theater for him to come back, then Dad and I carried the other two home. Mom used the staple groceries along with the ones she bought at the store, but the good stuff ? She doled it out judiciously. Of course as a kid the goodies were never enough in quantity to satisfy my ravenous desire for more, more, more.

Anyway, the big fancy theaters were all downtown, and the small sleazy ones on Curtis Street were there also.

Those were the days when folks would ride downtown and window shop before going to eat or to the movies. The store windows were all lit up and the displays were attractive and it was pleasant for Heather and I to walk along rubbering the windows like other folks were doing.

I guess for most of us life was simpler and for the most part more enjoyable. A lot of our enjoyment took effort of one kind or another to obtain it. We would walk to City Park, go through the zoo, maybe take a swing on the swings and circle the rings walk over to the rose garden when they were blooming, maybe take a boat out for a ride on the lake. Then about the time evening came we would go near the band stand to hear the band play while we would watch the fountain out in the lake, lit by colored lights which varied from moment to moment. We would have a concert for the eyes and ears both, they were magnificent to us.

Looking back it is easy to forget or not consider the hard times and worries we had along the way and so very easy and with pleasure look back and think life wasSIMPLER THEN . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

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