Not too long ago I had a phone call from a reader, Sharon Meyers.

She said her mother, Leona (O’Keefe) Falk wanted to know if I remember when there used to be two train cabooses on Elm Street.

She said she lived in one of the cabooses, and that they were painted white, with a driveway between the two and an outhouse and pump in the backyard.

In my mind, I don’t recall ever seeing these cabooses.

Well, of course, this intrigued old Charlie and I got out some of my old city directories to see where Elm Street was.

The street that crosses N. Lowe, W. Telegraph, becomes Franklin Street and goes all the way down to the old Du-Wel building.

In between N. Lowe and Poplar is Elm Street, and it goes from Franklin north all the way over to Prairie Ronde.

Crossing Elm Street between N. Lowe and Poplar are two streets, Madison and Adams.
The old Casco and I think Niedner’s used to be at 101 Poplar and Raymond Phillips had his construction building (a quonset hut with a rounded dome) at 208 Franklin St.

A lot of these streets are now gone, including Boulevard, where a friend, Roger Modl, used to live, and part of Union High School. And Du-Wel took over some of the other streets.

I found Mary O’Keefe lived at 306 Elm. She was the mother of Leona (O’Keefe) Falk.
Also, Sharon said her mother used to go to George Farrow’s house on 331 N. Lowe to watch TV.

George used to go by my house on North Street as he went to work at Ralph Tice’s welding and machine shop on North Street.

Another neighbor of mine in the ’30s was Frank Byers, who also worked at Tice’s.
Frank was Les Barnes’ grandpa.

Another thing I found of interest when I looked up where Sharon Meyers lived on N. Front is what used to be John and Ruth Watson’s neighborhood grocery, where I, the Luthringers and maybe Gene Biek used to spend a lot of our pennies for penny candy.
We little kids had trouble opening the door. We rattled it until old John would come out to let us in. He always had a cigar in his mouth and his dirty look told us he wasn’t too happy to see us with our minor purchases.

If I’m not mistaken, Bob Prothro used to work there.

Gosh, I really got carried away, didn’t I?

I got an e-mail from Gordon Robinson to tell me he still has his mother’s bread board and he said he can still remember how her fresh bread right from the oven tasted when it was slathered with homemade butter. (Gordon, I can also remember that taste from so many years ago.)

I wonder if a lot of homemade bread is even baked anymore?

I also had an e-mail asking about the old co-ops. I think it had something to do with farmers. The e-mail said they had seen some $10 shares and wondered when it started and when it ended. I think they sold corn there and also coal, if I’m not mistaken.

If my classmate Murl Rector was still alive, he could clue me in on the co-ops, as his dad worked there for many years.

If any of my readers know about the two cabooses or the co-ops building, give me a call.

“Cardinal Charlie” Gill writes a nostalgic weekly column about growing up in the Grand Old City.
E-mail him at cardinalcharlie@hotmail.com.