02-29-2012
( Reply#: 8170 ) |
duane |
Yes Tom.
We had an alley on Magoun Avenue (EC)as well.
When I was small the alley was very much like you describe. I don't know if it was just oil that they put on it, or if it was actually chip-seal, which is a type of low cost asphalt that gives a hard surface for a time, but doesn't cost much.
I remember that there were always LOTS of cats in the alleys, so we walked our dog, Tippy, in the park. He would have gone crazy chasing after all those cats! |
03-01-2012
( Reply#: 8171 ) |
Bill Bucko |
Alleys were picturesque. You could see gardens, garages, nifty trellises, vines, good junk like electric motors thrown out ... and find treasures such as Bazooka Joe comics, soda bottles to take to Pop's Grocery for the deposit ... once even an Ovaltine inner seal (found near Shep's house), which enabled me to join Captain Midnight's Secret Squadron for 1957!
Bill
Warren G. Harding Class of '63 |
03-01-2012
( Reply#: 8172 ) |
seejay2 |
Our major finds were the old TV's or picture tubes that people put out back--tubes just waiting for kids to send a brick thru them.
BLAMMO!!
We just knew that explosion could be heard on the other side of the planet...Cj |
03-01-2012
( Reply#: 8173 ) |
Roger D |
Hooray for alleys!! When I lived on Clark St.(age 8-12) I spent more time in the alley with my buddies than on the streets. We roamed the alley in the 44 hundred block between Clark St. and State Line Ave. Amazed at all the "good stuff" mom would not let us keep. |
03-01-2012
( Reply#: 8174 ) |
Little Stevie |
The alley was a place of fun and adventure!
Many of life's lessons were learned in the alley of the 6900 block of Magoun & Baring!
When Rod Hlad and I would get tired of playing wiffle ball,
we'd go in the alley with the bats and hit rocks. You could really send them flying!
And every once and a while. . . you'd hear that infamous sound . . .
"CRASH!!!" Somebody's window just taken out!
Time to "Head for the Hills!" which usually ended up being our basement with the lights out.
Mom would come to the top of the stairs asking,
"Done playing outside already?"
"Yeah Mom, it's too hot out. Were just gonna play hockey"
One of those table top games we all remember, mine was made by Eagle Toys of Canada.
LS |
03-01-2012
( Reply#: 8175 ) |
Little Stevie |
Here's a view of our alley from our backyard
[IMG]http://i1091.photobucket.com/albums/i398/littlestevie/KushBackYard2.jpg[/IMG]
Cy Beda's cousin, Nancy Sukup, my sisters, Carol & Bev, are next to her.
Looking to the right, you can see the one garbage can and the wire basket thing we and all neighbors had to burn rubbish.
No fences up yet. The Kessey's fence didn't go up until they got a dog, I believe.
The house to the right was purchased by the Gourney family.
The husband died from a heart attack while building a garage there.
Two kids, Pam, a year or two younger, and Phil, about 5 years younger than me. More on him later.
LS |
03-01-2012
( Reply#: 8176 ) |
HassoBenSoba |
STEVE--
Yeah, Kessey's backyard (on the left above), the very spot where Mike (at 6 years old) said "OK, SISTER" to the imposing Mrs. Kessey (check "Magoun Ave Memories" thread, p. 1, for the hilarious details).
We never really knew the Gourneys who lived in the house on the right, but I remember a daughter named Amy. I also remember peeking up over the fence once and saw that the back yard was totally overgrown with uncut grass about 3 feet tall...probably because the father was no longer around.
And, of course---the WIRE-BASKET GARBAGE BURNERS! Back in the good old days when everybody torched their own rubbish in the alley....a custom which sometimes turned neighbor-against-neighbor. When we moved to Hessville, our next-door neighbor to the north would burn her trash when my mother had the wash hanging out on the line and the wind was blowing FROM the north. Nice one, lady...[:(!]
HERE'S A PIC OF OUR OLD MAGOUN ALLEY, taken from in back of our old house, looking south. Lil' Stevie's yard/garage is the second one on the left. I think the short chain-link fence just past the garage on the right is the former Kessey yard.
[IMG]http://i989.photobucket.com/albums/af12/HassoBenSoba/09-19-04_1539.jpg[/IMG]
This pic was taken on a lovely late summer day in September, 2004, when I was strolling the old 'hood by myself. At the far end of the alley, you can see a little "jog" to the right. This is the exact same scene Mike and I saw on July 16, 1958, the day we ran away from home. We grabbed our pup tent and dashed out of our back yard before our mother knew we were gone; this view is what we saw as we breathlessly tore down the alley south to Baring Parkway, (though the alley at the time was all gravel, not paved).
LR |
03-01-2012
( Reply#: 8177 ) |
Little Stevie |
Yep, that's Kessey's yard past the fence, next to the green garage.
Amy was a member of the family that sold the house to the Gourney's, I think.
