Guys, please allow me to hijack my own thread for a couple of posts
I have been burnin' up the phone minutes with Mom and sister who are still in Topeka (and who also played the "Name that Girl" here in that old thread ).
Tangent alert! -- this little trip down memory lane takes me back to stuff I havent thought about in years. And the older I get, the heavier the nostalgia gets. NOT in a bad way but the wistful, "those were good days" kinda way of our youth. Think about how your life turned out, compared to what you thought 50 years ago when you were actually AT the places/events you've long forgotten perhaps?
Ok, back here on the ground, these are pictures from the 1960's of the Mid America Fair in Topeka. My sister argued there was no racetrack at the fairgrounds ...we'll yes there was. My Mom asked me what I was smokin when I reminded her of the Andy Williams concert -- so I had to beat her up a little bit too. All in fun of course
Like "Terrance Mann" (James Earl Jones character in Field of Dreams) said: "The memories will be so thick, they will have to brush them away from their faces. People will come Ray". (
Quote by James Earl Jones: “Ray. People will come, Ray. They'll come to Iow...”)
First three pics - The "Midway" in the 1960's (looking south to north, the Kansas State Capitol dome is visible in the distance in a couple shots, and the racetrack grandstand clearly visible at bottom of second pic).
Man ... I can smell the cotton candy, the taffy, the carmel corn, hear the calliope-like sounds from the rides, hear the screaming and laughing. heck I am 8 years old again, and its a warm summer night, and I can see my 33-yr old Dad (rest his soul) is over there with my 27-yr old Mom laughing and eating popcorn ...
The races -- yes, smack dab in the middle of a fairly large city. They even had Friday night races for a while -- then the noise police put a stop to all that somethere before we left the city in 1971.
The Andy Williams show we went to -- the evidence suggests it had to be in 1964 too, tho my Mom's memory isnt so good on the exact year. I recall my youngest sister was still in a stroller, and she was born in 1962.
I didnt know who Andy Williams was except he was the guy on a Christmas album we had. I do not remember the "Osmonds" at all -- until "One Bad Apple" in late, late 60's. I remember thinking that Jackson Five made that song