Cedar Vale "Main Street"- 1950 Page one

By Wayne Woodruff

I will write this in Microsoft Works so it can be edited whenever anyone wants something corrected . Also, some of the business may have changed or closed by 1950 and some may not have opened by 1950, but it is the best of my recollections that I use this date. It would seem boring to have an article that just lists the businesses along "Main Street", but it is being done to try to jog MY memory about some of the best times in my life.

Starting at the north end of the business district, on the west side, the first business I can remember was the Bunnell machine shop. I am not sure what Bunnell did, but the shop was a fascinating place for little kids. He had several old classic cars parked in the shop and we were actually allowed to climb in and "drive" an old Cord, and the others whose names have slipped my mind. He also had a Piper Cub plane parked in the shed, and again, we kids were allowed to sit in the plane and "fly" it everywhere. Of course, we never left the ground. Bunnells lived in an apartment above the shop, and it opened out onto a huge covered area that was essentially empty. Would have been a wonderful place for a dance floor or skating rink.

Going south, next was a plumbing supply shop, and I don't remember who owned it. Can't remember much about it.

I remember a lot about the next business, the Woodruff Dry-Cleaning shop. Hot and miserable in the summers. No air-conditioning. Several hot presses and ironing stands to contribute to the Kansas heat. But in the back there were two interesting rooms. One room contained the tumbler full of solvent that "washed" the clothing, and also an "extractor" which was essentially just a big centrifuge that spun the solvent out, to be used again to clean more clothes. But the extractor contained a layer of cotton-seed hulls which filtered out the impurities from the solvent at it was sucked through the extractor core. Behind the shop there was a storage building that at any time must have contained a ton of cotton-seed hulls that were brought by truck. Then across the walk was the drying room where the clothes were hung in 130 degree temperatures to finishing drying-out so they could be pressed later. Lots of hard, hot work.

Next, I will need help here for the early years. Crescent Grocery was just south of the dry cleaners and I think that when I was a really little tyke, it was owned by old Mr. Fields. Then when his son Charlie came home from the navy, Mr. Fields retired or ?died and Charlie was the owner and manager. Later when my father tired of the work in the cleaning shop and sold it to Raymond Clark, he bought the Crescent and tried to become a grocer. I don't think we ever got rich in the grocery business.

Moving south, next was the saddle shop of Swain House. Mr. House was old. He had two sons, Bill a lawyer and Bob who had several occupations, among them farmer and banker.

But for a little boy, it was wonderful to sit in Mr. House's saddle shop and watch him build the saddles that were sold to the rancher and farmers around the county. And the smell in the shop was heavenly with all of the leather being worked. If I was good, he would let me sit up on some of the saddles that were displayed, and pretend I was Tom Mix. It was rumored that after his son Bill married, Bill would not speak to his dad again, and did not come to his funeral. It obviously was a hurt that Mr. House never got over.

The next little business south is very fuzzy in my recollections. I think it was some kind of electrical shop, but maybe someone can clarify that.

Of course the last business on that block was the Post Office. The busiest place in town. Everyone who lived in town had to get their mail there, so each morning several hundred people were in and out of the place. There were combination lock boxes for the mail and my job was to get the mail each day from the little box. I still have nightmares in which I can remember the number of the box but can't remember the combination, so I know that there must be 30 years of mail accumulated in the little box. At about this time, Kenneth Dunn was the postmaster, but he also was the city editor. I don't know how he did both???