Long ago on independence square (Raytown, Lexington: commuting, dental, metro)

[WCHS'59]

We camped there several times but only hiked out once. On Sunday morning, the church brought out an elder who held services for the boys. Then they let us go skinny dipping.

No one had brought swimming trunks because no one anticipated there would be any swimming. This might have been private property belonging to someone connected to the church or to the scoutmaster.

It so happened we had discovered a small "swimming hole"--make that a little puddle-- that was several feet deep and as muddy as could be. It was also in a small depression away from the road but the trees and brambles were so thick you could not see the road.

When we walked down into that small depression, I noticed some bullet riddled targets that had been placed rather high up in the trees, making them at about road level. We had just got in the water when bullets started zipping through the trees. The sound of bullets hitting trees is a really scary sound. Someone had stopped on the roadway and two or three men were firing at the targets, which were right above us.

At any rate, the scoutmaster yelled for us to stay in the water and he ran in a round about way to the road yelling. The men stopped firing but we no longer wanted to be in the water. Later, we all had a subdued chuckle out of that one.

[WCHS'59]

I recall these door-to-door companies operating in Independence in the fifties. They were based in Kansas City. I think they are long gone.

Most women stayed at home during the day. Very few were employed.

Manor Bread: The Manor Bread truck came down our street every day or at least every other day. If you were a regular customer, he would blow his distinctive sounding whistle and then shout “Manor Bread!” as he came up the walk to the door. If you were not a regular customer he would stop maybe once a month to see if you needed anything. One could buy bread, pastries, doughnuts, etc.

Jewel Tea Company or Jewel Grocery: One could order groceries by phone from Jewel and Jewel would deliver to your door.

There was a door-to-door milk delivery truck also, but I do not remember the name—perhaps Borden’s.

[MRG Dallas]

Remember the alpha-numeric telephone exchanges that existed prior to the all-digit numbers? For Independence there were at least 3 that I could think of, turns out there were more, although the 3 Biggies were by far the largest number of entries. In 1960, numbers were a full 7 characters and Independence had:

TE mple with prefix of 1 only
IN dependence 1 only
CL ifton Our stores were CLifton numbers, prefixes of 2 and 4. Of these 3, Clifton had the largest number of entries. CL-2 ran the gamut, 0001 - 9999. CL-4 pretty much began in the 4500s, running off and on to 9880 (i.e, not every 4 digit number was in service).

TE-1 must have been the new kid on the block, basically running to the 3100s.

In addition, Polk's reveals others:

REpublic 1. This looks to cover the 40 Hiway from Crysler and Blue Ridge westward. There are only 100 numbers of so listed but they include Cool Crest Swim Club, Davis Hardware, Sonny's Standard, Clark's Super "100" Service, Site Serv Station, the Bamboo Hut, and my old 3&2 baseball nemesis, Hale's Trailer Sales. Most of those I remember having 40 HWY locations.

There are also about 100 numbers listed under a MUlberry exchange. These are all residential, no businesses, so presumably this is out in the sticks, guessing east/NE city limits.

Our exchange in Raytown was FLeming. There were FL 3 and FL 6 back in 1960. Several hundred Flemings as parts of Independence crossed south of 40 HWY and into the Raytown School District, but FLeming was basically the main exchange for Raytown, eventually adding an 8 prefix.

[MRG Dallas]

No doubt Sally loved the IN 1-exchange, as she dialed up burgers at Winstead's and Slover's, and shopped with her grandfather at Safeway & A&P.

BTW, the very last entry is TEmple 1-9900. The listing for SW Bell Telephone Co. Saving their last for best, I guess.


I'm not sure what year SW Bell went to 7-character numbers, but Polk's in 1954 shows no prefixes. Galen Boyer Motors, for example, was CLifton-9800.

[WCHS'59]

I believe when we got a phone in the late forties that our number was 5331. We had four people on our line.

Eventually it became IN 5331 and then later IN 1-5331 and then 373-5331.

I think if you called the phone company--it was on the corner of Truman and Spring streets--you dialed a TRemont number.

I might also note that the telephone was not something the kids were normally allowed to touch, not even to answer. We could not even talk to grandma since long distance was costly and even the folks did not call them often.

I can recall being 16 and still having to ask permission to use the phone to call a girl friend.

As a side note: out here in Colorado if we want to call someone else in the area we have to dial ten digits, even if you call the neighbor next door. The extra three digits are the area code. A "1" is not used. Also, a neighbor can have a different area code.

[MRG Dallas]

Originally Posted by MRG Dallas

No doubt Sally loved the IN 1-exchange, as she dialed up burgers at Winstead's and Slover's, and shopped with her grandfather at Safeway & A&P.

