Spencer Do You Remember

                                                                               
By Don Wilson 


Leonard’s Ice Cream store was on the south side of the courthouse square. 
An ice cream cone could be purchased one dip for five cents or two dips for a dime. 
On Saturday night we would gather at the rear of the store and dance by songs of the 
day playing from the juke box. Jitterbug dancing was the popular dance 
then or a nice slow dance by the music of Glen Miller, Tommy Dorsey and many other 
popular big bands during the 1940’s. I still enjoy listening to the music of that era.

Spencer High School basketball team was called the "COPS", 
the school colors blue and white. 
A skull cap (beanie) some students wore was blue with COPS 
in white on the front of it. 
Gosport's team the "INDIANS" were tough rivals. 

Tivoli Theater was a great place to go on the weekend to see a cowboy movie 
starring Gene Autry, Hop a Long Cassida, Roy Rogers, Gone with the Wind, White 
Christmas, or 
some other good movie produced in Hollywood, 
it was always an exciting time of the week.
 
We passed out printed handbills all over town on about Thursday of each week 
telling of the coming features at the Tivoli. Mr. Claude Flater owned the theater and gave 
free passes in payment to us for handing out the handbills. 
Mr. Newsom was the person taking tickets at the door. 
Sometimes boys in the community, if they didn’t have money for a movie, 
would try to slip by him. He usually caught them and ask them to leave. 
My first movie to view at the theater was Stanley and Livingstone exploring Africa. 
Mrs. Nay my teacher at Mt. Zion School, invited me to go with her and her husband to see the movie. 
I gave an oral report to the class the next day about the movie.

Bayh’s Hardware was the only store in town for hardware items, and they seemed to 
have everything for their customers. My brother and I bought our first lawnmower 
from the store. It was a push reel type mower. Power mowers 
like we have today were not even as yet thought of. We mowed lawns 
around town to pay for the mower and to have a little money to spend.  
One elderly lady would let her lawn go until the crabgrass got tall and 
we would work several hours to mow it down, for fifty cents. Fifty cents 
went a long ways in those days.

Moss and Money Drugstore had, as I remember the best soda fountain anywhere. 
I spent too much money at the soda counter for milkshakes and sodas. It was money collected 
from my paper route and then at the end of the week, I sometimes came short of money to 
pay for my papers and my dad would help me out. Of course it was a loan from him and 
I had to pay it back later.

I carried a paper route for the Spencer Evening World. The Newspaper was in a different 
place than where it is today. It was located directly across the street from its 
present location. The paper was printed on a large flat bed printing press. 
Sheets of newsprint about 24 inches by 36 inches were hand fed through the press. 
The copy was set by hand from type cases or by a Linotype machine. The paper carriers 
folded the newspaper down to its size after it came off the press. Each carrier would 
fold his own amount of papers for his route. 

Holley’s Toggery was the place to go for finer items for men. It was the store to 
purchase a suit, shirts, or anything needed by a gentleman to be well dressed. 

Spencer Dry Goods had work clothes such as shoes, denim overalls and shirts. 
Ladies purchased dresses and other items from the store. I worked on a farm and 
purchased my work clothes at this store. I earned seven dollars a week so if I 
needed shoes it took a good bit of my pay to purchase what I needed.

The railroad station was located along the north edge of the court house lawn. 
The passenger train was used heavily as a mode of transportation for many folks.

Doctors Kay, Brown, Pearson, Pecktol and Green all had separate offices in town. 
Seventy years ago Dr. Brown and Dr, Pearson removed my tonsils in Dr. Brown’s 
examining room and sent me home the same day. This procedure would be looked upon 
on today as a very dangerous, and it was.

Japan bombed Pearl Harbor December 7, 1941 and soon after Franklin D. Roosevelt asked 
us all to help the war effort. The citizens of the United States were asked to salvage 
aluminum for the war effort. Spencer erected an enclosure of fencing on the Court House 
yard and citizens from all over town and county contributed all they could spare of their 
pots and pans

The war brought on rationing of food items such as sugar and coffee. Gasoline was rationed, 
with the farmer, essential transportation carrying war materials and the defense worker 
getting more ration stamps for fuel than others. Cigarettes were in short demand as they 
were going to the service men and women. Smokers had to use loose tobacco and roll their 
own to have something to smoke.

Cigarette companies had clever commercial ads during the war. American Tobacco Company had 
an ad "Lucky Strike Green Has Gone to War"; the green package with a red logo surrounded 
by a gold circle was changed to a white package with a red logo. The circle was actually 
copper, so it was removed to help the war effort. RJ Reynolds manufacture of Camels also 
had a slogan "I Would Walk a Mile for a Camel".
 
Automobiles manufactured during the war did not have chrome on them, bumpers, grills and 
any other trim was painted. If anyone wanted to purchase one they had to wait for a long 
time to get delivery.

Tires were hard to find, the Government exhausted their stockpile of natural rubber and 
developed synthetic rubber. Synthetic tires did not wear as well as the natural rubber 
tires. Recapping tires was done after the tread had worn down; recap is a process of 
vulcanizing tread on to tires. Some tire dealers could also cut new grooves in the original 
tread to make the tread deeper. Many people had these services done to keep tires on their 
autos and trucks.  

Duling's DX on West Morgan Street was very busy those days. This was the place to go for 
tires and gasoline. They serviced your auto as well as repairing auto and truck tires. 
Before the war my father had a leased GULF service station on West Morgan near Duling's, 
but gave up the business after the war began. It was too much to keep up with the gasoline rationing.   

I remember the National Guard in Spencer going off to World War II. It was a sad day because 
they were going to places far from their families and home. Some of those young men and women 
did not return home to their loved ones. I’m sure some of these fine men and women lost in the 
war touched about everyone in the county. I did not serve in the war. I joined the Indiana Guard 
which was formed in armories across the state. We trained in the Spencer Armory; the uniform was 
like regular army issue.

H. B. Laymon World Products and the Spencer Clothes Pin Factory were the two largest industries 
in Spencer. World Products sold counter carded merchandise items, such as nail polish, nail 
clippers, razor blades, combs, etc.  Both companies hired many people for their operations.

Argil Wampler, an artist for World Products, had a studio above the Owen County State Bank. 
I delivered an evening newspaper to him every day, and I would usually stay awhile and watch 
him create and design art for the carded items World Products sold. He was a great artist and 
a wonderful person.

I was born in Owen County and spent the first eighteen years of my life there. These are some 
of my memories and I hope you enjoy reading and remembering them with me.