The Lumberyard Bench
Today’s Flyover People column as seen in The Emporia Gazette:
Rozel (pop. 161) must mean “town of many benches” as they have plenty.
The Lumberyard Bench
When we were kids, my friends and I were bench bums.
Of course, we would’ve loved to have been beach bums, but beaches are hard to come by in this landlocked state.
So, my gang and I hung out at the lumberyard bench in downtown Pawnee Rock.
When the Clutter-Lindas Lumber Co. was still in business (I think it closed in the early ‘70s), the bench was occupied in the daytime by lumberyard customers, farmers and retired guys mostly, who sat there to catch up on gossip and rainfall amounts.
During the evenings and weekends, the bench was the hangout of pre-teens and teenagers. Even after the lumberyard closed for good, the bench remained.
When I drive into a small Kansas town these days, a downtown bench is one of the things I look for. Some might underestimate the value of a bench, but in a small town, it’s not just a place to sit, it’s a destination.
A bench is like the community’s front porch where adults can sit in twos and threes and share the stories of their days: tomato production, the granddaughter who has just started college, next week’s pancake breakfast at the church.
In my hometown of Pawnee Rock, we had that fabulous sitting spot. And heck, ours wasn’t just an ordinary bench, it was a full-service bench. As kids, we loved that place.
Attached to the front of the lumberyard, sitters could lean against the building. And there was a wide roof over the bench which made it a fantastic hide-out from summer rains. Two cottonwood trees grew between the sidewalk and the street, so it was a green spot of sorts which provided extra protection from the late afternoon sun. Plus, one of those trees was climbable, which meant additional seating for group conversations.
And best of all, between those two trees was a red water pump. The handle made a hee-haw sound with the up and down motion. Fresh, cold well water splashed out of the spout which was great for cooling off on August days, water fights, or just for scooping hands under into the stream for a drink.
Our bench was located at the main intersection in town and since the business district was only two blocks long, the bench was in the center of it all. From there we had a panorama of pretty much all that was going on downtown.
On the four corners of that intersection were the lumberyard (and the bench), the post office, the grocery store, and my dad’s woodworking shop. One could also see the comings and goings at the Pawnee Rock Dress Shop, Willard’s Welding, the self-service laundry and the beauty salon. Down the street, one of the taverns, Betty’s Café, was visible, so we could observe who visited Betty for a cold Schlitz.
The lumberyard bench gave us teenage girls a great location for watching “the wheaties.” Dreamy boys, tanned and slender, from Oklahoma and Texas worked on custom cutting crews and drove grain trucks during wheat harvest. They would line up on the side street next to the lumberyard for their weigh-in at Farmers elevator. This was definitely a highlight of the summer.
One might think that hanging out at the bench was just a way of killing time, but it gave us a chance to sit and watch our town in action, to notice things, to pay attention. We knew every resident’s car by sight – and by sound. When a stranger pulled into town, we could spot it a block away. We were friendly (well, desperately lonely) and we’d wave to the travelers who drove through town to visit Pawnee Rock State Park.
I enjoyed our spot so much that when I see a community without a downtown bench, it seems as if the town has declared, “Move along, there’s nothing to see here.”
A town is always changing and there’s always something to observe, something to learn.
From that one location, we watched the community evolve and change. We monitored daily life, small-town life. There were no big events that happened on Centre Street, but there was a lot of interaction, simple everyday connections. A bench is good for things like that.
Copyright 2010 ~ Cheryl Unruh
I think downtown Emporia could do with another bench or 2, perhaps one tucked under the awning of Plumb Bazaar or the Commercial Street Diner.
I agree, Rita. There’s one at Flint Hills Music – and that may be the only one on Commercial Street. (Correct me if I’m wrong.) And there’s one at 6th & Merchant – and then catty-cornered from that is the W.L. White Park with benches (but they all face inward.)
The public library has a nice collection of outdoor benches.
I’ll tell you who needs an indoor bench, Mark II. I was in there with Larry today. I was aching all over and all I wanted to do was to sit down. But there was not one place to sit.
Now, in dress stores, there are usually a couple of chairs for bored men to sit in while they wait for their wives. Why not have them in places like Mark II?
Okay, I don’t really get bored in Mark II. But I really did need to sit down. Today was an achy day. We likely would have bought more today if I could have just sat on a bench or chair (not a stool.)
Back to your point (sorry I got on my own rant) I agree, towns should have benches all over the place. One problem that happens in big cities though is that gang members gather at the benches, and people don’t go inside. But that is a difference with small towns, people find reasons to gather and it seems to me that would encourage business.
I am old enough to remember Saturday night in a small town serving a farming community, Valley Falls. This was when most farm families had one automobile and very few had TVs. The whole family would clean up, pile in the car and head to town for the primary shopping outing of the week. Usually the men loaded the benches fronting many of the stores to visit while the wives and kids hit the stores.
This would have been prior to 1955. Within a year or two this social ritual would change dramatically and free TVs programs encroached on small-town Kansas changing the social ritual forever.
Another great column, Cheryl.
This column brought back a lot of Pawnee Rock memories from the 1960s. Thanks.
Thanks for all the memories! I hadn’t thought of the pump for a long time! It was a wonderful place to monitor every non event in town!