Title: Branson MO. 40's & 50's
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Blog Entry: Normal 0 false false false MicrosoftInternetExplorer4 st1\:*{behavior:url(#ieooui) } /* Style Definitions */ table.MsoNormalTable {mso-style-name:"Table Normal"; mso-tstyle-rowband-size:0; mso-tstyle-colband-size:0; mso-style-noshow:yes; mso-style-parent:""; mso-padding-alt:0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; mso-para-margin:0in; mso-para-margin-bottom:.0001pt; mso-pagination:widow-orphan; font-size:10.0pt; font-family:"Times New Roman"; mso-ansi-language:#0400; mso-fareast-language:#0400; mso-bidi-language:#0400;} (Flip’s 31 st . Birthday) BRANSON. MO. 1940’S – 50’S Try not to think of Branson as it is now. It hasn’t always been that way. In the 1940’s & 50’s Branson was a tourist town. If you wanted to hear country music, ya had to go to a beer joint or turn on a radio. Other words the tourist back then didn’t come for or get country music. What they came for was “ Lake Taneycomo ”, “The Shepherd of the Hills” attractions, “The most beautiful scenery of all the Qzark Mountains ”, or some serenity. Whether they came for the serenity or not they would have some before they left. Lake Taneycomo is a small lake on the White River . It is backed up by Powersite Dam which is located in Forsythe and backs the lake up to almost where Tabelrock Dam is presently located. Tablerock wasn’t completed until the late 50’s so it doesn’t count for anything in this writing except as a proposed Dam Sight (that’s what we called it, The Dam Sight!) or where the Dam workers was workin’ on the Dam. You could drive out by S of O and stand on top of the bluff where there was a place to pull off the road and look at the Dam Sight and everyone did just that. ( “Where’d youen’s go today?” “Dam Sight.” “Whut’d youen’s do?” “Looked at it.” “How’d it look.” “Same as last time or purt’ near”.) Powersite Dam was build in the 30’s or 20’s as a WPA project to get folks back to work after the Great Depression or at least that’s when I think it was built. (11-08 Found out I’m wrong about when Powersite Dam was built. It was built before the WPA) Branson was about 9 &1/2 miles from the Dam. Rockaway Beach was real close to the Dam. Lake Taneycomo can’t be thought of as a lake like Tablerock, Lake of the Ozarks or anything like that. It turned the White River which you can almost walk across in spots into about 15 or 16 miles of Lake that looked like a Big River . Not as big as the Missouri but a good size river. Big enough and warm enough for all kinds of water sports. Boat Riding, Water Skiing, Boat Ra cin g, fishing, lots of fun mischief, or fun family outings. Lake Taneycomo is still there but the water that’s fed into it comes from 280 feet deep water at the foot of Tablerock Dam and is too cold except for trout fishing or other kinds of fishing. Since Tablerock Dam was built Taneycomo doesn’t even flood anymore. (Well nothing like it used to.) The floods caused their share of damage but they did a lot of good for the bottom land also. Besides they were fun. Dangerous but fun. As kids, if it was fun we became bulletproof. Down at the Waterfront in Branson there were tiered stone benches with a stone road between them and the docks on the Lake . Behind the benches were picnic tables and a Baseball Park with stone walls and bleachers. I think all of that stuff was a WPA project to put folks back to work in the 30’s. It was past picturesque in it’s simple beauty and since I had never known anything different I took it for granted as I did all of the other unusual and wonderful things about Branson during my childhood. On the Branson side of the Lake were Boat docks. You could rent boats or space for your boat or you could buy a ticket for the Sammy Lane and go to Rockaway. The Sammy Lane was a passenger boat and traveled between Branson and Rockaway on some sort of schedule. Sometimes on Sundays after church we would drive down to the boat dock, take the Sammy Lane to Rockaway, have lunch at Captain Bills restaurant then momma and daddy would sit on lawn chairs and watch my sisters and me play all afternoon. Then we would take the Sammy Lane back to Branson, get in the car and go home. Happy days. 12-6-02 Summertime in Branson was my favorite time, although the other seasons were also good. Summertime when I was little I spent a lot of time at Allendales. That was a Motel with individual cabins as most motels had at that time. Allendale also had a swimming poo l that was open to the public. Admission was $.35 or a season pass for $5.00. I usually had a season pass and went swimming as often as possible. I even took swimming lessons from Pidge Godsey for a summer or two. One summer before a public show of a sort of swimming ballet or precision swimming or whatever ya call it that I was suppose to be in I got sick. Had the flu or something. Momma took me to either Old Doc Evans or Dr. Magness and that’s when I found out that I was allergic to penicillin. Got the hives and was all swelled up allover. Didn’t make the swimming show either. Every kid I knew in Branson knew how to swim and swim good. It’s a good thing too because we all grew up around water. Lake Taneycomo ( White River . We called it either or both.) before Tablerock was built was warm water and good for any kind of water sport ya wanted to do. We did them all and some weren’t quite as sporting as others. We played in the woods up and down the Lake and all the creeks ”pronounced crick” that ran into it and they were plentiful. Taney County was as hilly as anyplace in Missouri . All the hills have valleys, “holler’s” between the hills and the holler’s always had a crick at the bottom. The crick’s came in all sizes and they all ran into other crick’s which eventually made it to the White River . Any body of water was worth playing in. If it was just a trickle we could sit in it, dam it up, or just run up and