Friday, July 12, 2019

PLACES OF THE HEART


...CHARACTERS IN OUR DRAMA OF LIFE


One warm spring day.  
  not long ago and after
an early lawn mowing 
  I was sitting there 
under the back patio
   just sipping on lemon tea 
and got drowsy and must've
   dozed off    for one of
those weird day-time reveries
and

there I was     back in old Clovis
   my beloved hometown since
along about the summer of '38
    and I was walking the sidewalks
and seeing the streets    or was
    I riding the  old Schwinn bicycle
or in the green '60 Chevy pickup-
    who knows ...dragging Main...
or flying over someway--
    you know dreams...
and as I saw all around   my mind 
   went back over decades 
and saw all the store and businesses
    that were so much a part
of our world ...then... almost like
   characters in our drama of life
in our growing-up days...

Yes
   we had that town memorized.
In my dream    there were:

  Clovis High School    the Band Shell,
Silver Grill    Standridge  Drug  
    First Methodist    Gateway Auto
Curry County Court House. State Theater
   Stanley Pawol      Thrifty Drug
Sunshine Theater   Levine's  Anthony's
   Fox Drug     Newsstand    J.C. Penny's
Lyceum  Theater     Cotton's Barber Shop 
      Woolworth's       May Brothers 
Duckworth's Drug    Carmack's  Sutter's
   Holmberg's      Frear's      Mandell’s…..

…..Jack Holt the Clothier  Citizens Bank
    Carrington Barber Shop   Post Office
Jenk's Barber Shop   Peggy's Shop
   City Hall/Fire Department 
The Country Store     Whatley's  Wick's
   O.K.RubberWelders   Empy's Welding
Magic Steam Laundry  Phelps Grocery
   Blaylock's     Janeway Drug 
Rode's Mens Store       Coney Island
    Slaughter Murray’s     Mesa Theater
Busy Bee    Hotel Clovis    Snazzy Pig
     El Monterrey    Clovis National
Montgomery Ward      Clovis Printing
    Woolworth's     and then: 

there I was      standing there at the 
corner of Fourth and Main    in front
of Barry Hardware, one of my favorite
stores and places in town--and 
strangely of a sudden the time was
August of 1945      and Main was
blocked and a KICA van was out in
the intersection broadcasting, as
I came out of the Saturday movie at
the Lyceum...

      KICA was announcing through
their loudspeaker
      The Japanese have surrendered.
And I was eleven years old ...and
thought No More Wars...and suddenly
  I awoke...
  ---------
   By MIL
   22 MAY 2019
   
  





















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