By Viv Sade
For Buscovoice.com
You know you are a Busconian — a.k.a. Old Busco Folk — if:
You remember when the Magic Wand had carhops.
You were a carhop at the Magic Wand.
You still call CVS Hooks.
You bought groceries at Honest John Shelton’s — now Egolf’s IGA — when it was located downtown at the corner of Washington and Main streets.
You remember when the Churubusco Community Park was a swamp.
You ice-skated with your siblings in that swamp.
You remember when the Turtle Days Festival was downtown.
You were around before Churubusco High School had a football team.
You attended the fire department’s Halloween costume contest and bonfire downtown.
You got smeared with lipstick at the fire department’s Halloween bon fire.
You remember when Busco had two new car dealerships and only one bank.
You remember going to the movie theater in what is now the St. John Bosco Catholic Church annex.
You remember going to the United Methodist Church in what is now St. John Bosco Church.
You know where Concord Cemetery is.
You can recite the 1949 tale of “Oscar, the Beast of Busco” from beginning to end, complete with names and dates.
You were one of the people involved in the hunt for Oscar, the Beast of Busco.
You have a theory on what happened to Oscar.
You went to Barnhart’s Soda Fountain & Drug Store after school and ordered a Green River phosphate.
You remember when the high school basketball playoffs were held in the Fort Wayne Coliseum.
You listened to WOWO radio and Bob Sievers every morning.
You still consider Fort Wayne “the big city.”
You remember taking the Greyhound bus ride from Busco to downtown Fort Wayne for 40 cents.
You bought donuts at Murphy’s in downtown Fort Wayne and sat at the soda fountain counter.
You went swimming at Sand Lake before it was Chain-O-Lakes State Park.
You attended Green Center School.
You remember storing a shotgun in your locker so you could go rabbit hunting when Green Center School let out.
You remember the 3-story Churubusco Elementary School on Whitley Street that featured inside walls that swayed erratically when the wind blew.
You remember when there were no snowplows and the neighbors dug each other out after a big snowfall.
You remember standing in the alley behind Leitch’s Grocery store and watching as they shot and killed pigs and cows and butchered them on the spot.
You remember Raypole’s Standard Station.
You worked at Raypole’s Standard Station.
You remember when Nettie Gerard was the head librarian at the Churubusco Public Library and it was upstairs in the Central building.
You had Mr. Norman for English and Mr. Huntsman for Ag.
You remember when the laundromat was on West Washington Street and Ruth was the manager.
You remember going to the Lincolndale drive-in on Goshen Road.
You remember picking up your mail in the post office that was located where the library is today.
You went to the opening of the Franke Park Children’s Zoo.
You remember when the funeral homes in town also drove the ambulances.
You remember when Mick and Beany owned what is now the Lucky Lady.
You remember going up to Steuben County to dance at Bledsoe’s Beach.
You remember going to the beach at Blue Lake and ordering something from the concession stand.
You remember going to Fort Wayne and cruising Azars.
You used to spend a quarter at Bang’s Dime Store and get a good-sized sack of candy.
Do you have other descriptions for a Busconian or Ole’ Busco Folk? Send them to Buscovoice on the comment section and they may be considered for a future column.
June 23rd, 2008 at 10:22 am
How about the Eagles Nest, the H&O, John Kreiger, or the 83 Eagles? What a great town, with the liquor store sandwiched between a church and the park!
June 24th, 2008 at 4:11 pm
You remember the swiss steak sandwich from Pat’s Cafe, or Verna’s pies!
You remember when the “new” Busco gym hosted it’s first Sectional tournament.
You remember when a hard rain would flood West Whitley Street and the shop at Floyd’s Auto Sales.
You remember when the chemical plating company on Line Street burned and somehow we managed to put out the fire without one Hazmat unit ( but did need a ladder truck from Fort Wayne).
You remember when the library exploded, thank God it was Sunday and no one was injured!
You remember when Smiley’s (Smiley Anderson??) was the place to be after school.
You remember when the townsfolk sponsored the “Busco Bullet” in the Winnipeg-St Paul International 500 Mile snowmobile race.
You remember that Betty Straub was the winner of the contest to name the snowmobile. Hence the name “Busco Bullet”.
You remember that the crew from the “Busco Bullet” donated the winnings to the local foodbank.
You remember when Dr. Minick and Nancy Wright were taken by snowmobile in the ‘78 blizzard to deliver a baby. It was false labor…….
You remember delivering needed supplies to folks stranded because of the blizzard. The conversations usually went something like, I need milk for the baby and oh by the way could you bring me a A. Pack of Cigarettes or B. A six pack of beer or C. Both??
You remember that all of the snow from inside the town was taken to the lot where Egolf’s IGA is now located and several of us had a pool as to when it would be completely melted. Don’t remember the winner but the date was April 5, 1978.
You remember the Queen Contest at Turtle Days and the fierce competition it caused but with great wealth to the park.
June 25th, 2008 at 9:00 am
You remember the only way to get to the Boy Scout building was by Scout Drive located on the west side of the school.
You remember Mowrey’s Hardware (currently the Mexican restaurant).
You remember when Bill Calafat, owner of the York Theater, would stop the movie and yell, “who popped the popcorn bag?”
