Negro Nights

Every Monday, Friday Saturday at dark it was Negro Night in Independence, KS. Surely, you jest. They were the same thing in Independence not that long ago. Martin Luther King led no marches and Malcolm X still carried the smell of prison. Jackie Robinson and Adam Clayton Powell just started to stir things up on the social scene.

Monday kicked off the week music, dancing and roller-skating. Every Monday, the local skating arena threw open its doors to allow the town's Negroes a chance to whip around a real roller rink. I didn't go until I became a teenager, but I remember a constant A dust storm floated constantly just outside the doors, as cars and people stirred the coco-like dirt into a fine brown mist that coated everything and everybody.

I couldn't skate worth a damn, but I was always good for a few laughs and a guarantee that no girls would even tiptoe past my friends or me. Lois Kennedy with her fine self usually came from Pittsburg with her mean-ass brother, "Tough." Sylvia Williams and Janie Page came up from Coffeyville and always drew a crowd of young men. Carl Carter could skate circles around everyone including Buford Simpson, one of the best athletes in town.

We'd leave the rink around 9 pm and head to the American Legion on the corner Earl and Birch Streets. The "Legion" as we called it, was shotgun building longer than it was wide, but we didn't care because there was music and dancing.

Usually, I held up a wall watching Velma Jean swing to Ike and Tina Turner's "I Idolize You." That was my best move besides dropping a nickel in the jukebox, because I had two left feet and couldn't dance a lick. Occasionally, Linda Anderson had mercy on me and dragged me out on the dance floor, but no one else wanted to put themselves in harm's way.

Mr. Bob ran a tight ship, but that didn’t stop us from having a good time. After I tired of lusting after the tall and shapely Rosemary Knighten, I usually wandered outside where a guaranteed argument awaited. The characters changed often, but argument stayed the same as every Monday night eventually the conversation switched to boxing and who was the greatest fighter of all time. Usually, it was the young versus the old who, no matter what name came up, always said it was Joe Louis.

Everybody came from Coffeyville, Parsons, Cherryvale and Pittsburg. The Lyons brothers, Donnie and Eddie, would be there, The Joker, Helen Jean, Linda Anderson, Carol Sue Pruitt, Riley Cartwright, Brownie, Jimmy Mac and crazy Lloyd Beatty from Pittsburg. Lloyd usually brought the "Gold Dust" twins, Netty and Betty with him. Carver Briley usually found his way to "The Legion" about the time the argument died down, went straight inside and onto the dance floor.

The Legion wasn't a great place, it wasn't even a good place, but it was something to do on Monday night especially seeing that Monday Night Football hadn't started yet. After that, black Friday hit the calendar and the Negroes hit the water at what was then Independence High School where the cement pond opened to Negroes after white folks swam in it all week long. I only have vague memories of it, but my elders assured me it happened.

When the lights went out at ten, it was "everyone out of the pool." After everyone vacated, they drained the pool and filled it with fresh water for Monday when the whites used it until the next Friday. It wasn't an ideal arrangement, but we couldn't swim at the public pool at Riverside Park and the shallow pools around felt like dunking cookies in hot tea. Plenty of swimming holes surrounded the town, but taking a swim in any of them could lead to trouble.

Saturday night brought out everyone when the Independence Civic Center opened its doors to Negroes young and old. On Saturday night at the Civic Center, there was pool, cards and dancing. For the athletically inclined, there was basketball, badminton and ping-pong. Generally, it was a fun filled night, but trouble always comes when it's least expected. In 1954, the world shook for every white person in the United States when the historic Brown vs. The Board of Education effectively ended segregation in the United States of America.

Led by later Supreme Court judge Thurgood Marshal, the ruling less than 200 miles from  Independence in Topeka, KS not only changed old ways across the country, it signaled a new day for all. Negro nights continued about a year after that, but strong action by black leaders in Independence guaranteed those nights disappeared. Of course, some folks didn't take to it willingly, but they quickly found out that the old Negro vanished almost overnight replaced by black men and women out of the mood for bullshit. Soon, the nighttime belonged to everyone, but it took a lot of hard work and cooperation.

Negro Nights

Every Monday, Friday Saturday at dark it was Negro Night in Independence, KS. Surely, you jest. They were the same thing in Independence not that long ago. Martin Luther King led no marches and Malcolm X still carried the smell of prison. Jackie Robinson and Adam Clayton Powell just started to stir things up on the social scene.

Monday kicked off the week music, dancing and roller-skating. Every Monday, the local skating arena threw open its doors to allow the town's Negroes a chance to whip around a real roller rink. I didn't go until I became a teenager, but I remember a constant A dust storm floated constantly just outside the doors, as cars and people stirred the coco-like dirt into a fine brown mist that coated everything and everybody.

I couldn't skate worth a damn, but I was always good for a few laughs and a guarantee that no girls would even tiptoe past my friends or me. Lois Kennedy with her fine self usually came from Pittsburg with her mean-ass brother, "Tough." Sylvia Williams and Janie Page came up from Coffeyville and always drew a crowd of young men. Carl Carter could skate circles around everyone including Buford Simpson, one of the best athletes in town.

