Good Times Down at Papa Joe’s in 1963

Posted on September 30, 2012 by Jim Degerstrom

Digging deep into the past of life in a small town in Central Maine brings back memories of good times down at Papa Joe’s in 1963.

Papa Joe’s Pizza on Main Street in Milo, Maine, was a favorite lunchtime spot within walking distance of Milo High School.

The Milo High School building photographed in August 2011, and shown here in sepia, was MHS until 1968.

Besides pizza, soft drinks and a pinball machine, Papa Joe’s had a jukebox that played 45 rpm records.

A recording that made #9 on the Billboard Charts in September 1963 was an instant hit at this 1960’s teenage hangout.

Listen now to Down at Papa Joe’s by the Dixibelles as you continue to read.

Wow! That was 49 years ago this month! That bouncy tune that we played over and over in 1963 sounds more like music from an earlier era like the 1930’s or 40’s. Not to worry.

Within 6 months of Down at Papa Joe’s being in the top 10 on Billboard, the British invasion introduced the Beatles in 1964 and rock music was changed forever! Our parents agonized over the new sounds, and made fun of lyrics much as we did criticizing their childhood tunes.

They laughed and ridiculed lines like “Well I’ve never been to heaven… but I’ve been to Oklahoma” just as boomers shake their heads today over a new generation using expletives in lyrics.

The pinball machine at Papa Joe’s brings back another memory. It was a dime per game and free games could be earned by achieving a minimum score, or multiple extra games for racking up even higher points. My youngest brother and I set what I believe may be a Papa Joe’s record for continuous play on a single dime.

Taking turns after a half hour or more each on that first dime, we continued to rotate and kept the game going for 12 hours. One dime. 12 hours. Unlike youngsters today who could match that with a handheld electronic game, other days we played real football on real grass for 12 hours, too!

As times change, pizza, music and pinball as entertainment provided a level of innocence that we can only recapture in fond memories. Disaster struck Milo 45 years later and in the same month that Down at Papa Joe’s was a hit in September 1963.

A fire set by an arsonist on 14 September 2008 erased many of the landmarks on Main Street in Milo. That fire destroyed half of the businesses on the west side of Main Street. Though memories may fade, recollections of moments like good times down at Papa Joe’s in 1963 will last forever.

Tagged with: audio, maine, music, stories, video
Posted in audio, maine, music, stories, video

TV Treats on Saturday Night

Posted on July 31, 2012 by Jim Degerstrom

TV treats on Saturday night were a family tradition Growin’ Up in Maine.

In the 1950’s there were 3 small convenience stores on Railroad Street in Derby, Maine, where I lived, and they serviced the entire village.

McKusicks at the foot of Derby Hill specialized more in dry goods or hardware, and had trucks that delivered heating oil.

Hackett’s and another store owned by Helen and Quincey Livermore were closer to the railroad tracks, and had mostly food items (and treats) or sundry goods like a general store.

Go back 50 years earlier at the turn of the century, and I’m told the front room of our home on Railroad Street was an ice cream parlor.

All that including the stores are gone. The post office and grammar school are gone, too.

Imagine the excitement of 8 kids given their choice of individual treats of ice cream, popcorn, candy, chips, or nuts.

Store bought treats weren’t always in the budget. TV treats on Saturday night might be homemade, yet they were still a treat even though the only choice was one choice.

Dad made fantastic chocolate fudge with walnuts from scratch cooked in a cast iron frying pan. At other times he and Mom popped popcorn that was covered with caramel, and rolled into balls the size of a softball.

The treat shown in the photo here is a Drumstick made with a scoop of vanilla ice cream in a wafer cone dipped in chocolate and covered with crushed peanuts. Penny candy, literally for 1 cent each, is a thing of the past, but you can still get Drumsticks!

That photo is a modern Drumstick, and that’s my hand holding it. You notice how small it looks? As prices for everything rise over the years, product size and packaging has become deceptively smaller and smaller.

