 by Marcia Napier, Grain Valley Historical Society It has been 50 years since the west side of Main Street looked like the photo above. Beginning at Front Street, the Bank of Grain Valley was OPEN! The second floor still welcomed the Eastern Star for their monthly meetings and special events. The Grain Valley Drug Store still had a soda fountain where you could enjoy an ice cream cone or sundae. Other businesses included a restaurant, an upholstery shop, and a barber shop. At the far right of the photograph we can see the old Sni-A-Bar Bank (often rented as one or two apartments) and finally the Christian Church. While many businesses disappeared from Downtown Grain Valley, the population actually grew. In fact, between 1970 and 1980, the population nearly doubled from 709 to 1327. Most of the new housing was built in the Cannon addition, south of the railroad to AA Highway and west of Main St. to E. E. Kirby Road. In 1978, Matthew’s Elementary, north of I-70 on McQuerry Road became the second K-6 school in Grain Valley. While many remember the 1970s as a decade of soaring inflation, political upheaval, and the erosion of the United States’ prestige worldwide (some things don’t seem to change), there was also Title IX (June 8, 1972), equal rights gains for women and minorities and big gas-guzzling cars with a shortage of gasoline that caused rationing in 1973. Global events included the massacre at the Munich Olympics, the Iran hostage crisis, and in 1975 the end of the Vietnam War with the Fall of Saigon. Because the Apple II debuted in 1977, I went to my own PC (personal computer) to find the "big events of the 1970s.” One source listed:
So while Grain Valley was growing, we were working in Independence and Kansas City. And on the weekends we also went west to shop for bell-bottoms, tie dyes, jump suits and hot pants, plus the newest handbags by Dooney & Bourke. At the many multiplex movie theaters we enjoyed the new candy hit, Reese’s Pieces, while watching everything from Taxi Driver and One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest, to The Godfather, and The Way We Were. And that’s The Way We Were in the 1970s!  Comments are closed.
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