We'd leave the rink around 9 pm and head to the American Legion on the corner Earl and Birch Streets. The "Legion" as we called it, was shotgun building longer than it was wide, but we didn't care because there was music and dancing.

Usually, I held up a wall watching Velma Jean swing to Ike and Tina Turner's "I Idolize You." That was my best move besides dropping a nickel in the jukebox, because I had two left feet and couldn't dance a lick. Occasionally, Linda Anderson had mercy on me and dragged me out on the dance floor, but no one else wanted to put themselves in harm's way.

Mr. Bob ran a tight ship, but that didn’t stop us from having a good time. After I tired of lusting after the tall and shapely Rosemary Knighten, I usually wandered outside where a guaranteed argument awaited. The characters changed often, but argument stayed the same as every Monday night eventually the conversation switched to boxing and who was the greatest fighter of all time. Usually, it was the young versus the old who, no matter what name came up, always said it was Joe Louis.

Everybody came from Coffeyville, Parsons, Cherryvale and Pittsburg. The Lyons brothers, Donnie and Eddie, would be there, The Joker, Helen Jean, Linda Anderson, Carol Sue Pruitt, Riley Cartwright, Brownie, Jimmy Mac and crazy Lloyd Beatty from Pittsburg. Lloyd usually brought the "Gold Dust" twins, Netty and Betty with him. Carver Briley usually found his way to "The Legion" about the time the argument died down, went straight inside and onto the dance floor.

The Legion wasn't a great place, it wasn't even a good place, but it was something to do on Monday night especially seeing that Monday Night Football hadn't started yet. After that, black Friday hit the calendar and the Negroes hit the water at what was then Independence High School where the cement pond opened to Negroes after white folks swam in it all week long. I only have vague memories of it, but my elders assured me it happened.

When the lights went out at ten, it was "everyone out of the pool." After everyone vacated, they drained the pool and filled it with fresh water for Monday when the whites used it until the next Friday. It wasn't an ideal arrangement, but we couldn't swim at the public pool at Riverside Park and the shallow pools around felt like dunking cookies in hot tea. Plenty of swimming holes surrounded the town, but taking a swim in any of them could lead to trouble.

Saturday night brought out everyone when the Independence Civic Center opened its doors to Negroes young and old. On Saturday night at the Civic Center, there was pool, cards and dancing. For the athletically inclined, there was basketball, badminton and ping-pong. Generally, it was a fun filled night, but trouble always comes when it's least expected. In 1954, the world shook for every white person in the United States when the historic Brown vs. The Board of Education effectively ended segregation in the United States of America.

Led by later Supreme Court judge Thurgood Marshal, the ruling less than 200 miles from  Independence in Topeka, KS not only changed old ways across the country, it signaled a new day for all. Negro nights continued about a year after that, but strong action by black leaders in Independence guaranteed those nights disappeared. Of course, some folks didn't take to it willingly, but they quickly found out that the old Negro vanished almost overnight replaced by black men and women out of the mood for bullshit. Soon, the nighttime belonged to everyone, but it took a lot of hard work and cooperation.

Night Fun and Nightmares

"Three men accused of kidnapping and triple murder escaped from the state penitentiary late this afternoon. The men are believed go be headed toward Southeastern where two of the men have relatives. If you spot these men do not attempt to stop them. They are considered armed armed extremely dangerous."

Of course, no such thing occurred but was the sense in going out to Lover's Leap without a scary story and a pretty girl? It sure wasn't a place for parking because everyone in town knew about it including my father who came out there and told me to get my ass home, now. Nevertheless, it was fun scaring the girls even though they knew a most every story ever told.

After midnight things changed. Hands disappeared in the summer darkness right before your eyes. Things started moving about and occasionally bright eyes would appear near the ground and that's when everyone quieted down, afraid to speak too loudly for fear of what or who might be out there in inky night.

It was not unusual to scare each other and leave, making up some excuse like, "this is so boring" or "this is so juvenile," when in reality we were about to piss our pants. Sometime, my older brother Fuzz, Paul Bradley and Poon would get there before we did and jump out of the bushes once we had been there for a few minutes. That stuff wasn't funny.

The entire point in going was for a cheap thrill and a little snuggling. No one ever stayed long because car after car came to "The Leap" as we called it sometime. Everyone said that entire area was haunted, but no one ever took it seriously. Native Americans once lived in that area long before the land fell to the white settlers. The story is that a young man from the Chetopa tribe and  beautiful Cherokee princess from another group fell  in love, but their tribes would not let them marry.

In their desperation to be together, they jumped off the cliff and killed themselves so they could be together in eternity, according to the legend, which many say is true. The story says that in the spring and summer the spirits of the young man and the princess wander among the rocks and on some moonlit nights they can be seen standing on the cliff holding hands.

I never saw them, but friends told me they had seen them on a night in June when it was unusually cool for that time of the year. Jimmy Frisco and Nettie Pouncil swore they saw both of them just as the legend said. Of course, we didn't believe them or we never admitted it. We went out to "Lover's Leap" during the day light hours and found nothing. On our way back down between the rocks a ceremonial headdress feather floated down out of no place and landed on my shoulder, but before I could touch it, it blew away on a cool breeze and disappeared.