Those who grew up enjoying TV treats on Saturday night in the 1950’s have noticed. The memories are still priceless.

Tagged with: childhood, maine, stories
Posted in maine, stories

$5000 Mickey Mantle Bicycle Motor

Posted on June 11, 2012 by Jim Degerstrom

Some kids Growin’ Up in Maine in the 1950’s liked the bubble gum that came with packs of baseball cards more than the cards.

We never realized our error using a clothespin to create a $5000 Mickey Mantle bicycle motor.

The card in the photo shown is a Mickey Mantle 1952 Topps card pinned to the bike to create a flap-flap-flap noise against the spokes as we rode around Derby, Maine.

That same card today goes for $5000 to $20,000 depending on the condition. His real rookie card was a 1951 Bowman that goes for far less nowadays.

What a shame we didn’t have a crystal ball for sports or other collectibles like comic books. Just imagine. 100 of those Mantle cards would be worth a half million dollars in 2012, or more.

I do own a personalized baseball with Mickey Mantle’s autograph signed in person in February, 1991. The price was $55. The wait was 6 hours. Mantle died 4 years later having earned more in personal appearances signing memorabilia at card shows than he ever made in his baseball career.

The autographed Mickey Mantle baseball is worth up to $400. Unlike his card kids pinned to flap in the spokes of a bicycle in the 1950’s, that baseball won’t be used or abused for batting practice.

Tagged with: baseball, maine, stories
Posted in baseball, maine, stories

Railroad Coal Tower and Pigeons

Posted on May 31, 2012 by Jim Degerstrom

Iconic landmarks in Derby, Maine, bring back thoughts of small town living in the 1950’s like the railroad coal tower and pigeons.

I’m not old enough to remember steam locomotives on the Bangor and Aroostook Railroad that would have used the coal tower in the photo shown.

Look closer and you can see the railroad’s Iron Bridge in the distance.

As kids, we passed that landmark coal tower many times on the way to the Iron Bridge that spans the Piscataquis River from Derby to Milo, Maine.

That area was secondary to Down Back, our regular summer playground on the Sebec River which joins the Piscataquis near the Iron Bridge. Downback was a half mile upstream from where they converge.

This other corner of Derby still provided adventure. Walking the rails while imagining yourself in a circus high wire act was always fun. We’d have contests to see who could go the farthest without falling off.

Passing that coal tower meant stopping for a childhood ritual. Pigeons lived there.

Chunks of granite rock in the railroad track bed were just the right size for tossing. Our target was the iron coal chute shown in the photo hanging down beyond reach, and a direct hit would create a rock-on-metal Ka-BOOM.

Then we’d wait for a reaction.

If that didn’t work our next target was a large opening positioned even with the large red sign shown, yet to the left facing the tracks.

The opening was up 20 feet or higher, so several tries were needed for success tossing a chunk of granite through that opening.

A direct hit usually worked. The disturbance would cause the flock of pigeons living inside to panic and all would fly out of the opening.

City folks may not “get it”, but that formation of pigeons making an exit, flying in a wide circle for a minute or two, and then coming back to roost was entertainment to us youngsters.

Simple times? Yes. Harmless fun? Yes, again. No pigeons were ever harmed. Our aim wasn’t that good.

I suppose as government has managed to come up with more and more civic ordinances over the years, you might get arrested for that nowadays.

Tagged with: derby, maine, stories
Posted in derby, maine, stories

Wingler Auditorium Events in Milo Maine

Posted on April 30, 2012 by Jim Degerstrom

A centerpiece of childhood activity for families from Milo and Derby, Maine, was Ed Wingler Auditorium events in the Milo town hall building.

Growing up in the 1950’s and 60’s in a small town had its advantages.

The auditorium was used for band concerts, talent shows, school dances, plays, assembly meetings, and high school basketball just to name a few.

Basketball at the Wingler Auditorium was a favorite. The main floor was likely the smallest basketball court in the state of Maine with limited seating on 2 sides, a stage at the edge on one end, and entrance doors at the edge of the court on the other end.