(I sure wish I could get one of my sisters to log in here to verify my memories!)
The fence that was our "Home Run" marker has been replaced in this photo.
Us kids used to build "roads" in the alley for our Tonka trucks and such.
We'd scrape the gravel away with our hands or shovels to make all kinds of intersections, highways and the like.
Once, after talking to the two Dragoin boys who lived in the 7000 block of Baring,
we "constructed" an expressway going from the area in Larry's photo all the way past the "S" curve to the other end of the alley.
No Nintendo, Game-Boys or X-Box back then. Just your imagination!
The only electric games were Tudor football, Lionel trains & slot cars.
Soon I'll tell you the story involving the utility pole on the right, by the Kessey garage.
LS |
03-01-2012
( Reply#: 8178 ) |
Bill Bucko |
quote:
Originally posted by Roger D
Hooray for alleys!! When I lived on Clark St.(age 8-12) I spent more time in the alley with my buddies than on the streets. We roamed the alley in the 44 hundred block between Clark St. and State Line Ave. Amazed at all the "good stuff" mom would not let us keep.
Well, the trick was to smuggle them into the house! Like the old frog I found run over by a truck--hard, black, about as thick as a piece of cardboard. It could be used as a frisbee.
Bill
Warren G. Harding Class of '63 |
03-02-2012
( Reply#: 8181 ) |
seejay2 |
We used to refer to cats in that form as "sailcats". I guess it would apply to frogs as well...Cj |
03-02-2012
( Reply#: 8182 ) |
Roger D |
Why oh Why?? Does the city pave alleys? It ruins their character!!
Paving makes alleys useless to 50's and 60's kids!! |
03-02-2012
( Reply#: 8183 ) |
Tom J |
quote:
Originally posted by Roger D
Why oh Why?? Does the city pave alleys? It ruins their character!!
Paving makes alleys useless to 50's and 60's kids!!
Right! |
03-03-2012
( Reply#: 8184 ) |
HassoBenSoba |
Here's an "Alley" shot of Lil' Stevie's house, taken in September, 2005.
[IMG]http://i989.photobucket.com/albums/af12/HassoBenSoba/09-18-05_1633.jpg[/IMG]
Nice, idyllic look, I'd say...very much like things felt in the good old days.
Too bad the picture quality looks a little murky. When I took this pic in 2005, my old cell phone
seemed to be deteriorating. In 2010, when I traded the phone in, I asked the salesman why its picture
quality had become so bad; he looked at it closely and said: "Have you ever cleaned the lens?".......
Duh.
LR |
03-03-2012
( Reply#: 8186 ) |
seejay2 |
Just an 'alley' story that comes to mind:
Maybe I've touched on this before--don't remember. Years ago, the old man was driving thru the alley in a '54 Ford pickup that he had all tricked out with a T-Bird engine in it. He rolled up on a bicycle box lying there and decided to run over it with that heavy duty truck of his. Just as he got up to it, he had this sudden epiphany that maybe there was an old bike or something in it that might screw up his truck. He stopped and got out of the truck to move the box aside. Just as he was going for the box, two little kids came crawling out of it (had to be the original Beavis & Butthead).
Would that not take the edge off of your day?...Cj |
03-03-2012
( Reply#: 8188 ) |
Little Stevie |
quote:
Originally posted by seejay2
Just an 'alley' story that comes to mind:
Maybe I've touched on this before--don't remember. Years ago, the old man was driving thru the alley in a '54 Ford pickup that he had all tricked out with a T-Bird engine in it. He rolled up on a bicycle box lying there and decided to run over it with that heavy duty truck of his. Just as he got up to it, he had this sudden epiphany that maybe there was an old bike or something in it that might screw up his truck. He stopped and got out of the truck to move the box aside. Just as he was going for the box, two little kids came crawling out of it (had to be the original Beavis & Butthead).
Would that not take the edge off of your day?...Cj
Wow! what luck for him! Maybe his subconscious mind detected barely noticeable movements in the box!
The "kids in a box" thing though, was pretty common on Magoun. We'd go to Foster Music, Larry's former place of employment,
grab a box from a piano or organ, knock out the bottom of it and the top, if it was still on, then get inside and crawl.
It was our "Army tanks" of the neighborhood. We only did this in the yards, never in the alley.
Those cinders were too hard on the knees!
LS
|
03-03-2012
( Reply#: 8189 ) |
Little Stevie |
Sometime in the late sixties, before my father passed away,
we bought a basketball hoop. Why we didn't get a backboard, I dunno.
Maybe I won the hoop at one of those "Bingo Nights" at my old church, St Michael's of East Chicago, now of Cedar Lake.
Anyway, a few years after Dad had died, I went to Saxon's paint store on Indianapolis Blvd., the old "Kroger's" store,
and saw a plywood backboard for $11.99. I decided to buy it.
When the woman rang it up, she misread the price tag and sold it to me for $1.99.
