We Baby Boomers continue to age, some of us gracefully, some
of us kicking and screaming. Either way, the years click by, and most of us at
some point reminisce about “better” times. Part of that recalling includes
ruing the fact that some of our favorite old haunts are no longer around. In an
instant I can list several of mine.
The most obvious places are where I spent much of my youth:
schools. Ball Camp Elementary
School remained the same for years until 1962. I
was in the sixth grade that year, and one fall evening we heard the sirens and
watched fire trucks race down the road to the school. The front classrooms,
office area, and gym all went up in flames.
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| The 1950 Ball Camp basketball team on the front steps of the old school. |
Two sixth grades and one fifth spent our year in a converted
hardware store across Middlebrook Pike. The place had one bathroom for girls
and one for boys. We ate bag lunches at our desks, took hikes to the school
under construction on occasion, and tried to keep warm with a huge ceiling
heater that strained to make the makeshift classrooms with concrete floors
marginally comfortable.
When the new Middlebrook Pike first began construction, that
building was razed. I’m not so sure anyone has a single photo of what it looked
like back then. Even the school building looks different than it did when the
building was completed. The place has been extended and the front entrance
moved to what used to be the back.
Movie places used to be important to us as kids and teens.
At least once a month, we boys climbed into the car with Daddy on Friday
nights, and off we’d go to a drive-in movie. We visited several of
As teens, our dates included trips downtown to watch a
movie. The Tennessee, Riviera, and Bijou Theaters offered different genres for
moviegoers. I remember watching Disney movies, Elvis classics, and Hercules
epics at those places. At that time, the price was still affordable enough for
teens with limited funds.
These days, two of the theaters are venues for special
productions, and one no longer exists. Movie theaters have located toward the
suburbs and have lost some of the special qualities of the older ones that were
located on Gay Street. Drive-ins are all but gone now. Some have been turned
into shopping centers, and one has become home to a flea market.
As teens, part of our weekend activities was cruising. We’d
hop in our cars, put a couple of dollars of gas in the tank, and just drive. My
friends and I made our first stop at the Copper Kettle on Western
Next, we’d drive up the road to the Jiffy and the Blue
Circle. Sometimes a convoy would drive just over the ridge to the Hollywood Drive-in
on Papermill Road. Then it was time to make our way to Broadway to circle
Shoney’s. Most of us were looking for cars filled with girls, although few guys
would ever have enough nerve to actually stop and strike up a
conversation.
Fast forward to today. The Copper Kettle is long gone and
has been replaced by a Marathon gas station. Jiffy’s and Blue Circles no longer
exist. Shoney’s is now only a restaurant where only the bravest patrons dare to
eat a meal. Those guys who used to cruise are now senior citizens who drive
Buicks. My how times change.
I miss the old haunts and the folks who visited them. Of
course, tastes in popular places change with generations. Our fondest memories
are about all we have left. Today, the new places that we Baby Boomers will
find most interesting are being constructed all over the area. They’re called
assisted living facilities. They might be our last stopovers on this journey
through life.
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