I went downtown long before Petula Clark made the song “Downtown” a pop hit.? My family lived on the hill in Othello and the business part of town laid below the hill.? We never went Over, Up or To town, we walked Downtown.? There were very few cars in Othello in those days.
My earliest memories of Downtown bring to mind the Post Office, Loren Reynold’s grocery store, Tipton’s grocery store, Knepper’s Variety store, Hack Semro’s Pool Hall and the Dance Hall.? All were situated on or just off of Main Street.
In those days there were wooden sidewalks in various places along Main Street.? The walks sat up off the ground, perhaps four to five inches.? If you ran fast on them, they bounced beneath your feet.? There were spaces between the boards on the top wide enough for small things to drop through to the ground below.? Lots of coins were lost this way.? Peering through the cracks on a sunny day, searching for shiny treasures, my playmates and I would often spot a coin or two.For fishing them out?? A tool anyone could produce – gum on the end of a stick or a piece of wire.? If we were lucky we could make a visit to a candy counter.
Since mail delivery was unheard of in those days, at least in our community, the Post Office soon became a favorite place of mine.? Everyone had a post office box number.? Our box was number 177.? It was fun to go there because people were coming and going all the time.? Everyone took time to visit for a few minutes.? Hurry didn’t seem to be the operative word then.
At that time, people in Othello did a lot of ordering from catalogs.? As a child, it seemed to me it took forever for our orders to come.? Finally a slip would appear in our box.? Which meant our package had arrived.? Such excitement, especially when I knew it included something for me.? That kind of shopping is like having presents to open when it’s not a holiday.? I thought Santa Clause might have something to do with it, even though it wasn’t Christmas.? In my very young mind, that was as good a possibility as any other.
Mr. and Mrs. Barton and their baby son Ralph lived in the back of the post office.? They were from somewhere in the South. Mrs. Barton was the post-mistress.? She had an unusual accent and a very raspy voice, and she fascinated me.? I thought she was quite different and used to wonder what their life was like in the back of that post office.? Curious, I tried peaking through our box – couldn’t see a thing.? Nor, as I got taller, did the limited view through the stamp window offer much more.? I never did get to go in the back of that post office.
However, in later years, I came to truly appreciate Mrs. Barton.? Friendly and interesting to talk with, she was always there.? Her precise presence and unusual accent added an unmistakable constancy to my visits to the Post Office.
The two grocery stores in town were pretty much the same, except Loren Reynolds had a large meat market, therefore a better variety of fresh meat.? The meat market had a sawdust floor and a big wooden meat block sat in the center of the area.
People charged their groceries a month at a time.? Mom used to go in, look around, pick out a few things, leave an order and it would be delivered later that afternoon.? She had a favorite story she used to tell on Evertt Tipton.? One day she was looking at the canned peas on the shelf and Everett said to her,
“Now, Lylah, if you want a really good pea,” and then realized what he’d said, stopped in mid-sentence and blushed.? She could not control a chuckle.? That broke the tension and they both had a good laugh.
On a hot summer afternoon, when I was eight or so, Mom sent my cousin Bobby and I to Tipton’s for a ten-pound bag of potatoes.? After we bought them, as we walked along, we noticed Mr. Reynolds loading his truck for deliveries.? It was a very hot day and we didn’t want to carry the potatoes up the hill, so we went over and asked him to deliver them for us.? He hesitated for a moment, then with an odd look, took the potatoes.
Both of us knew after we did that, we’d made a big mistake, but it was too late.? We decided maybe we should go over to Grandma Donley’s for awhile.? Of course, the potatoes to to Mom before we got home.? Upon our arival, big trouble awaited.? Upset didn’t describe her – more like “real upset” fit better.? Not only had we inconvenienced Mr. Reynolds, but we’d embarrassed her.? A short, biting lecture assured us of the consequences, should we ever try anything like that again.? After I’d grown some, when I thought about it, I decided Mr. Reynolds delivered the potatoes to teach us a lesson.? He knew Mom well enough to know she’d set us straight.
I did my first “lay-away” business with Mr. Reynolds.? When I was about ten, he had a stuffed bunny in the store that I wanted.? It cost $3.00.? He let me pay each week, until I had it paid for.? It took me a long time, because I din’t have a very big allowance.? Oh, how I loved that bunny when I got to take it home.
A year or so later he sold me his daughter’s old bike for $5.00.? It needed fixing and he told me because I was such a good customer he’d let me take it home so my Dad could fix it.? He said he knew I’d pay for it as soon as I could.? I was so proud of my purchasing power and that old bike.? All of these transactions were duly recorded in his receipt book and I received my copy each week.?
Knepper’s Variety Store was the only place in town to get over the counter medicines, school supplies, certain magazines and various other items.? A bell rang when you opened the door, because the Kneppers also lived in the back of their store.? I suppose Mrs. Knepper was about my mother’s age – in her early thirties when I first saw her.? I didn’t think of her as old, but she didn’t look young either.? Though I can’t exactly bring her features to mind, I can place her short, round figure behind the counter, near the cash register.? There was a Mr. Knepper, but I don’t remember seeing enough of him to remember anything about him.? My brother said he did carpenter work in Othello.
I got my first Playmate magazine there, which I read from cover to cover, over and over while I anxiously awaited the next issue.? She had a gift counter with things like cologne, bath powder, an occasional piece of costume jewelry, pretty handkerchiefs and other niceties.? For the Christmas holiday, she added extra things to this counter.? She also carried some yard goods and at different times I saw a rack of house dresses.? The women of those days wore dresses all of the time.? Sometimes she had some children’s clothing, too. There were a few toys, some books and some candy.? Again, during the Holidays these counters had more to offer.