I often wonder if anyone goes out by "The Leap" anymore, probably not, but if anyone takes a notion, walk softly and look for eagle feathers, like those worn in a  headdress.

NOTE: At least two people died after falling from the outgrowth and many more escaped with injury. Dates scratched into the rock go back as far as the 1880's.

Fireworks, Waterfalls and Romance



Logan Square 2010

Love reveals itself in that magic moment
when each one changes into both--Tantra tradition



Many moons ago I did something I dreamed of doing since my 15th birthday. Fourth of July, 19XX, found me sitting on a park bench, away from my friends watching the flashing silver streamers and gold twinkles of the annual fireworks display. As the aerial bombs exploded into dazzling light, I felt the hot summer breeze drift over my damp skin, but I didn't care because I sat there with my first serious girlfriend.

Straight up Park Street, past the Girl Scout House, the baseball fields and about 35 feet past the two lions guarding the entrance to Riverside Park, there it sat. We used to call it the waterworks, but the Kodachrome fountain that sat about 40 yards from the Shelter House put on its own display, shooting bright plumes of water high in the and all the while changing colors in soothing rainbow of red, blue and green.

Holding hands, there were as stars in our eyes as in the sky. Although I was sitting on the bench, I was far away on another planet watching the silver rings of Saturn and awesome diamond studded belt of the Milky Way. I was in love for the first time in my life; I mean smitten, swept off my feet and overcome with emotion.

Although neither of us spoke, communication flowed through the gushing pipelines of hearts. With what is now known as Logan Square fountain playing its music on the surface of the catch pool surface, even though it must have been nearly 100 degrees, I felt nothing except the smoothness of her skin touching mine.

Normaly, the 4th of July found me hanging out at the Lone Cheif Cabin where a party  was usually in progress or all of my friends and I would set on the cemetery fence and watch the display. SometimesLewis Vann or Troy Wilson would join in the hijinks, but not on this night. However, even though my mind was far away my location wasn't.

"There you are," Larry Morrison said. "We've been looking for you for more than an hour. Johnnie told us you were out here."

Bucket-head Johnson chimed in, "DB doesn't want to be bothered." Leroy wasn't known for startling insights, but even he could see the lost look on our faces. Before I could get a word out my partner Gayle and Jo Ann Pringle walked up.

"You guys gonna sit here all night? I thought we were going to drop the top and head out to Six-Mile Junction?"

Even as hot as it was, riding with top down at 70 miles an hour cooled you off quickly. Finally, got up and stood looking at the fountain until I pulled her close to me and gently brushed her lips with mine. With the stars and fireworks shining in the background we walked slowly to my car holding hands and with our heads leaned together. We'd come to Riverside Park again, but nothing could surpass that first time of being in love.

That was many years ago, but that night in front the fountain is still in my mind, locked away in my personal treasure chest and my memories of a special night in Independence on the 4th of July.

The Atchison-Topeka & Santa Fe

Two train stations for a town of barely 10,000 seems like overkill, but Independence, KS hosted several railroads. Less than 12 miles away, Cherryvale had its own station. Now stripped and boarded up, the Independence train station was once a hub of travel and freight delivery. For many it's just an eye-sore of no discernible history or worth, but for me it was a school, an escape to adventure and an entry to the fascinating world of travel by rail. My older brother Fuzz and I traveled to Chicago nearly every summer to stay with our grandmother. Not only did we go to the Windy City, we went by ourselves.

When I was in high school I went to Kansas City or Tulsa to visit friends. Sometimes I went just to enjoy the ride. For speed in travel, nothing beats an airplane, but for ambiance, comfort and relaxation, nothing beats a train. No one needs to sit on the hump rubbing elbows with a fat aunt or wait to the next stop to use the bathroom.

I could stand up and go to the front of train or to the rear and watch the countryside roll past. I could climb the stairs to the glass observation deck and relax, have a soda and just watch the world looking back at me. If I was hungry I could get a sandwich and a drink or I could go to the dining car and have a full meal like steak and a baked potato.

Walking down the aisle was different because turbulence had no effect on the train's stability. Or I could sit in my wide seat and fall asleep without a worry. Friends and family came to visit on the train. I went to Minneapolis, New York, St. Louis and, of course, Chicago, which I considered the greatest station on the planet. From Chicago you could travel to the West Coast through the towering snow-capped Colorado Rockies or to the legendary Grand Central Station in New York.

Many memories rode te rails with me and still do, but as always, "all good things must come to an end." The last time I rode the train I was leaving for the army. When I retuned three years later, the Independence depot was closed. However, all is not lost. With the enormous wait times at airports increasing, charges for baggage and even charges for a pillow and blanket, railroads are beginning to look like an alternate mode of transportation. Airline tickets have steadily increased, while amenities are disappearing. Even the terribly edited in-flight movies have disappeared on some airlines allegedly to save weight.

There are still some great train rides out there a d if you have the time you might find that rail is the only civilized way to travel.xwa
If you get a chance to ride