Saturday Night

I'm sure everyone who lived around Haigler in the 1950s and 1960s remembers Saturday Night in the summertime!

It seemed as though everyone for miles around would converge upon Haigler. Parents would sit in their cars or stand on the sidewalk or sit in the cafe to "visit". Mamma usually sat in the car so she could keep an eye on us and visit with another lady or two. They talked about their kids, what they were doing that week or spread "news" about someone or something that happened.

My dad would usually sit in either Bill Wall's Pool Hall and "visit" with the other men and watch wrestling or "the fights".

The little kids would make up games to play, run up and down the block between the highway and the hardware store. (we were afraid to go any further north, because nothing was open "down" there and it was dark.

The teenagers would drive up and down Main street, as we called Porter Avenue in those days. We didn't even know it had any other name. They would stop off at "the standpipe" or the park or "other" places around town. Some couldn't stay too long, because they were expected to "drive by" wherever the parents were sitting.

Kids from other towns would drive over to "cruise" the Haigler main street.

Those of us who didn't have cars would walk up and down the sidewalks, but venture a little father than the "little" kids. We would even venture as far east as the "Bay Station", which was a gas station and cafe located on the east edge of town, and buy a hamburger and malt,.

Sometimes there would be a "picture show" that we could attend for 10 cents. This was because one of the adults in town would rent a movie that came on a big real and shown from a large projector.

One summer, the kids got together and made a "Youth Center" in Burnswig's old John Deere Building. Patty Wheaton brought her 45 records to play for dances in the abandoned showroom. A pool table and ping pong table were moved into the shop area.

Saturday nights in Haigler was a FUN place to be!

Does anyone else remember those fun summer nites?