My View from the Pilot House

Hey! Whattaya say we go back to um, oh how about the year 1954? Oh, yeah I was a strappin’ 18 year old lad, just granulated um I mean graduated from Lincoln High School and ready to take on the world. 1954 was when almost all of the Plymouth businesses were owned and operated by Plymouth people. Because they knew you and you knew them, they took care of you therefore we continued to do business with them. Most of the retail businesses were situated in downtown Plymouth as we didn’t have any malls in 1954. The population of Plymouth, according to the 1950 census, was 6,704. Our family must have been the “4” of the 6,704 as there was my mom and dad (that’s 2) and my sister and me (that’s two more. So 2 plus 2 equals 4) . H m m m m. Do you suppose?

The Plymouth Police department had only ONE police car, the Marshall County Sheriff’s Department had FOUR on the staff that consisted of the sheriff, two deputies and a matron who was usually the sheriff’s wife. Each county officer had to use his personal car as a patrol car. The Plymouth Fire department had five trucks plus a grass fire truck. There wasn’t any EMS service back then - - the funeral directors handled that service. Your home and business phone number had only four digits.

THE FLOOD of 1954 - - Torrential downpours for two days (Saturday and Sunday October 9 and 10, 1954) drenched Marshall county and northern Indiana with eight inches of rain that quickly swelled the drainage ditches and of course the Yellow River to overflowing. An accumulated rainfall of over a week amounted to over 13 inches. That’s a lot of rain.

Families who lived along the river were worst hit as the water poured into their basements, forcing them from their homes.

Many citizens donated their boats (some with motors) which were the modes of transportation to ferry people from South Michigan Street to Laporte Street. The city was virtually cut in half by water. Remember this happened BEFORE the U.S. 30 and U.S. 31 by-pass was built. There were many traffic problems to contend with. You couldn’t go east on U.S. 30 (Jefferson Street) or South on U.S. 31(South Michigan Street) as the Yellow River went right through the center of town. Many had difficulty just getting to town because of the rural flooding.

COUNTY BRIDGES CLOSED OR SWEPT AWAY- - At least a dozen county bridges were damaged and a few were swept away by the current. Many county roads were also closed because of wash-out. Travel in some rural areas was nonexistent. In Plymouth, the boards on the wood- planked Pierce Street Bridge had to be taken up as the water would have washed them away. The Pennsylvania railroad worked for two days repairing a cave-in just west of Donaldson where surging waters caused the collapse of hundreds of tons of dirt from the railroad bank which left the railroad ties just hanging in mid air.

FOR ENTERTAINMENT - - there was the Rees, Rialto and Tri-way Theatres, the Friday night ball games, summer baseball and softball games at Centennial Park, and of course after the high school ball games there was the TOPS (Teenagers Of Plymouth Society) dances that sponsored dances at the St. Thomas Parish house. The American Legion Hall, situated on W. Laporte St, would also hold dances on alternate Friday nights. It cost just 35 cents to get in at both places - - and - - they served refreshments. Most of the time they used popular recordings, but once in a while they had a real live dance band using musicians from the PHS dance band with Ken Hallman as director.

Then there was the Colonial Hotel in Rochester that featured the top big bands of the time LIVE such as: Tex Beneke (Glenn Miller band), Ray Anthony, Billy May, Les and Larry Elgart, Count Basie, Pee Wee Hunt, and many others. A lot of us would take our dates to listen and dance to these famous bands. What fun that was.

Did you know that G & G Food Market had two stores back in 1954? Yep, one was at 104 N Water Street and the other one was at 827 N. Center Street. WHAT THINGS COST IN 1954 • Yearly inflation rate . . . . 0.32%

• Avg. cost to build a new house . . . $10,250

• Cost of a gallon of gas 22 cents. NOTE: gas prices didn’t change two to three times a week. It took several years before a gas price increase - - then it was only a few cents.

• Avg. cost of a new car $1,700

• Avg. monthly rent $85, month.

• Avg. cost of movie ticket 70 cents - popcorn 15cents.

• At The Ball Co. men’s suits were $39.95 and shirts were $3.99

• At Lauer’s “of course” you could buy an overcoat for $29.95

• At Bosworth’s, a women’s clothing store, ladies could buy a pair on nylon stockings for $1.50

• At Swearingen’s, Weick’s and Mcclure shoe stores women’s dress shoes sold for $4.89 and men could pick up a pair for five bucks.

• Coke and candy bars 5c. - Coffee 10c pie and coffee 25c.

AUTOMOBILE DEALERS IN 1954

Back then, there was more of a choice of auto dealers some of whom sold cars that no longer exist today. Cars were also much cheaper. For example a 1954 Cadillac Fleetwood cost about $4,600. Let’s take a look at some of the auto dealers doing business in Plymouth in 1954:

• Ball Motors. . . Desoto and Plymouth . . . 620 E. Jefferson St.

• Morcombe Buick . . . 634 E. Jefferson St.

• Byrum Motor Sales. . . Cadillac & Oldsmobile. . . 701 E. Jefferson St.

• Gates Chevrolet . . . 121 E. Washington St.

• Jeffirs Motors. . . Dodge & Plymouth . . . West Jefferson St.

• Steve Willis Motors. . . Ford . . . 500 W. Jefferson St.

• Truman Motors. . . Hudson . . . Lincolnway East

• J.R. Klapp Garage. . . Studebaker . . . 200 E. Laporte St.

• Liberty Pontiac . . . 600 E. Jefferson St.

• Potzler Motor Sales. . . Mercury . . . 705 E. Jefferson St.

Teenagers are always hungry. And in 1954 we were no different. We had our favorite eating places where we could, as they say today . . . “hang out and have fun.”

EATING PLACES IN PLYMOUTH . . . 1954:

• The Barrel . . . 1231 W. Jefferson St.

• The Candy Kitchen . . . 224 N. Michigan St.

• Bart’s Fiesta Grill . . . 118 N. Water St.

• Curve Inn . . . 810 Lincolnway East.

• Henry’s Serv-u . . . 1400 N. Michigan St.

• Pilgrim Coffee Shop . . . 117 S. Michigan St.

• Gus’ Kewpie Grill . . . N. Michigan St.

• Price’s Steak House . . . N. Michigan St.

• Howell’s Chicken in the Ruff . . . E. Jefferson St.

HAVE A GREAT WEEK-END

and MAY GOD BLESS

Back by somewhat popular demand! We’re gonna laugh a little - - laugh a lot - - BUT LAUGH!

OK here goes: What is brown, hairy and wears sunglasses? A coconut on vacation of course.

Speaking of vacation. Where do sharks go on vacation? Finland.

How do we know that an ocean is friendly? It waves.

What happens when you throw a red, white and blue hat into the lake? It gets wet, silly.

Bill:where did your mom go for her summer vacation?

Ann: Alaska.

Bill: Never mind, I’ll ask her myself.

Answer to the last POP QUIZ: the question was - - What famous musician and talk show host played the part of Benny Goodman in the movie , “The Benny Goodman Story”? ANSWER: Steve Allen. If you got this one correct you could be eligible to win a used reed all nice and stained and wet from one of Goodman’s clarinet. Or maybe not.

Well, that’s it for now . . . So until the next time . . . This is my view from the Pilot house.