down it pretending we were Indians or De Soto ’s Conquistadors. If it was bigger and wider then it was compulsory to skip a few rocks across the water. If it was the river then some swimming was necessary. Swimming suits weren’t necessary but swimming was. Some of my friends and I when we were around 10 or 11 thought it was great fun to climb up into trees that hung our over the river and when a boat would pass we would yell and jump into the water buck ass necked. Thought we were impressing folks. All we did was impress each other. It was fun though. At about that same age or maybe a couple years older we went hiking a lot. We loaded up backpacks with sandwiches and important stuff, got out guns (everyone had a 22 rifle or a pellet gun or a Daisy Red Rider BB gun). We all carried a knife of some sort at all times. I don’t ever remember not having a pocketknife in my pocket nor do I remember any Ozarks boy being without one. On the Branson side of the river from Frank Ray’s bottoms which started at the Railroad Bridge , there was a high bluff that continued up river for miles. That was a favorite hiking place. We would usually venture out onto the Railroad Bridge until we came to the pylons that came out of the water and held the bridge up. Around those pylons was a favored spot to see large soft-shell turtles, which we would shoot. We didn’t want them or anything we just shot them for fun and to see if we could. We could because all the kids (boys & most of the girls) learned how to shoot at a very young age. I am not proud of doing that. One time when we played army we were down in the bottoms and chose up sides, each side getting one side of the field to shoot at the other side from. I’m pretty sure that one side had a 22 rifle but he shot over everyone’s head and one kid on the other side had a 410 shotgun. He didn’t shoot over anyone’s head but thankfully was out of range. Pretty stupid, huh? That bluff that I mentioned before was a great place to explore. I lived right on top of it so it was part of my playground. I spent a lot of time playing alone because there weren’t any other kids close by. When I was older 12 – 13 I lived in town and had friends closer to play with. Anyway alone or not the bluff was a cool place to explore and climb around on. To get to the bluff from the house I grew up in all I had to do was walk down across the front yard, cross the road, walk down a gravel road to Godseys place, take the sidewalk around the side of their house to the steps that went down the bluff to the river bottom. Those steps were neat. Because of all the trees sunshine hardly ever made an appearance on the steps so the rocks and concrete were cool and damp with lots of moss & other plants growing on and around them. You could sit on any of the steps, ”the higher ones were best”, be quiet for awhile and see so many beautiful things nature provided. Squirrels playing were noisy and always easy to watch. Redheaded or Downy woodpeckers were noisy and easy to watch. Jay’s always made a lot of racket protecting what they considered to be theirs so they were easy to watch. Humming birds weren’t quite so easy. You had really watch and listen for them. Great honed Owls required a lot of my attention to watch and see. They were completely silent when flying and blended into the background when they perched. What ya had to do was sit quietly and catch the movement of their flight from your peripheral vision. Then you could follow their flight paths from one perch to another. Hawks were almost as hard to watch as Owls but in my opinion the Great Horned Owl was the hunter supreme in that forest. I did have some appreciation for the diversity of wildlife that the Ozarks provided. My parents had an Audubon Bird book which I would refer to trying to identify birds. I was surprised at times that we had so many different birds. The most impressive one that I ever identified was a Pileated Woodpecker. That rascal was down by the Rose Arbor working on a stump. Looked as big as an eagle and sounded like a jackhammer. That’s the only one I ever saw. In some of the fields and pastures it was common to see flocks of wild canaries. Really! Hundreds of them flying around together. I had a Red Ryder BB Gun when I was little and shot any and all the birds I could. Made daddy mad too! One more thing that I’m not proud of. The bluff by the lake was covered with Tim ber Rattlers & Copperheads plus some other kinds of snakes but then they were everywhere. Poisonous snakes were just a part of life and we all learned to watch for them. Only a couple of times was I frightened by them. Startled often but once ya knew where they were there was no danger. There was one place along the bluff where there was a small gap. At the top of the gap a huge cube shaped rock was wedged. Kids could walk and climb on it and walk under it, always wondering if it would choose that moment to fall. It never did. Also there was an underground spring that came out a lower portion of the bluff. Someone had packed cement into the opening where the water came out, inserted a piece of copper pipe in the cement and there was always a good stream of cold clear water coming out the pipe to drink from. As a kid we didn’t know about pollution. Probably because we didn’t have any. We all were taught that if water was clear and moving it was ok to drink. Must have been right because we all drank it and never had any problems. I’ve kinda drifted off. Back to Branson. Branson had a population of about two thousand souls. There were two main streets and they intersected in the middle of town as a four way stop. The four corners were occupied by “The White River Restaurant”, the Hardware Store, a Bank (where Steve Miller painted a beautiful Mural) & Parnell’s Clothing Store. Just outside of Parnell’s was where Tom Keeler parked the City Police Car. Tom was our Police department. From that intersection the East – West