Scott City Musings: Towns: Today and back when

I grew up close to the town of Arthur, Nebraska. Back in the '50s Arthur had maybe 250 people, while today it has maybe 150 or so.

Arthur is located at the intersection of Highway 61, which ran north and south, and Highway 92, which ran east and west. If you drove about 40 miles north, you’d run into Hyannis, a town of maybe 300 to 350 residents. If you went east on 92 about 40 miles, you’d run into Tryon a town of maybe 200. If you drove about 40 miles south, you’d run into Ogallala, a town of maybe 2,000 or so. Ogallala wis a big town!

The towns are still there all four of them. All four of them are smaller. All of them still have grade school, junior high and high schools, and if the truth be known are the main employer in the three smaller towns. The three smaller towns are the county seats in their respective counties, as is Ogallala. It is interesting that Tryon and Arthur, I believe, are the only towns in their counties. At one time Arthur County was the least populated county in the United States.

As a boy, I remember Arthur had two grocery stores, two gas stations, one restaurant, one motel, one butcher shop, one bar and pool hall and one feed store that had mostly cattle, hog and chicken feed but they did have pancake and biscuit mix. The pancake and biscuit mix were flat out awesome. Some of the businesses would disappear, and another would take its place, but these were the main ones back then. All of the businesses seemed to be doing well as I remember them from my youth.

Thinking back, health and old age seemed to be the main reasons the businesses began to close. One garage closed and became the feed store. The owners of the restaurant and motel sold out and moved, and a really good cook built a restaurant on the edge of Arthur, and it went gang busters. She was known for her cinnamon rolls made with real cream from Mom and Dad’s Jersey cows. When age caused her to close, this restaurant became Crusty’s Feed Store. The gas stations closed, and another gas station was built but it has since closed. So there is an 80 mile stretch with no gas. Keep your gas tank full!

Arthur has always had an ambulance and a fire truck, and both are staffed by volunteers. The ambulance is adequate given the distance to doctors or a hospital. Hyannis used to have Dr. Howell who probably delivered more babies, set more broken bones and stitched up more cuts than a trauma doctor does in some of the big cities.

These small towns used to be common across states like the Dakotas, Kansas, Nebraska, Missouri, Oklahoma and maybe across the United States. Many of these small towns have disappeared, leaving some with rundown buildings while others have simply disappeared. Many have become retirement communities where locals have settled down and are enjoying the good life. What I’ve noticed is that services like grocery stores, clothing stores, shoe stores, gas stations have gravitated toward bigger towns becoming more centralized. Health care has as well.

We have a small community close to us called Commerce that boasts maybe 50 to 75 inhabitants. I’m betting back a bunch of years Commerce was a bustling little village just like Arthur was. Just like Arthur the residents of Commerce are probably older and in time will pass away or move where they can be taken care of. Several months ago Marge and I went to New Hamburg and did some shopping at Bill Kern’s Grocery Store. It was like walking back 50 to 60 years to Justin’s Grocery Store in Arthur.

Our kids will never know the simple life we used to have when there was only one brand of bread, green beans and corn from one supplier and no shrimp or seafood. Many times the owner wrote down what the groceries cost, and you paid at the end of the month or when you sold your calves.

Phillips began life as a cowboy, then husband and father, carpenter, a minister, gardener and writer. He may be reached at phillipsrb@hotmail.com.