As I reminisced in a prior entry (03/01/2010), I grew up in the 1950s in the small town of Spencer, Iowa. I often think of our Main Street with it's surprising number of diners, bars, pool halls, stores, and numerous other businesses that were a part of mid-century mid-America.
Spencer was a self-contained bustling little burg located in the northwest corner of Iowa, near such “major metropolitan areas” as Milford, Fostoria, and Lake Okoboji. It was a microcosm of the big cities. We had everything anyone could possibly want, just not in the quantity available in the metropolises. And for a kid like me, the scale of the place was pure perfection. It was a fun ride while it lasted.
In the brilliant Barry Levinson film “Avalon,” the lead character, Sam Krichinsky, laments “If I knew things would no longer be, I would have tried to remember better.”
Today my brother Toby jarred my own memory by sending me a disc full of mid-1950s images from our home town of Spencer, and I have posted a few of these wonderful photos above (click on any photo to enlarge). Thanks for the memories, bro.
Spencer was a self-contained bustling little burg located in the northwest corner of Iowa, near such “major metropolitan areas” as Milford, Fostoria, and Lake Okoboji. It was a microcosm of the big cities. We had everything anyone could possibly want, just not in the quantity available in the metropolises. And for a kid like me, the scale of the place was pure perfection. It was a fun ride while it lasted.
In the brilliant Barry Levinson film “Avalon,” the lead character, Sam Krichinsky, laments “If I knew things would no longer be, I would have tried to remember better.”
Today my brother Toby jarred my own memory by sending me a disc full of mid-1950s images from our home town of Spencer, and I have posted a few of these wonderful photos above (click on any photo to enlarge). Thanks for the memories, bro.
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