A balcony on the upper floor covered 3 sides, so overall the seating was 2-300. The roar of the fans was always deafening.

Some jokingly referred to the layout as a cracker box.

From the balcony, if you looked straight down all you could see were the lines for out of bounds. Milo High School which I attended and Brownville Junction High about 8 miles away were fierce rivals in the 1960’s. Both had a great year in 1963.

In the 1963 Maine high school Class M East quarterfinals, Brownville Junction was ranked #1 and defeated Woodland 50-42. Milo was ranked #2 and defeated Sherman 46-41.

Both won in the semifinals. Brownville won 59-52 over Easton, and Milo won 61-44 over Lubec which placed the rivals head-to-head for the Eastern Maine finals.

A win would mean going to the state finals, and the game was an electrifying and closely fought battle.

In the 1963 Eastern Maine basketball finals, #2 Milo High School defeated rival #1 Brownville Junction High School 55-51 for the Eastern Maine Class M Championship.

In the 1963 Maine State Finals, Milo played the Western Maine Champs from Greely High, which was 137 miles away, and they lost 45-42.

I’m reviewing that last phrase “…they lost 45-42″. Please forgive my poor grammar matching subject and verb if you’re confused about who won the Maine Class M 1963 State Championship high school basketball game.

Beating a rival 8 miles away who was ranked #1 was more important than an unknown school from 137 miles away.

Visit the Milo Historical Society Museum the next time you’re in town. They have lots of trophies on display. Hopefully there’s some donated from 1963.

Ed Wingler Auditorium events in Milo, Maine, include their annual Milo High School banquet and reunion usually held in July.

Attend and you may just meet players from that phenomenol basketball team of 1963 for a blow by blow of the entire championship run.

Tagged with: basketball, maine, school, stories
Posted in basketball, maine, school, stories

Woodpiles and Survival in Maine

Posted on March 31, 2012 by Jim Degerstrom

The importance of woodpiles and survival in Maine cannot be underestimated when it comes to living through sub-zero weather.

The photo of the infant on a woodpile here is yours truly a few years back circa 1950. Okay, so a lot of years back… when I was actually cute and didn’t have to shave.

To this day I still love the smell of burning wood in an old fashioned cast iron wood stove. In the 1950’s you never had to ask if someone in Derby, Maine, had a woodpile to help get through the winter.

It was a matter of how big. Bigger families in bigger homes may have had more than one stove, and their woodpile was more like a mountain.

You were likely too late if you waited to gather wood after the first blizzard of the season. Even in freezing weather you could harvest frozen logs easier than trees buried in snow.

Nowadays harvesting wood for a wood stove is easier than ever what with chain saws becoming common and more affordable.

We didn’t have the luxury of a chain saw. Cutting logs to length was done with a bucksaw or two-man crosscut saw. We owned both, but when old enough to help, I preferred the crosscut. The blade was about 5 feet long with wooden handles at each end. The teeth were bigger than a bucksaw.

The sawing motion involved a person on each end pulling on the saw handle. You pulled while the other person held on.

As you completed your stroke, they pulled in the opposite direction back towards them. While one was pulling the other released pressure and gently held the handle. Besides being fun, you pulled every other stroke so it was half the work.

Logs cut to length to fit in the stove still needed work. Splitting logs into practical size was next.

Youngsters today have learned the importance of grip on video game controllers, and may never learn the satisfaction of breaking a sweat over a saw or ax.

When I was old enough to drive, gasoline was 25 cents a gallon. Fuel oil for heating in Maine was still very reasonable, too.

As time went on, bucksaws and crosscut saws became antiques, yet wood stoves are as popular today as way back when.

Chainsaws may have made the old saws obsolete, yet wood stoves and woodpiles in Maine are almost as common today and still being enjoyed just like in the good old days.

Driving through small towns, and especially as fall approaches, you can still see evidence of the importance of woodpiles and survival in Maine.

Tagged with: maine, stories, weather
Posted in maine, stories