1963 directory lists city residents

You will have to bear with me if you’ve heard this story before but 1963 was a banner year for me. After all, one only turns 13 once and becoming a teenager was on the schedule for not only myself, but my best friends, Judy and Donna. Back in those days there was a lot of angst about when our mothers were going to allow us to do certain things and at the time those “things” seemed like just about the most important thing in the world, right after watching Little Joe on Bonanza each week.

Easter became the big day! We all quite obviously were bound for church that day in our new Easter dresses, but the big surprise was that we got to accessorize with none less than high heels. Boy was I taller with those heels on! Then on top of that, we got to have our first garter belts and nylon hose. You’ll notice I didn’t say panty hose, which weren’t even around then, but the all-important garter belt with its four horribly uncomfortable snaps that held your nylons up (hopefully) as you paraded around in your high heels. Finally, if you got to wear nylons, you got to do that other grown up thing, shave your legs! Never mind that I have questioned for the last 21,000(+/-) days why I thought that shaving my legs was so important. Never mind that for most of those 21,000 (+/-) days my legs have born the scars of learning how to do just that!

1963 was another first, my first boy/girl party complete with what was our interpretation of dancing! On a lawn, of all places, but who was questioning that kind of opportunity? So, 1963 was a milestone but it also was one of the saddest years of my life when my family had two losses and the country laid John F. Kennedy to rest. Little did I know how much the world would change for everyone in the decade of the 1960s, but 1963 was a hint of what was to be.

The 1963 directory listed not only McCook businesses and residents, but also the Red Willow County taxpayers and the precinct in which they lived. Strangely enough, my parents’ names don’t show up in any precinct so nothing, not even a directory, is perfect when you are doing research. The Sughroue name is on the list but spelled wrong. Albert Brooks is there, as is Merritt Allen, Howard Baumbach and Robert Hedges. Griff and Kenneth Helm, Mallecks, Mihm, Vontz and Uerlings, Frank, Lord, Sides and Foster, all either classmates or friends/extension club members of my parents. Each name conjures up a picture and a memory and for the most part in 1963, a good one.

At Indianola we sat on hay bales and watched movies on a sheet on a city lot that now hosts the swimming pool. Our class outings occurred in the back of a farm truck, again on hay bales, and culminated with wading in the Republican river (I fell in the nettles, it was not that pleasant, but a good lesson in botany). First kisses, first parties, first heels, it was a big year for most of us and the smallest things kept us entertained. That sheltered existence was not to last long, but for me, 1963 will never be just another year.