Shopping in downtown McCook

So that our volunteer members can enjoy time with their families, the Genealogy Library will be closed until after the New Year's Weekend. Our wishes for a blessed Christmas and Happy New Year go out to everyone!

David Stanzel has shared on the Facebook site, Remember When in McCook Nebraska, a fabulous picture that is inscribed at the bottom: "Birds Eye View from the Keystone, McCook, Nebraska."

Recognizable is the Montgomery Ward building, now the home of the Painted Ladies, and just south of it is a sign for Shafer's Café followed by a signage for King Kong Radio. Shafer's Café is in the 1931 City Directory as being owned and operated by Henry and Ethel Schafer but no information is available on King Kong Radio.

By 1953, Shafer's had become Murphy's Café and again, no reference is made to the radio station. Because there are no directories available between 1931 and 1948, King Kong Radio remains a mystery....to me anyway, but I am pretty certain someone out there knows what it was!

Radio stations, KICX and KBRL both show up in the 1966 (and earlier) Directory. KBRL, McCook Broadcasting Company, with Mr. LeRoy W. Lenwell, President-Manager, was listed as being located in the Masonic Temple Building, 320 ˝ Norris Avenue. KICX, SEMCO Broadcasting, W.O. Corrick, President-General Manager gave the First National Bank building, 302 Norris Avenue as its' home base but most of us from that era remember locations on West J Street and West B Street respectively.

Another set of call letters that keeps popping up when I am searching for old radio stations is KNAX, listed as a 700 Watt station compared to KBRL which was a 1300. Naturally both of those stations were AM stations at the time.

1966, which unbelievably was 50 years ago, was a year after my family had moved to McCook, and the City Directory tugs at my memory with so many buildings and businesses gone from our landscape today. Most memorable below the B Street intersection was Stan's News, Goodson Plumbing and Heating, Modern Appliance, Olympia, DeGroff's, Swan's Furniture, Steven's Furs and Vogue.

Going north the list becomes even more nostalgic since I worked for A & M Rexall and my best friends' grandmother did alterations for Clapp's. Many school mates' parents either worked or owned businesses like Power's Bakery, Turman's, Sweetbriar, Cottingham's and McMillen Drug plus Mary K's Shop.

Above C Street you could find Prests Drug, Pat's Booterie, Gen's Bridal Shop, Ford's Jewelry (thankfully, Mike and Laura Ford have continued his parents' "on the bricks" tradition with their wonderful shop, Knowlen & Yates), Brooks Studio, Modrell's Café and another one of my employers, Fashion Fabrics/Tots and Teens, Elijah and Kathryn Vap's store. I have to add that Kathryn (who was always Mrs. Vap to me) taught me so much about retail sales and taking care of your customers, I remain indebted to her memory.

All of these stores stayed open every Thursday night for shoppers and during Christmas they were open in the evening during the week for the convenience of their customers and so all the kids could see Santa Claus in Degroff's Department Store basement, which just conveniently also happen to be the toy section. People forget now, but I certainly remember, the time when stores were not open on Sunday in McCook and certainly not on holidays. I also remember the desperate calls Al Roth would get on Christmas Day wanting him to open his store so that a parent could buy the necessary batteries to run the new toy under the tree. If you remember how much Al loved children, then you know he always left his family and their presents to make sure someone else's child had a Merry Christmas!