Memories Cooperstown ND Main Street

  I've decided to change direction a little bit as most have memories of
main street and of course so do I.

  My thoughts have more to do with what it was like for a young boy
growing up in the late 50's and 60"s in Cooperstown!

  The names have been changed to protect the "guilty" or whatever!!

A normal summer day went something like this:

Get up about 9:00 AM--Go down stairs for breakfast or climb out the 2nd
story window on to the garage roof and slither down to the back patio
to the ground and then go in for breakfast.

About 10:00 AM put on your suit and ride your bike to the swimming pool
past Al and Rose Loder's home -greet their dog"Freckles"
on the way and wait at the pool until 11:00 for your lesson.  Stand and
shiver or swim until !12:00  Go towards home "greet freckles"
and eat lunch at noon.  Be done by 12:30 PM so you could wait an hour
before the pool opened at 1:30 so we could swim until 4:30.

   This pattern was only interrupted when the boys ages 9-12 would race to
the baseball field to practise about 50 at a time to compete for 12
hot wool baseball uniforms which meant you made the traveling pee-wee team.
After practise about 3:00 PM we'd all race our bikes back to the swimming
pool so we could swim from 3_4:30 until closing. If you were lucky you'd
get asked by the the life guards to play water-polo until 5:30 and
then rush home before 6:00PM to eat so you could wait one hour before
"greeting" freckles again on the way back to swim from7:00-9:00 PM
Ride the two blocks home{freckles was already in his dog house} and be in
bed as the 10:00PM whistle blew.

  We"d arise the next morning at 9:00PM slither out the back window and
repeat the same schedule--EVERY DAY__ALL SUMMER!

By mid-August the football came out.  The North east corner of the city
park became the passing league football field. About 4:00 PM
we'd gather for the game.  This would normally go on until someone got in a
fight or the ball got kicked into the pool which meant we'd have to
wait until 7:00 PM when the pool re-opened to retreive the ball!

    In early September came the smell of burnt leaves in the gutters and
football practise.  I remember the high school getting their gear and
the talk of  the upcoming season; the excitement of new recruits like Steve
Irgens coming to town and how much he'd help the team! I'd ride my bike to
practise to watch and "borrow" an apple from someones tree on the way home.

  Winter brought the "white stuff" and basketball.  The "Berg Arena" was
only one block away so I'd normally get a quarter and get to watch the
Cooper Lynx  pounce on someone.  The best part was when the
prinicpal-Arnold Mauer would recruit me to help clean the bleachers
afterwards and then we'd get the "free" left over popcorn and still go home
with a nickel in my pocket.

   I'll never forget the fort we had in the winter.  The county road east
of town had a large culvert underneath it When the ditch became full of
snow level with the road we'd dig a hole in the snow until we were able to
enter the culvert to talk "big" and keep warm.  We had to abandon the fort
for good the day the maintainer man  came by to blade the road as we popped our heads out of the hole

Spring brought great anticipation of green grass and bats and gloves
being oiled for use "soon". As soon as the sun melted a patch of dormant grass we'd get out the rubber baseball and play catch!

We'd ride our bikes to the Northeast corner of the park for baseball
spring training. If you hit one in the semi-empty pool it was a home run
but someone had to scale the mesh fence to fetch the ball. The big hitters
like Larry Ellingson or Fred Liebl could hit the deep ball to right center
which meant they hit the deep end water. Tough to get the ball back but
worth it!!

Urness's Drive In was across the street so if we had a dime, we could
get a coke, if not we'd ride our bikes to Reitens as they had pop for a
nickel.

On rainy days we'd walk the trees adjacent to the golf course hunting for
lost golf balls I'd find a few but it seemed like Marvin Kuklok or Rollie
Jewett had x-ray vision.  They usually had 3 times more that anyone else!

    We'd always try to get home in time to watch Tim Holt our"hero" and
his side kick-Chito JoseGonzalas Boosty Monte Raferty and then the
mousekateers would come on. It was like a cultural event!!

   All in all the years the years went by like this in our one mile square
world.   A very happy place to be!

    In 1963 the new high school opened and was filled to the brim.  About
230 kids graced the halls.

Melroe was open at times 24 hrs. a day running 3 shifts.  The missle silos
were being built; the town was bustling like never before with 7 bars and
seven churches.  The new "STEAK HOUSE" was opened called the Coachman Inn.

At this time Elvis was alive and well, the Mustang was born and JFK was
assinated.

     During the 60's CHS thrived.  Edgar Multer guided about 10-12 young
men to become Eagle Scouts-Won the State Championship in Legion
Baseball--set records on teen quiz-sent the school band to be the governors
band-Playing the 1812 Overture-set records in basketball as
coach Tom Skarp took two boys basketball teams to the state tournament-had
excellant track teams and on top of the conference in football. Gary Bakken still holds some state basketball scoring records yet today
from 1966.

The gap was quite narrow between rich and poor in those years.  One TV and
one telephone per home was the rule.

The values we learned and the successes and failures we experienced growing
up in Cooperstown has helped many of the "boomers"  go far in life throughout the country.  I'm happy and proud to have grown up in Cooperstown ND!