This article was sent to Sally by a friend, thinking it would be nice for theOlney Memories ... in connection with the White Squirrels of Olney.
Sally Hunt
Class of ‘51
Just wanted to comment that I enjoyed the Memories article by Iva May Spieth Robinson in which she described the former location of all of the businesses on Whittle Avenue. It appears that she got them all and in the correct places. As I recall, the tavern that she mentioned that was north of the B&O railway station and west of the shoe factory was owned
by Raul Petty. It was a good place for men who worked or lived in that area to get a cold beer after work, or at any time. Its success was reportedly due to an ambiance not possessed by the other taverns in town.
Jim Dale
Class of 1940
I wanted to comment that I thoroughly enjoyed Iva May Spieth Robinson's account of Whittle Avenue in her youth. Her graduation date was a dozen years before my family began its eleven year stay in Olney, so I assume these would have been the businesses before World War II, but a number of them were still there in the fifties and early sixties.
Thanks again for your efforts. I enjoy each "Olney Memories" and look forward to the next.
Marvin Doolin
Class of 1962
Thank you so much for all the memories. I have been reading two or three a day so that I can really enjoy them.
I read one from Dorothy (Tice) Moore asking about the drug store at Main & Fair. Could that have been Behrend and Bridges? I worked for them. I also knew them in Mattoon, IL when I went to High School my Sophomore and Junior years. They had a drug store across from the High School. They were wonderful people.
I am enjoying all the names of people I can remember such as: Dr. Fritschle, Schmalhausen, (I babysat for the Schmalhausen children some). Was one of them Bobbie? Could he have been the one that ran on the dining room table with Kleats on? I also remember fondly Rev. J.B. Farrell and his daughters, Elizabeth and Margaret. I remember Dr. Houchin, he pulled three teeth for me. Ouch is right. I know they didn't have roots (baby teeth) but they were attached to the gum after all. There were many more mentioned but I don't want to drag this out. Thank you so much again for this wonderful journey.
Helen (Eagleson) McGlone
Class of '41
Hobo Art
In a previous Memories article about The Great Depression, there was a paragraph about hoboes. In it there was speculation that the hoboes had secret markings that they used to indicate houses that might be good prospects for a meal, etc. In a recent article of our local newspaper (The Arkansas-Democrat Gazette) there was an article about these markings. These markings are now considered “folk art.”
The signs were drawn or carved onto street curbs, fence posts, and on walls and other objects to let other hoboes know what to expect from the local community. For example: a horizontal zigzag line meant a vicious dog; a triangle with two stick arms extended from it meant mean man; a crude drawing of a cat indicated a kind woman lives here; two interlocking circles meant “don’t give up;” a drawing of a top hat meant gentleman; and a circle with an X in the center indicated that the house was a good place for a meal.
The article said that an Internet search would probably provide other examples. It would be interesting to know whether hoboes used such markings when they traveled through Olney.
Jim Dale
Class of 1940
In Jim Dale’s article above he mentioned, “It would be interesting to know whether hoboes used such markings when they traveled through Olney.”
I remember when I was small my mother told me that there were some hoboes that traveled along the B&O Railroad tracks that was south bordering our small farm acreage. And I do remember her telling me that they had a “way” of letting their other hobo friends know the good places to go for some food. So I would presume that they did use some sort of markings in Olney also.
Ann Weesner King
Class of 1960
After receiving a forward about words and sayings about cars in our past I began to think of some other ones of days gone by. Here are some that crossed my mind. I am sure you have more but maybe some of these will spark some memories and good conversation. At one time I was Activity Director at the Illinois Odd Fellows Home in Mattoon and one day I was stumped for an activity for a women's group. I went in cold and asked "How many of you have ever used a rug beater???" Well - that was all it took and from then on the women wanted this session as a regular activity.
- Market/grocery
- 3 sheets to the wind
- Pie eyed
- Lunch/dinner
- Dinner/supper
- 2bits-4bits-6 bits -a dollar
- Steering know
- Spinner
- Cheese and crackers got all muddy
- Hour glass figure
- Stacked
- Built like a brick outhouse
- Twerp
- Wallflower
- Pitiful Pearl
- Jumpy as a cat on a hot Tim roof
- Scared spitless
- Fly/plays by the seat of your pants
- Cheaters (glasses)
- Piss poor
- Work brittle
- Pretty as a speckled pup
- Peachy keen
- Fly flap
- Skate key
- Rug beater
- Pants stretchers
- Curtain stretchers
- Fly by night
- Root cellar
- Memeograph machine
- Typewriter
- Ink pen
- Lead pencil
- Shut your pie hole
- Poor house
- Slicker than snot
- Knocked up
- Shot gun wedding
- Potter's field
- Gauze or Birdseye diapers
- Diaper pins
- Flyboy
- Dagwood sandwich
- Jiffy
- Puddle jumper
- Ice box
- Ice pick
- Free loader
- Tangee lipstick
- Blue Waltz perfume
- Highball
- zoot suit with a drape shape
- The Ice Man
Class of ‘53
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