June 25th, 2008 at 9:47 am
This is great stuff!
Thanks for reminding me of some great Busco moments.
June 25th, 2008 at 9:59 am
- You remember C&R Shoes (where La Senorita is)
- That stuffed Santa Clause climbing into the ceiling at the old Egolfs IGA where K&K is
- Coal Street was more of a street
- There use to be grass where the McDonalds is located
- Geigers building where Fort Financial is located
- Allman’s Towing and Bob saying “The only difference between a 4×4 and not is an extra 100′ of cable”
- Orr’s Funeral Home
- The fire trucks use to come out of the building that is now the offices and meeting area. Oh wait, the old timers told me that…..
July 10th, 2008 at 8:49 pm
Remember swimming at the Public beach at Blue Lake?
Remember C and R Shoes on the corner of 33 and 205?
Remember Hooks Than was Revco Which is Now CVS?
July 13th, 2008 at 11:40 am
Remember when Orrs Funeral Home was Workmans?
July 13th, 2008 at 4:18 pm
And Workmans was Krider/Bair Funeral Home and they had one of the Towns Ambulances along with Sheets Funeral Home.
Harrold’s was the drugstore, where the Bargain House is now.
Only 1 ball diamond at the park.
John Kreiger would make traffic stops along the playground fence. I think that is what inspired our now Town Marshall.
July 14th, 2008 at 1:09 am
I miss The Green Grill,that was good stuff!
And remember”The Whistler”???I think he’s still stuck in between the doors at the ol’ 33 Club:)
July 18th, 2008 at 9:42 pm
How about “Fiddler” the window washer….his name I think was Paul Rowland.
July 21st, 2008 at 5:34 am
The Tri-County Truth.
When Mr. Peter Foster took the first group of Churubusco marching band kids to the State Fair (and we placed a respective 19th).
July 22nd, 2008 at 5:11 pm
You remember when some kid started a major fire at the Standard station on Mill Street when he was stealing gas then lit his lighter to see if his can was full.
July 22nd, 2008 at 5:15 pm
Remember when there was the big bumpy tracks on Main St. where Brevin’s is now and the Purina checkerboard square Co. loaded train cars.
July 24th, 2008 at 1:31 pm
You remember when you could drive completely around the school in a loop.
You didn’t care that the school didn’t have air conditioning.
You remember there were houses - but no school parking lot along Mulberry street.
When you were a kid, you’d sit on the park’s HUGE propane tank near the Scout Building - for family photos - or just use it as a jungle gym.
You remember you could buy a candy bar at Sheldon’s or Bangs and not have to pay tax.
You ever tee-peed Mr. Arrowsmith’s house after he yelled at you or a friend of yours in gym for goofing off.
You high school social studies or history teacher was the football coach.
You were scared of seventh grade because it meant you’d be in the big high school and the Busco and Green Center kids would be mixed.
You remember the big trees along Whitley, Mulberry and Main streets - before the tornado blew them down.
You bought a shirt at the Shirt Cellar or flowers at the Flower Boutique.
You have family buried in Merriam cemetery.
You have at least one relative with the last name of Addis, Herron, Winebrenner, Magers, Geiger, Gaff, Boggs, Petrie, Amber or Krider.
You had “elephant ears” dough in your fridge in support of the band.
A highlight of your year was going to the senior fish fry for all-you-can-eat.
You spent your lunch money at the Junior Store on candy instead of eating cafeteria food.
You signed a petition to keep the school mascot as “Eagles” instead of “Snappers.” Even though there was never anyone except the local newspaper editor who liked the idea.
You know very well that the first warm day of Spring means that the local pig barns get cleaned out and it means to plug your nose - or else.
Jimmy Allman was your cub scout troop leader. And Mrs. Allman was one of your sixth grade teachers.
You know the story of “green eyes.”
You were “in” Latin Club - even if you didn’t take Latin. Just so you could go on the field trips to Chicago - or the Pizza parties in Ft. Wayne with Mrs. Hontz.
After taking Mr. Hunstman’s Agriculture class against your will, decades later you still can’t get the images of the black and white photos of the backsides of cattle you were forced to memorize for the final exam out of your head.
Mr. Daily “made you” memorize all of the countries in the world - in alphabetical order - under a veiled threat that you would not pass 12th grade and graduate unless you did so.
September 9th, 2008 at 7:21 pm
What a bunch of great memories….Buying a skateboard from Western Auto, across from the IGA….and the car dressed up as Oscar in the parade every year……and Sam Ross hanging upside down in a straightjacket hanging off the 33 Club……waiting for a ride, sitting on the bags of salt in front of Egolfs….the old Churubusco State Bank…..keep em’ coming
September 11th, 2008 at 9:13 am
Eating hotdog rosettes at Smiley’s.
October 10th, 2008 at 3:54 pm
You ever played baseball or football at Kramer’s field.
You played little league for Ernie’s Barbershop or Ben’s Western Auto.
Tou had the misfortune to see all 300lbs. of Bob Fletcher dtreaking down mainstreet on his motorcycle.
You got to ride in the old Oscar car in the parade. They kept it behind the post office.
You ever climbed into the fighter jet at the park when it first arrived.