BTW, the very last entry is TEmple 1-9900. The listing for SW Bell Telephone Co. Saving their last for best, I guess.


I'm not sure what year SW Bell went to 7-character numbers, but Polk's in 1954 shows no prefixes. Galen Boyer Motors, for example, was CLifton-9800.

The 56 Polk's shows prefixed numbers so the change occurred about 1955. Which makes sense to me because I never remember our store number having only 6 characters, and that was the year it opened.

[WCHS'59]

There have been some rumors on the web that the diving horse is returning to Atlantic City. The horse was popular in the 50s and maybe before that time.

In 1961, the Atlantic City Steel Pier performing horse was touring with the Shrine Circus and that circus was set to appear in Kansas City at the old Municipal Auditorium during early March 1961.

One ring of the three ring circus was permanently taken over by a large, tall, twenty or thirty thousand gallon water tank. Attached to the tank were a high tower and a connected elevator that was to take the horse up into the ceiling area of the auditorium. The horse would then exit the elevator and make a dive into the water tank. I cannot recall the height of the dive but the horse had made sixty foot dives outside in Atlantic City.

I and a good friend attended the show eager to check this horse out.


Just before the horse was to be introduced, a couple of clowns were horsing around amusing the audience. One of them climbed a ladder on the tower and dived in from a pretty good height, but at a lower level than the horse would jump. When the clown hit the water, huge waves rolled over the side of the water tank and splashed onto the auditorium floor. That made me wonder how much water would go over the rim when the horse hit the water.

Another clown dived in and people began cheering at all the water going over the edge of the tank. The first clown had climbed out and had finished climbing a ladder and was ready to dive again. The second clown was climbing the ladder.


The first clown dove in again and when he hit the water there was a terrific roar and the side of the tank split open and lifted up. It looked like there was enough water to get to our seats and I momentarily panicked and started to run up to the balcony, but caught myself and just stood there. As I watched, the tower with the horse elevator collapsed and came crashing down on the main floor and cut through several seats in the first few rows chewing them up.


Luckily, no one was sitting in these seats or they most likely would have been killed.
One of the clowns suffered multiple broken extremities. A couple other people were injured but no one was killed.

As rescue of the injured began, the old adage that “the circus must go on” began playing out. The band started playing and performers were put in one ring and were trying to quiet the crowd, but no one was clapping and no one really wanted to watch them. All eyes were on those being given medical aid.

Huge jet engine heaters of some type were brought in overnight and dried the floor. As I recall, the exhibition space in the auditorium basement suffered extensive water damage.

Circus performances went on the next day minus the horse jumping event.
The next cities on schedule for the Shrine Circus canceled the horse jumping event.

[MRG Dallas]

Who remembers these, some of which are still around:

The Music Shop
Harriman Lumber
Drs. Etzenhouser and Hickerson

Brown Tea Pot
Calico Cat
Englewood Cafe
Fairmount Cafe
Green Lantern Rest.
Kelsey's Tavern
Luff's
Maid-Rite Sandwich Shop
Maples Cafe
Osage Grill
Tom Tom Tavern

Stahl's Funeral Home
Wyandotte Furniture
Rev. J.H. Sneed
Community Federal S&L Assn.
Hill Bros. Hardware
Robert Bernstein, Pawnbroker
Israel Galitsky, Genl. Mdse.
Ott & Mitchell Funeral Home

[WCHS'59]

Originally Posted by MRG Dallas

Who remembers these, some of which are still around:

The Music Shop
Harriman Lumber
Drs. Etzenhouser and Hickerson

Brown Tea Pot
Calico Cat
Englewood Cafe
Fairmount Cafe
Green Lantern Rest.
Kelsey's Tavern
Luff's
Maid-Rite Sandwich Shop
Maples Cafe
Osage Grill
Tom Tom Tavern

Stahl's Funeral Home
Wyandotte Furniture
Rev. J.H. Sneed
Community Federal S&L Assn.
Hill Bros. Hardware
Robert Bernstein, Pawnbroker
Israel Galitsky, Genl. Mdse.
Ott & Mitchell Funeral Home

Was the Calico Cat on 23rd Street (or Alton)
I believe I ate in the Fairmount Cafe a number of times, if it was on the north side of Independence Ave.

[MRG Dallas]

Calico Cat was/still is on Indep Ave. 10325. I saw it on Google Maps awhile back, then took a Streetview tour up and down US 24 in that direction. I believe an old A&P structure still had the distinctive architecture on the north side of 24.

These were all from 1936. Talk about staying power! I'm surprised you didn't mention the Green Lantern which was still at 1425 W. Lexington in 1960. Fairmount Cafe was on IA, 10225. Just down from Jerry's Cafe at 10219. Fairmount also had a Nu-Way Drive In at 10503 IA.