Neepawa of yesteryear: Mama said there’d be days like this
- Details
- Published on Tuesday, November 3, 2015
By Rick Sparling
The Neepawa Press
By the water tower was an open field that we played our ‘Little League’ baseball on. My dad was the manager and Tony Evans was the coach. I can recall like it was yesterday, waiting for a grounder during infield practice with Tony belting them out one-handed harder than most of us could hit with two hands!
That was in 1957.
Evan’s Drive Inn was across Highway 5. At one time, they offered car service with “car hops” and one of the girls working for Tony was Cheryl Thurston. Some of the other car hops were Doreen and Marie Bradley from Arden, Joyce Yuel and Eveyn Reilly from Mentmore and Diane Nickart, Yvette Denis, from Ste. Rose du Lac, and I’m told that Jeanette and Lorna Jaslenczyk, Helen Beaumont plus Sandra Kulbaski were car hops as well.
Next was Matt Siemmen’s Auto Body Shop followed by Ed Smee’s Neepawa Motel. Just prior to the Airport, the last business along the north side of the Highway, was Bachelor’s Dairy Farm operated by Pop (Bert) and Grace Batchelor, grandparents of Gail Cathcart, Maureen Pittman and Lynne Montgomery.
On the other side heading back towards town was The Airliner Drive Inn. My mother had never been to the Drive Inn during all the years it was there and just prior to it closing I decided to take her to see at least one show. We pulled in and got ‘hooked up’ and realized it was a triple X rated movie, which prompted me to unhook and drive out of there about as fast as I could manage! Ouch!
This incident made me review any movie I intended to take anyone to from then on!
Next sat Stoney Creek School then an Anglo garage before Clay Galt’s Texaco Service Station. The Agassiz Drive Inn, (the milk shakes were so thick you could turn them upside down for three or four seconds without them running out) built and run by Carmen Poole, was beside the Pasquill house. Some of the staff at The Agassiz, besides Carmen and Helen’s girls, were Janice, Darlene and Viola Kuharski, Jean Birnie and daughter, Eileen, Josephine Branzin, Doris Whitelock, Alma Loeben and Leslie Gunn.
Right next to that was the Bus Depot (West End Drive Inn) run by Mr. McEachern. Hilda and George McEachern had three daughters, Joan, Linda and Kathy. Prior to the bus depot being built, the McEachern’s ran the “West End Drive Inn.” Some of the car hops there were Pat Jackson, Lynne Harron, Grace Thompson and Janet Kulbaski. These car hops were kept busy serving all of the food produced by cooks Wes Hosler and Mary Owens. This information was from the early 1960s.
After Hare's Cartage, Keith Jackson ran The Ideal Service Station. A couple of his workers were Jim Crabbe, Maurice Clark, Dennis Clark and David Cameron.
In the next block was The Anglican Church. The sign out front says, “Drive carefully. You may hit an Anglican.” That sign gets much attention from people passing through Neepawa.
The other sign that drew attention was the one coming into Neepawa from the east at Provost’s sign shop: “Neepawa population: 997,000….short of a million”. Just south-east of the church sat the tennis courts.
I don’t see that sign any longer. Part way down the town hill was Parrott’s Green House. The Parrotts had two children, John and Geraldine. Just past Parrott's was the area known as “Sleepy Hollow”, where Scotty Burnett sold meat.
The Hydro building was the last business at the east end of Neepawa. Ed Salway was the Manager. Johnny Chapel, Linda and Margie Ball’s step-father also worked there and my mother, Marjorie, worked there as secretary for a number of years.
During the years when I was 16 and 17, back in ’61 and ’62, Saturday night was the time when we “borrowed” our parents’ car and drove around the town in circles. I can remember having my mom’s ’57 Ford, Dennis Foley with his ‘push button’ Chrysler, Richard Gromek’s ’58 Olds, Almer Pasosky’s Monarch and later his convertible Ford Galaxy, Ed Fearn’s Fargo truck and later the Falcon. Lorne Kines and John Parrot with their customized cars. I remember passing each other 25 or 30 times each night. The very first time any of us borrowed the family car was Ron Kleven borrowing his folks’ ’59 Pontiac. What a thrill that was driving around town with the radio blaring out tunes like “Ba Ba Ba Ba Barbara Anne” or “Rama Lama Ding Dong.” I also recall Cam Smith negotiating the country roads in his dad’s ‘60 Vauxhall, gearing down for every sharp turn and handling the gravel roads with the precision of Al Unser.
Another popular tune back then was “Mama said.” Yep, Mama said there’d be days like this…she just didn’t tell us they would end!
