Entertainment

MOVIES

Parker was too small to have a movie theater. The nearest movie theater was in Muncie—ten miles away. Since the churches in town were conservative, people who went to church were not supposed to do certain things that were viewed as sins. Smoking was frowned upon, and drinking alcoholic beverages was certainly a “no-no.” But for most church members, going to the movies was a sin, too. My parents were not as opposed to movies as were some others. When we were young, they would take us to see movies based on some famous novel such as “The Good Earth” or on a fairy tale such as “Pinocchio

When we were older, we did go to other kinds of movies. When my oldest brother Frederick became old enough to want to go to movies, my parents would allow him to go but only if there was no church service at that time. Sunday movies were never allowed. I think my brother Bob was the first to break that rule. A few times I went to a Saturday afternoon matinee in Muncie to see a double feature that usually included cartoons, a short “special subject,” a “detective” movie such as the Green Hornet or Superman, and a second movie about a mummy or some alien creature.

But Parker was not entirely without movies. In the warm summer months, the various businesses in Parker would go together and hold Saturday evening movies. A large white sheet was suspended across the street from Keckler’s Drug Store to Harness’s Grocery. Saturday was traditionally the night when families came to town to shop for the next week’s groceries. The children came along, of course (there was no TV to watch at home!). The movies were provided to give the children something to do while their parents shopped.

The movies were usually “B” Westerns starring such popular actors as Hopalong Cassidy, Tom Mix, and Roy Rogers. They would have popcorn stands and ice cream trucks available for snacks. The evening was not really for watching the movie; it was more of a “get-together” for the whole community. In the summer we didn’t see kids from school all that often, so the outdoor movies provided a chance to find out what was going on.

THE MEDICINE SHOW

One great excitement occurred when the Medicine Show came to town. I think I must have been five or six when my Grandpa Deal took me to see the show. It was held in a big tent with bleachers all along the inside walls of the tent. The show was put on by the "medicine man." (He was something like Professor Marvel in the Wizard of Oz.) I don't remember a lot about the show, but I do remember the medicine man did some magic; another act was a little dog that did tricks. But the acts were not the reason for having the show.

The main purpose for the show was to sell patent medicines to the crowd. The magic and the dog tricks were just to get the people’s attention. When they were all enjoying themselves, the man would bring out the different kinds of "medicine." He would tell the people about how good the medicine was and about the different kinds of things the medicine would cure.

If someone in the audience asked whether the medicine really worked, someone else in the audience would tell about how the medicine had cured them. (I didn't know then that the person giving testimony about the medicine was really part of the act, probably the man’s wife.) Well, the people must have really liked the show or they really thought the medicine would cure their aches and pains, because many people in the crowd bought a lot of medicine.

Another thing I didn't know then was that most of that "patent medicine" they bought contained a lot of alcohol. Parker was a town that had only one bar, and most of the people in Parker were "teetotalers"---that is, they didn't believe in drinking alcohol (or at least they said they didn't believe in it). I have often wondered what happened to those people when they went home that night and took their medicine.

PROFESSIONAL SPORTS

There were no major league sports teams in Indiana when I was growing up. Indianapolis did have a AAA baseball team; but if you wanted to see a major league baseball game, you had to go to either Chicago or Cincinnati—the nearest cities with major league teams. I did go to old Crosley Field in Cincinnati a few times, but I never went to a game in Chicago. Because so many of the players were in the service during the war, the teams had to use younger players. Cincinnati called up fifteen-year-old Joe Nuxhall to pitch for them, the youngest player ever in the major leagues. After the older players came back from the service, Joe didn’t last long in the majors; but he did become the Cincinnati Reds’ radio announcer.

We got most of our professional baseball by listening to the games over the radio. The radio broadcasts made you feel as though you were there at the games. When something important would happen, the announcer would get all excited; the crowd noise could be heard right there on the radio. What I didn’t know at the time was that for the games played away from home, the announcer would sit in the radio studio, get the information about the game over the teletype, and relay what was going on. Whenever something exciting happened, he would turn on a record of crowd noise to make you feel he was right there at the game.

Major league baseball teams usually had spring training in Florida, but during the war the teams often had their spring training in cities relatively close to their home city to save on gas. The Pittsburgh Pirates had their spring training in Muncie, Indiana. I did go to see a few games at McCullough Park in Muncie.

Parker had a semi-professional baseball team that played their games on Sundays. On summer afternoons they would play their games at the high school ball diamond. After church on Sunday we often had dinner at Grandpa and Grandma Deal’s house. I always hoped there would be a home baseball game so I could go over and watch. The team was sponsored by the Parker Banking Company. It was managed by a local farmer by the name of “Pants” Hunt. I don’t know why he was called “Pants,” but I think it was because his baseball uniform had baggy pants.

Since Indiana was—and still is—basketball crazy, you might have thought they would have had a professional basketball team. They did eventually get one—the Indiana Pacers—but our exposure to professional basketball came when Dad took us to two games in the 1930s. One was a game between the New York Knickerbockers and the Boston Celtics; the other was a game featuring the Harlem Globetrotters.

Indiana is known for another professional sport—automobile racing. The major race, of course, is the Indianapolis 500. But my first exposure to live auto racing was at a track just west of Winchester. The track there was advertised as the fastest half-mile track in the country. The track was just a half mile north of the house where Uncle Clarence and Aunt Mae lived; on two or three occasions when we were at their house for Sunday dinner, I went to the track to see the races. Since the track was so short, the curves had to have very high banks. I was there one Sunday when one car didn’t slow down enough for the turn and went over the bank; the driver was killed. After they cleaned up the track and started to race again, another driver went off the same bank and he, too, was killed.

CARDS

As with movies, card playing was another activity that was not allowed—or at least looked down on—-by the church and community. In our family we played card games such as Rook and Crazy Eight, but we were not allowed to play with real “playing cards” because they could be used for gambling! When Frederick went to college, he brought home some playing cards and taught Bob and me some new card games.

By the time I was in high school, some of us thought it would be interesting to learn to play bridge. One night we met at Ronnie Chambers’ home to play bridge. We were in the living room that had a picture window toward the street. His mother came into the room and made us close the window blinds because people might see us playing cards. I always wondered what people passing by must have thought. What are those young people doing in there that causes them to close the blinds?

DANCES

Dancing was also frowned upon as a sinful activity. Square dancing was probably OK because the dancers didn’t hold their bodies next to one another. The high school never had a prom until Bob’s class graduated in 1944. But they weren’t allowed to have the prom in the school; they had to go to the Roberts Hotel in Muncie so they could dance. When I was a senior in high school, I played in a dance band. Because of the town’s attitude toward dancing, I was surprised that my folks let me play in the band. My playing in the dance band was probably shocking enough for the church members; but if they knew what kinds of places we played in, they would have really been shocked!

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