​Looking Back: Remembering the 1950s

by Marcia Napier, Grain Valley Historical Society
 

​As I continue this series on Grain Valley thru the years, I have finally reached a decade I can remember. I could probably walk up and down the streets of “Old Grain Valley” today and tell you who lived in most of the old houses. It was the town of my youth!

I actually lived in town for a couple of years between the spring of 1949 and early 1952. Our house had a two-car garage and a breezeway. My parents had the blueprint for the rest of the house that never got built on Thieme Street.  Shortly after we moved into our “temporary” house, my dad came home from the hardware store one day and said, “Mildred, I bought a farm!”

For the next year and a half, the old farmhouse on Buckner Tarsney Road was remodeled, we moved in, and I grew up there. Today I tell people our house is where Casey’s gasoline station is now located. Our barn was where the movie theater is located and Price Chopper is “in the pond.” That was home until 1965 when I-70 was built.

During the decade of the 1950s, Grain Valley grew from 348 people (1950) to 552 people (1960). That was due in part to the two new additions for town. On the west end of town, we gained the Storms Addition (houses along the south side of Walnut Street from Thieme to EE Kirby Road) and the Minter Addition (houses on both sides of Minter Avenue and NW Capelle, behind the old football field of the 1940s, 50s & 60s).Those two additions plus a few stray houses here and there added just over 200 people to our population.

Unfortunately, while the population grew, the businesses shrank. Two of the three grocery stores closed when 40 & 7 United Super was built in Blue Springs. About this same time, K-Mart opened on Noland Road. Up and down Highway 40, drive-in restaurants like Mugs-Up and McDonald’s were making their debut.

And by the end of the decade the Blue Ridge Mall sprang up on 40 Highway at Blue Ridge Cutoff. Even The Square in downtown Independence did not survive The Mall.

What I remember most about the 50's were the school and community events. We had Easter Egg hunts at all of the churches on Easter morning. The Easter Bunny came while the combined churches had an Easter Sunrise Service on Monkey Mountain.

The summertime featured two weeks of Bible School, again at all three churches. But the highlight of summer was the Free Shows! Everyone took their blankets and lawn chairs, and gathered in the “park” by the depot on Front Street. The Grain Valley merchants paid for a man in a Studebaker station wagon to bring a movie to town each week. As I recall, it was usually a Western preceded by a newsreel and comics like Bugs Bunny or the Road Runner. At intermission everyone headed to Casey’s Drug Store for a malt or soda!

Activities in the fall included football and the annual PTA Carnival. Then came Halloween, Thanksgiving and Christmas.  In the “good old days” every elementary class had Room Mothers and I recall there was a party for every holiday and once a month there were birthday parties. No packaged Twinkies, HoHos, or Ding Dongs were served. We had homemade treats and they were the best!

As for the town, I recently read the minutes from several town council meeting in the 1950's. Some things never change as the main topic was often potholes in the streets, broken sidewalks, noise violations, and dogs! It seems there were always complaints about barking and biting dogs. And, like today, there was a shortage of people willing to serve on the town council, a sometimes-thankless job even in the 1950's.

Last week's article in “Looking Back” was about the 1959 the fire in downtown Grain Valley. Next week, read about the 1960s and the Voices and Votes of the citizens!

A 1950's Homecoming parade. Photo credit: Grain Valley Historical Society