 | Faye Graves, a native Wichitan, attended school at Friends and Wichita State, concluding at Midwestern Theological Seminary. He has been active in media for many years with Channel 12, KIRL, KFDI, KOOO AM & FM (Omaha), KFRM & KICT 95, as an owner, manager, producer, director and announcer. He has served as President of the Haysville Board of Education. He has also served on several national boards of the Southern Baptist Convention. Faye currently serves as Executive Pastor and Director of Administration and Education at Immanuel Baptist Church, 1415 S. Topeka, Wichita. You may contact Faye by e-mail fmgraves@amenibc.org, or by phone at (316) 262-1452. |
Nostalgia
2011-01-01 10:18:00
Remember...
Answer: I’m sure it’s just our minds playing tricks on us. I would imagine that if we got a chemist or a scientist, they would be happy to prove a certain degree of cold or hot is the same regardless of whether or not it is years apart or not. But I do agree with you…it sure seemed colder back then.
January was always a cold month. When I was a teenager, I loved Christmas and hated to see January come. Snow and cold weather made it hard to get around and tough to get to school. My dad bought me a Cushman motor scooter in the summer of 1947 after much coaxing and negotiating. He told me he would buy it but I had to use it for my transportation to high school. Well, everything was fine as long as the weather was good, but when snow and ice came, riding a motor scooter from the one hundred block on North Athenian to North High School was much less than desirable.
My father said, “I told you this had to be your transportation.” So, I really learned to ride that scooter in the lesser storms and in very cold weather bundled up with Air Force high altitude coats and very big sheep lined gloves as well as one of those really good looking pilot helmets with the ear flaps. I made it to school on that scooter.
At last, my dad took pity on me and bought me a windshield which was like riding in “hoggy heaven” compared to the ice cold wind blowing full force in my face. When it was really bad, Dad would take me to school in his ‘48 Pontiac.
After a year of motor scooter transportation, he bought me a 1937 Ford coupe. However,
there was a problem. It had rust holes in the floor that let in the cold air and exhaust fumes that were humongous. I had two girls that rode to school with me and covered some of my gas expense. One day they said “this car is junk.”
I wanted to prove to them that is wasn’t so I took it out on Highway K-42 and put it up to 50 mph which resulted in the fumes coming through the floor mats in much greater proportion catching the car on fire. It was soon extinguished and so was my pride.
Anyway, the car was still warmer than the scooter.
I also remember putting chains around my tires to help me get through the snow.
I didn’t have enough money to buy a complete set so I went to Oklahoma Tire & Supply on West Douglas and bought some of the individual chains that clipped on. Remember those? They worked as long as you didn’t get stuck too bad, and then they came loose.
Those were not the “good old days.”
