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Decatur Memories
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Monday, November 23
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WINTER IN DECATUR PROVIDED LOTS OF FUN
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Ice skating at Dreamland Lake, 1908
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Back in the days before automobiles became numerous enough to become a hazard, sledding in the wintertime was a big thing in Decatur. Weekends saw not only the kids, but grown-ups out on the hills with sleds and bobsled. No one around knew what a ski was.
In an old Tribune story one local resident recalled how Johns Hill was thronged by sledders back around 1913-1914. There was a bobsled run from up on top of Johns Hill, where Mrs. Jane Johns lived at that time, which went east across what is now the athletic field, Jasper Street and running to First Street, which was later made 16th
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WAYSIDE INN GONE, BUT NOT FORGOTTEN
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The Wayside Inn was a favorite downtown restaurant.
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The demolition of the building at 223 East North Street earlier this month wrote the final chapter for a downtown structure that housed many pleasant memories for area residents.
Although younger residents of the community will remember the building as the Armed Forces Recruiting Center, the Wayside Inn sold steak hamburgers, jumbo milk shakes and chili to shoppers and students for more than 40 years, beginning in 1929.
It also featured double-dip cones, sodas and, most importantly for its era, it was air conditioned. While every restaurant is air-conditioned today, it wasn’t as
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'THE WILD CANARY' IN DEPRESSION ERA
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"The Wild Canary" was located in this building.
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Several weeks ago, one of the readers of the Decatur Tribune wrote me to ask if anyone had ever heard of “The Wild Canary”, which was located on South Jackson Street in the 1930s.
I included the reader’s question among the “Editor’s Notebook” and got some replies from people who remember the place.
Apparently, “The Wild Canary” was a dance hall/skating rink of that era and a real “happenin’ place” in the Decatur of the 1930s.
Two weeks ago, Skip Huston wrote me to point out that author Troy Taylor, who formerly lived in the Decatur area, documented some unseemly things that
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DURFEE MAGNET SCHOOL CLOSES -- FOREVER
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Students gather outside for last time.
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After 109 years of serving as the educational fortress for countless children, “Taps” was played and the flag was lower for the last time at Durfee Magnet School Friday afternoon.
Durfee, standing on the northeast corner ofGrand Avenue and Jasper Street, is a casualty of time and the school district’s budget crunch.
Earlier this year, the Decatur Board of Education voted unanimously to close Durfee, sealing its fate.
Sheriff Roger Walker, who attended Durfee School, was on hand to help lower the flag in front of the school, for the last time, as students, faculty members and
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FOND MEMORIES OF ROOSEVELT JUNIOR HIGH
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Roosevelt Junior High Class of 1951.
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When Roosevelt Middle School closed its doors in the spring of 2000, it brought on a flood of memories for many people who attended school in the imposing-looking building on Grand.
One former resident, who attended Roosevelt a half-century ago, is Patricia K. Colbert, who reads her Decatur Tribune in Avon, Indiana.
“I was saddened to read in a recent Tribune article of the closing of Roosevelt Junior High,” she wrote. “I grew up in Decatur, attended Pugh School and Roosevelt Junior High. In sorting old pictures I found one I think you might find interesting. It was taken in the
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More Headlines
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STREET CAR CONDUCTORS OF ANOTHER ERA
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NEUMODE STORE IS FONDLY REMEMBERED
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CITIZENS RECLAIMING OLD KING'S ORCHARD
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NEIGHBORS GATHERED ON THE FRONT PORCH
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AVON, LINCOLN THEATRES SURVIVE DOWNTOWN
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