Memory Snapshots Beyond the Treasure Chest

John R. Rogers

Teen Transportation

It seemed to have happened more than once, enough times that they almost came to expect it. My car was out of gas, just as we would be ready to take off for a Friday night adventure at Albi Stadium (was it Memorial Stadium then?) for Pirate football and the usual Riverside cruise.

I had a relatively, in good shape, 1950, standard blue Chevrolet, the kind with the torpedo hind-end. Pepe Kelling, Norm "Coop" Cooper, "Sophomore" Barry Robinson and Bob "Marty" Martin would come to my house, the little green cracker box at Pittsburg and Wabash, to pile into my un-named car...the one with the Mobile flying horse on the front fenders and racoon tail. After the tell-tale, "uurrh-urrh-urhh", sounds of being out-of-gas, they would, with the usual grumblings, pile out and begin the push...all the way to the nearest gas station at Wellesley and Crestline. Six guys pushing an old Chevy isn't too strenuous. What was that, about 5 blocks? Piece of cake.

We would pool whatever we had in our pockets, which amounted to mere coins. Could get quite a few miles out of a few coins of gas in those days. In fact, if memory serves me correctly, which it increasingly, as the years become more numerous, doesn't, in post-1960, we got 39 cents worth one night, enough to get to the stadium and take the drive through Friday-night Spokane and up to the Panda for a look-see and maybe a burger and shake.

No one ever complained too much about the push-for-gas. They were all cross country guys, so moving on foot wasn't so bad. Besides, I was the only one with a car. Who could complain too loudly?

- Wyatt Newman

Teen Transportation - Not

After reading Wyatt's story, I'm compelled to tell my contrasting transportation story. Some of it happened even as Wyatt was getting donations to actually pilot a car somewhere in 1958.

My family had one car. My Dad usually had it parked several hundred miles away while he built a dam or something. When I was 16 I went to my room to study one night. When I came out to get a drink of water, I found that my parents had quietly split for good. My Dad departed IN the car.

My mother always refused to drive a car anyway, so there was not one for me borrow. Getting friends to pony up $0.39 so we could drive a car of mine to Memorial Stadium (not Joe Albi then) or the Panda was not one of my options. Following are the options that I did use:

• In our freshman year I tried the ten cent special Spokane City Lines bus ride to and from Rogers several mornings and evenings. It was a cattle car. Once I was beat up in the rear of the bus. Probably caused by my mouth. I started walking or bumming rides.
• I walked miles and miles on foot. Rogers was seven miles round-trip from our house. I walked the round-trip many times. I enjoyed it. I was lean and mean then. Now I drive everywhere  and I'm not .... lean.
• Some summers Jack Greenemeyer and I would get restless and walk to Northtown and back.  Mind you, we lived a few blocks from the Green Street bridge. Sounds like one of those "In my day we walked 25 miles to school in neck-deep snow" stories, doesn't it?
• Chris Rossmeir and I often bummed a morning ride to Rogers with Bob Parry's father. He worked at the VA Hospital at the other end of Wellesley, so he passed Rogers anyway. I would walk the 3.5 miles home at night.
• Later, I worked downtown after school. I skipped out of sixth period "study hall" on a work permit. I took the Perry bus downtown, worked, and returned home on the Minnehaha bus. Then it was homework, bed, and do it all again.
• Paul Kreager worked downtown too, so he let me pay him $2.50 a week to take me to work and back home for a time. This was about the same price as the bus -- not a bad deal.
• Sometimes I would see a movie after work on Friday. By the time the movie let out, the busses were running every hour or not running at all. I would walk home from downtown. This could be dicey when I ran into thugs on their turf at midnight. When people talk about how serene Spokane used to be, they didn't live in my shoes.
• In the summer of 1958, Bob Parry and I took "Safe Driving" at Lewis and Clark from Mr. Russell, our former metal shop teacher.  Bob's mother drove us there and back. After passing and getting his license, Bob went on to borrow his parents' cars at times, graciously inviting me along. I, on the other hand, had nothing to borrow and so did not even apply for a driver's license.
• I remember my Dad visiting our house one evening while my mom was gone somewhere. I decided I wanted to take his car ('47 Chevy) for a short joyride to Jack and Sue's Fountainette on Euclid. Dad enjoyed cooking. He was in the kitchen whipping up some delight. I waited in the car for him to finish so I could, well ... steal his car without his seeing it. He never did leave the kitchen on a timely basis so I never did take the car. Why didn't I just ask? Remember, I had no license.
• My mom acquired a pharmacist boyfriend. He had a '56 Ford. He lent it to me four or five times though I had no license.  Remember Freya St. next to Esmeralda Golf Course? It was one of NE Spokane's famous dirt roads. I had that Ford up to 90 on that dirt road. It was as if it were floating, with the nose drifting a bit side-to-side. When I stopped, reality and common sense set in. I realized that I was first-runner up in getting the Darwin Award and that I should never ever try this again. I did quit and am still here 44 years later to write this.
• Earlier in this series I talked about a Sadie Hawkins date. I borrowed my mom's boy friend's car for that date. I was unlicensed.
• In the 1960 Treasure Chest is a long shot of the 1960 Rogers Science Fair. Mr Carroll, Bob Parry, and I are standing by my exhibit. I transported that exhibit to Rogers and back using my mom's boy friend's car, driving with no license. Why didn't I ask him to take me down for my license? I didn't really like the guy.

The no-car situation took a toll on my Rogers social life. I graduated and flew over to Michigan State University at East Lansing, Michigan for a second run at life. MSU freshmen couldn't have cars and  there were few places to park if you did have one. It was possible to date on campus without a car, and I had friends with cars, so life was pretty good. I continued to hike long distances across the huge park-like campus. I became a legal Michigan resident, not even returning to Spokane during summers.  There was nobody in Michigan to cosign a loan or minor's driver's license.

So when DID I get a license and my first car? When I turned 21  I hiked to Lansing  and bought a '57 Chevy on time for $750. I had the salesman drop it and me off at my garret. Then I had friend Wayne Sumerix drive it and me to the drivers' license place, got a license, and began my life of driving by driving Wayne home. The car, gasoline, parts (the generator failed the first night), and its insurance took 1/3 of my part-time wages. I was 21. Most of my Rogers contemporaries had been driving for five years, but my life had been great during those five years. I wouldn't change a bit of it. Now I drive 20,000 miles per year and think I should more often walk instead.

- Ed Mauget