Well, since I got such a bargain, I put that backboard and hoop up on the garage as soon as possible.
A couple of "problems" exposed themselves after installation. One, though the hoop was ten feet above garage apron,
it turned out to be ten and one half to eleven feet higher than the rest of the alley, depending where you stood.
The other helped alleviate the first one. Since the cinders were loose and moved around with each passing vehicle,
dribbling a basketball in the alley was virtually impossible!
Try a fast break to the left. . .and the ball would go to the right.
Plus you could "Travel" without lifting your foot. Just take a fast step. . . stick out that foot. . . and slide on the gravel.
"Alleyball" was a very correct term.
LS |
03-03-2012
( Reply#: 8190 ) |
seejay2 |
quote:
Wow! what luck for him! Maybe his subconscious mind detected barely noticeable movements in the box!
Lucky yes. Subconscious mind no. He was concerned with screwing up his truck, which to him was a living thing.
The "kids in a box" thing though, was pretty common on Magoun. We'd go to Foster Music, Larry's former place of employment,
grab a box from a piano or organ, knock out the bottom of it and the top, if it was still on, then get inside and crawl.
It was our "Army tanks" of the neighborhood. We only did this in the yards, never in the alley.
Those cinders were too hard on the knees!
LS
We would get our "fort boxes" from Pint Size, when he had them. Like you say though, we built our forts in the back yard. The alley was only a repository for the things that would eventually adorn the cardboard walls...Cj
|
03-03-2012
( Reply#: 8191 ) |
HassoBenSoba |
A couple of "problems" exposed themselves after installation.
Steve---
Aha!! No doubt the continual problems with the basketball hoop were some sort of Divine Retribution for not pointing out the $1.99 mistake to the cashier.
--------------------------
In the mid-60's (in Hessville), we got a new stereo console for the living room, and my dad decided to keep the huge cardboard box for my younger sibilings to play with (downstairs in the basement). They cut a few big square holes in front, a door in the side, drew a few funky dials and levers on it, and called it "The Seaview" (the sub from "Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea.") I think it got ruined in one of our usual basement floodings.
LR
CJ-- Quite a story about your dad and his truck. |
03-03-2012
( Reply#: 8192 ) |
Little Stevie |
quote:
Originally posted by HassoBenSoba
A couple of "problems" exposed themselves after installation.
Steve---
Aha!! No doubt the continual problems with the basketball hoop were some sort of Divine Retribution for not pointing out the $1.99 mistake to the cashier.
--------------------------
In the mid-60's (in Hessville), we got a new stereo console for the living room, and my dad decided to keep the huge cardboard box for my younger sibilings to play with (downstairs in the basement). They cut a few big square holes in front, a door in the side, drew a few funky dials and levers on it, and called it "The Seaview" (the sub from "Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea.") I think it got ruined in one of our usual basement floodings.
LR
CJ-- Quite a story about your dad and his truck.
Yep Lar, not even a crime, just an "oversight" by the clerk and myself.
I could try the now often used excuse:
I was going to go back and point out the mistake but the store had already closed for the weekend and it just "slipped" my mind!"
But I won't. Thought for the first time, finally, "Little Stevie" gets a break for all the abuse in those formative years!
LS |
03-03-2012
( Reply#: 8193 ) |
BobK |
When we lived on Calumet Ave I was too young to be in the alley. When we moved to Highland St I probably walked alleys more than sidewalks. I would walk the alley to my best friends house on Lewis all the time. Always entered from the back and never knocked at the door, just stood out back yelling his name until he came out or a family member came to the door to say he wasn't home. When we move to the north side on Torrence the alleys were concrete. When I got married we lived behind the in-laws on Clark St and the alley was the same one Roger roamed but I only left our garbage there. Since we moved to Highland and then Valpo, no more alleys.
Bob
|
03-03-2012
( Reply#: 8194 ) |
Little Stevie |
My Uncle George, who's '59 DeSoto is in a photo on the "MAM" thread, told my cousins and I,
at a poker game at his house, in the mid eighties, that when he would come over to visit when "Little Stevie" was 8 or so,
he'd ask " Where's the young'un?"
My Dad would answer:
"He's in the alley. . . chasin' cats!"[:D]
Who knows what that was all about. Got a laugh from a bunch of drunk cousins though.
LS |
03-09-2012
( Reply#: 8232 ) |
Jay |
On one side of our alley were all the garages of the homes of my family and our neighbors. And on the other side was just weed and gravel covered railroad property. There was enough room for us to "paint" the lines for a baseball diamond on the ground. We organized teams composed of neighborhood kids from blocks around.
I also remember practicing my outdoor cooking on the railroad property in the alley so that I could earn the Cooking merit badge when I was in Boy Scouts. This required practice since timing of the various portions of the meal was critical for passing the test.
Other times, we'd go out into the alley to start a campfire on the railroad property to cook hot dogs and marshmallows. |