road went down hill to the Lakefront, passing the Bowling Alley, Catholic Church, Railroad Tracks, White River Hotel, Fisherman’s Roost, Miniature Golf Course, Gooch’s Grocery, Allen’s Drive In, (no drive up window but it was named “Drive In”), Sammy Lane Resort, & Meadows House. From the same intersection it went West passing a Western Auto, a restaurant, a jeweler, The Dentist, (“Old Doc Shaw, the son of a bitch never used novocaine, he drilled and ya hollered) a Five & Dime Store, (it is still is open every day) Steve’s Liquor Store, and came to the one and only traffic light in town which blinked red in four directions. Al Moldenhouer’s Mobile Station was on one corner of the blinking light intersection. Then the road continued west up a long hill with houses on both sides. At the top of the hill was the Assembly of God Church and about halfway up the hill was the Presbyterian Church. If you turned left in front of the Assembly of God Church you would find Norman Edwards “Little Store” on the left. That’s where momma did most grocery shopping. From the same intersection downtown the street going North passed a few businesses, the Ice Plant, Binkleys Chevrolet Dealership, the Wagon Wheel, the same Railroad tracks again and on to Allendales, & around to Sharps Motel plus some others on Roark Creek. Going South from the same intersection was where most of Branson’s retail etc. business was located. The first place after Parnell’s on the corner was Alexander’s Drug store. (I’ll have more on Alexander’s later.) there was a Jewelry Store across the street from Rees’es Shoe Store. One of the “spit and whittle clubs” held their meetings on the curb in front of the Shoe Store. I can close my eyes and see Ulysses Poor sitting on the curb wearing his always striped “Big Smith” bib overalls. He would be talking, spittin’, & whittlin’. He was a giant of a man and we called him “Poor Useless”. Not to his face of course. Then there was the Peoples Bank, The Shack (greasy s poo n), Jim Owens sporting goods. Sporting goods meant fishing and some hunting. On down the street was a Boutique before the word was ever invented. It was a clothing store called Man’s Land and was very popular with all the girls in town. After that was another Restaurant, then Owens Theater (aka. “The Show”) More on The Show House later. Another hardware store, a few assorted shops & The Christian Church (where we went) pretty much finishes up that street. There were stores that I haven’t mentioned. Some because I forgot and others because they didn’t mean anything to me. One place I didn’t mention and didn’t forget to mention was another small counter sitting only restaurant. Behind the counter there was about a two foot square sliding door that opened into the POOL HALL. I also have not mentioned either of the Barber Shops in town. I will get into them later. Around the periphery of the places I have mentioned there were all kinds of interesting things and places. The Railroad Depot where passenger and freight trains both stopped. June Michel, was in my sisters class in school and she married a guy named Gary who was for a time the ticket agent at the Depot. I think he was collecting unemployment in three different counties at the same time or so a story went. He was a cool guy. Always nice to us younger kids. My friends and I would steal flares from the little service cars the Railroad had on a siding. Flares would burn under water so it was great fun to steal a bunch of them and throw them from the bridge at night. We thought we were really getting by with something. There was the Telephone Company. Wilma worked there for quite awhile. She could and listen in on everyone in town’s conversations and then report on the good ones at home. (I thought she reported on the good ones but considering that now, she probably reported on conversations that could be talked about in front of momma & daddy.) She knew everybody’s business. Our phone number was 73. Often I would have to ask some merchant if I could use their phone, ring up the operator (usually Wilma) and have her call momma and tell her that she forgot and left me in town again. Momma would take me to town with her and I would go off and play someplace and she would forget that I had been with her and go home without me. (was she trying to tell me something?) There was a Lumberyard, a Cheese Factory, (where every farmer with more milk than their family needed would come into town every morning and sell the milk to the Cheese Factory.) There were quite few Motels, a Laundromat, Homes and Churches up the hill, the Grade School and the High School were on top of the hill to the West. To the East there was the Lake but on the other side of the Lake there was a road which ran just above the lake and under a huge bluff which had a split in it almost directly across from The Boat docks where the road not only turned East and up the hill in the split in the bluff but also continued along the Lake. The hill where the bluff split was called “Seven Falls Hill”, and led to many farms and homes which were part of the Branson community. There was a swimming beach where Suzy Allen operated a snack bar for her parents in the summer and where I spent as much time as possible. The Beach was under and to the North side of the Bridge. The Bridge crossed the lake and on the side opposite Branson a left turn would take you to “Seven Falls Hill” and on down the East side of the Lake while a right turn on the East side of the Lake would take you to Hollister, S of O (School of the Ozarks), “The White Elephant”, and so on. The White Elephant was a eating establishment where my sisters hung out with their friends. I have been there but that’s about all I could say about the place. My friends and I didn’t hang out there. This isn’t all there is about or of Branson but it’s all I have to tell right here.
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