Since we had no pharmacy in town, the community depended on her for over-the-counter medicines, bandages, etc.? I seem to remember that prescriptions sent from out of town, came to her for delivery.? All of my school supplies from first grade through high school, came from her store.? The only exception being when I got something different in Spokane on one of our trips.? I remember her as a quiet person, perhaps a bit shy, but friendly and available when needed, even after store hours.? Mrs. Knepper and her store were like an institution.
Hack Semro’s Pool Hall is another story.? Since all I ever heard Mr. Semro called was Hack, to this day, I don’t know what his first name was.? ?My mother never drank and allowed very little liquor in our home, yet from the time I had to be lifted onto a bar stool, I remember going into Semro’s with her to have an ice cream soda.? She’d be dressed up and so would I.? We’d sit up at the bar and Mr. Semro would produce this most wonderful soda.? Somehow, noe I’ve had since have tasted that good.? Going to Semro’s for a soda made my day – Mom’s too, I think.? Even when I began to understand we were not his usual customers, I never felt uncomfortable being there.
The bar, where w sat, had eight stools, as I remember, and it was in the front part, just as you came in the front door.? Beyond that were the pool tables and card tables.? Pan, a card game, notable played by railroad men, used ten regular card decks and was played somewhat like a game of rummy.? My Grandad played a lot of Pan.? The winners were paid with metal tokens, about the size of a quarter.? These tokens were called “hickies” and could only be spent in the establishment.
As I got older, I became very familiar with “hickies.”? My two cousins, Bobby and Donnie and I would go to Grandad when he was playing Pan and ask him for hickies.? We called them “pool hall money”.? He always gave us some.? Then we’d spend a lot of time at the candy counter picking out candy.? Mr Semro had the biggest penny candy counter in town.? Semro’s also carried fireworks for the Forth, and Grandad always gave generously for that da.? Grandad died when I was six, yet the memory of picking out candy and fireworks and paying form with hickies remains very clear in my mind.? Very few hickies came my way after his death.
My folks went to dances in the Dance Hall and I went along.? Still little, I’d get tired and sleep on the chairs lining the sides of the dance floor, along with other little ones.? There is a vague memory of my Grandad calling square dance there, also.? Years later, shortly after our wedding, my husband and I danced an evening away in that Old Dance Hall.
The Dance Hall was also called the Show Hall, for when available movies were shown there.? Sometimes, my brother Gene ran the projector.? Rows of collapsible chairs (the kind made of slats of wood) were set up.? There, I learned about the glitz and glamour of Hollywood, saw Shirley Temple for the first time and enjoyed the Cowboy serials that left you with a cliffhanger every week.? I paid 10 cents to go to the movies then.? One company serviced Othello and the small communities around us.? If there was no one to be responsible for running the equipment to show the movies, the rental of the building etc.? then they just didn’t deliver to our town.? Sometimes we’d be without them for quite a while.? Then someone else would take over and we’d b in business again.? Though my family and I saw movies in some of the plush theaters in Spokane, the old Show House, where we could take our own popcorn and sunflower seeds, was my favorite.
There was one more place I learned about that needs mentioning – the fire bell and its tower.? It sat on Main Street about a block and a half South of our home.? In size, the bell looked like the Liberty Bell, without the crack, of course.? Early on, I learned what that beg bell was.
When it rang, and I remember a few times it did, if we went upstairs in our house to the South window, we could usually spot the area in town that was trouble, unless it was behind our house, and there wasn’t much there then.? That bell, and its purpose impressed me a great deal.
Mr. & Mrs. Earl Reynolds and family lived across the street from us.? Speck, on of their boys, was two years older then I.? He had this uncanny way about him.? He could get me to be a part of almost any plan he hatched.? Why I don’t know.? Ever time, I got caught and punished, though he never seemed to.? What a slick one, that Speck.
Throwing rocks at the fir bell was one such fun plan.? This, of course, was an absolute “no-no,” and therefore twice as exciting.? It didn’t take Mom long to catch on and I remember that spanking well.? I had to get the switch myself.? I blamed Speck for some of my punishment, knowing full well it was my own fault because I couldn’t resist following him on his escapades.? That old fire bell, in its tower, held its place for several years after I left Othello, and kids still threw rocks at it, including my own.
There were other places in town that were a big part of my life, but the ones mentioned here were the ones I cam upon first, and the memory of them is vifid and dear.? In later years, Semro’s was sold to Gus Christensen and he owned the pool hall the rest of the time I lived there, and for some time afterwards.? Some people named Opplingers eventually owned the store that belonged to Tiptons and I worked evenings after school and Saturdays for them all my high school years.? Reynold’s store and Kneppers remained the same as when I first saw them all the years I lived at home and for some time after I left.? The Post Office stayed the same also, except for an additional employee to help Mrs. Barton.
So many changes have taken place in that community since I left in 1943.? There is mail delivery and the name of the street I lived on is Cedar.? Guess it always was, I just never knew it.? The wooden sidewalks are gone in favor of concrete, of course.? The population easily exceeds five thousand now.? That’s far more that I ever thought it would be.? There are banks, pharmacies, large grocery markets and many other new businesses.
My Dad always said somebody did a good job laying out the community of Othello.? He was right.? It’s original wide streets and roomy lots have handled the growth very well.? And, now one can go Uptown as well as Downtown.