Small Business in Small Towns

A personal story here. In Junior High I walked to school to school, down a block to pick up Richie, then we walked to a couple of blocks to sometimes Juniors house and then to Gary's house, then across the lawn of Highland Park South over the tennis courts to Eisenhower High School. Sometime in 1980 or so Gary moved to Bennington,Kansas. Richie moved across town to Washburn Rural, I last saw him when he brought over a Record ,Men At Work as my Graduation gift. I have fond memories of those warm and cold days walking to school,going to movies. The Parents picked us and took us to the mall and several movies, sleep overs, the good times everyone hopes for,the true time of innocence.

Gary went with us on a trip to Texas,we stopped several places on the way, I think that was the trip to Astrodome, I remember Galveston Island pretty well, I'm not sure what we did in Oklahoma that trip. I slept a week in Bennington the summer of 1980 and remember 3 things, a tracker pull, seeing "The Muppet Movie" at a downtown movie palace and going to a drug store on the main street that had a soda fountain.


I had passed by Bennington several times over the past few years,going up 81 or connecting to I-70 in Salina. The cut off seemed familiar,but I never stopped. So this trip seemed the time. A couple of factors at play, 1) personal memories, I wondered what I would remember from 30 years ago,never holding out much thought Gary could still be there 2) I always came back in my memories to the Soda Fountain,It was probably the memorable part of the trip.and 3) as I have been though so many small towns,what was the state of this small town.

On the Soda Fountain, I was sure the place was an Alco,Duckwalls or woolworth,that is how I remember it anyway. Soda Fountains are so much of a by gone era that you can mostly only find them in Museums, I have seen several the view years on my travels, the one that sticks out is the Old Train Station Museum in Ottawa. Topeka has a working one in Old Prairie Town. I sort of wish my Lunch would allow me time to go more often. In the end it is only open at certain hours. But I have been there.The Soda Fountain is definitely a prime piece of Americana.As I have looked at so many on display I recalled I have been to one. At 45 Museums now contain,not the memories of others but mine.

On Small towns.I'm not talking County seats with the court house squares filled with antique stores,rexall drug stores,the town or county newspaper site, I think of towns with a main street that at the most is 3 blocks long. In Wellsville, It's 2 blocks long with one stop light,2 antique stores,a BBQ restaurant, a pizza place and a flower shop. It's doing pretty good.

Onaga,where I have not been isn't doing good. The town grocery store burned down earlier this month. Shuttle buses twice a week take those who cant or wont drive to bigger towns until they decide what to do with the store. I think about myself in Topeka,waking up to find I need milk driving the 5 minutes to the Wal mart or Dillions to get what I need.

Lebannon,Kansas the town you can see in the distance from the Geographic Center of the US, by appearances is not doing well.The Main street has a gift shop along side boarded up buildings and other than a cafe isn't doing well. There is a Casey's general store,a locally owned pizza place, a bank, including a branch of mine in Halstead,Kansas, a town off the main drag and location for the movie "Picnic".


The newspaper in Topeka talks about the decline of small town America. The new Governor wants to establish Rural Enterprise Zones and I wonder about Soda Fountains, what ever happened to the Kid I went to see so many movies with and took a vacation to Texas with. So it was time to go back to Bennington,Kansas ....

The Main Street was vaguely recognizable to me,I thought the store was the one boarded up but a wooden wall and a mirror was visible from a corner store with a sign in the window saying "Loft Apartments available". A sign out front asked "Have you had a Green River ?" a sure sign of a Soda Fountain inside. The sign above said "The Linger Longer".

I had only to walk in and recognize the Mirror,the wood paneling, the counter and the chairs. I was pleasantly surprised, It was not in a museum somewhere. The lady behind the counter asked what brought us here and I told my story. She didn't remember Gary,but knew someone with that last night. She said you probably remember it as a Drug Store, the mention of comic books and I could visualize the creaky comic book stand and spinning it around when I was there 30 years ago.

She gave a history of the building, said the fountain was against the other wall she is a farmer and opened the store a month ago "for the community". We talked about Kansas Sampler Foundation, they had been there and it's going to be on the cover of the next book.As we drank coffee, which hit the spot on a cold,windy day she called Gary's mother. He was in Olathe,married and a couple of kids.I was pleased, not pleased to hear his mother is not doing well.I didn't remember the city swimming pool. We talked a lot about Small town schools versus Big Town school, graduation rates,quality of life issues and eventually we decided it was time to leave,Hamburgers at the Cozy Inn in Salina beckoned. She offered to take a picture of me behind the Soda Fountain and explained how it worked. Invited us to the Rodeo in June and the street dance.And we left.

Bennington had 625 people , is doing ok thanks to people with the vision of opening a Soda Fountain where one stood so many years ago. I was pleased to be in Bennington again and see what I remembered was still there, not ready for the Museum just yet. And so in love with Kansas and great Kansans that a phone was made and I got to hear what my Junior High School friend was up to.

In 2010 I was in all 4 states that surround Kansas and several places in between.I saw street named after Country Music Stars,saw about 20 Court houses,ate at local chicken resturants, saw Wagon Ruts of the Oregon trail and stood in the middle of the Road of the famous Route 66.

Winter in Kansas being what it is, I can't say for certain I will get out again before Kansas turns 150 on January 29th, so Happy Birthday Kansas !!! No place seems a more Kansas place than a 15 year kid in a Drug Store on a hot August day in 1980 or a 45 year man in the same place on a cold December afternoon.
Thank you for reading, whoever you are.