Muscatine

Yeah, I know where Fletcher field is. In my neighborhood we played at League field by the slough. We had to keep an eye out for Charlie Blanchard, the caretaker. I spent lots of time fishing in the slough for carp and scrawny bullheads. Wasn't much else in there. Early morning or evening I would spear carp. We played bicycle tag around the 'hood. Whoever was "it" had to get close enough to tag another rider. No easy feat. A few crashes. We wandered about the slough with BB guns. No one said a word, as long as we didn't shoot out a window. Today, that would bring out mega-cops.

This just gets better.  In Davenport, we "seined" for minnows in Blackhawk creek.  Used a net strung between two 2x2's, and one of us would walk up each side.  Baseball was played at a variety of fields-Hayes or Roosevelt schools in particular.  If there were only four of us, we'd play a game we called "Indian" ball.  Pitch to your teammate, and where the ball landed in the outfield determined if it was a single, double, etc.  Right field was an out.  Caught fly balls were an out.  Games could go on for hours.  Follow that up with the cold A&W.

Question for the locals.  The old drive-in on Cedar and Houser....how long was it there?

On the Drive-In theatre:  I don't know the exact dates, but remember going their sometime before 1954.  According to my old City Directories, it was there in 1952 and not there in 1982.

 I don't really recall most of the names you mentioned except for Odetta.  I am ashamed to say that a lot of us kids teased her just to see her get mad.  There was a guy without legs who used to use a scooter board to get around and always had a cup for a handout when you passed by him.  Unfortunately or fortunately for me I saw sent away to a school for those who were visually handicapped or blind for most of my schooling and was only home for vacations and the summer months.  I missed a lot of growing up with my brothers and sisters but we have always been close so that was not a problem.

 I know we were not rich but I don't know if we were poor either.  Our father worked long hard hours at a variety of jobs; button cutter, Rock Island Arsenal, tomatoe picker, bus driver to name a few.  We grew our own garden and mom did a lot of canning.  We charged groceries at Bloom's Grocery on Hershey Ave. and Dad would go in and pay the bill on Friday and then it was uptown on second street to meet and great friends and neighbors who were in town spending their pay checks.  The streets were very crowded then and there were lots of cruising on Second Street in the late forties and early 50's.

 And playing all day was something that came naturally with little planning.  We played ditch'em downtown using the alleys and fire escapes.  We caught pigeons in the top of the old button factories.  There was a fashion shop on the corner of Iowa Ave and 2^nd St that had pigeons roosting on the roof.  One was a beautiful white pigeon.  We climbed on top of the roof and captured that pigeon.  I nearly fell off the roof which scared the s.it out of me.  During winter we would venture out on the ice on the river and one time the ice broke away from the shore with me standing on it.  I remember jumping off and landing in crotch deep water and freezing my ....s off (use your imagination).  And remember swimming in the pits?  I tried swimming across one of them and almost did not make it.  I/We did some crazy things in those days.

 The A&W rootbeer drive-in holds lots of memories for me.  The "beer" was superb and the tenderloins the best ever.

 The slough was a special place for me and will always be.  I am just sorry they filled in all the places between the river to where the slough is now.  Also, the area from Kent-Stein Park and Houser St.  For those who don't know, the part of Muscatine referred to as "the Island" was actually an island with the slough entering the river, through the south-end and then back to the river again.  We caught lots of gigantic size bull frogs there, and did some swimming and fishing.  There was an area around where the old Krieger Used Car lot that was kind of swampy that had lots of tap poles which we used to catch and take home to watch them develop into frogs.

 For me baseball was played in a field just off the greenwood cemetery along Lucas St.  I remember playing there with John Robinson who remains a good friend of mine to this day.  Lots of memories but enough for now.