03-26-2010
( Reply#: 5169 ) |
BobK |
The Download link within your link is not active.
No, I have never heard of it and never saw anything like it.
Bob
[img]http://home.comcast.net/~rkekeis/Bob1.jpg[/img] |
03-29-2010
( Reply#: 5193 ) |
john~k |
Bob, thanks for the reply. Not sure why you can't download that file. Ultrashare's counter shows the link is working.
Shep goes into some detail about the circumstance and location of his initials. It goes like this. Shep is 10 years old and riding his bicycle along with Swartz and Flick. They spot this freshly poured sidewalk in front of the local high school. Flick dares Swartz to write something in it. After dark they all creep up to the wet cement and add their initials. A notice was posted asking for information about the vandals who wrote their initials in the expensive sidewalk. Shep and his friends were never caught.
What's interesting is that Shep goes on to say that he was back home again in Hammond in 1966. While there, he found himself walking along that same sidwalk. According to Shep, the initials were still there. If this story is accurate, and no major construction has taken place, they should still be there.
BTW, this show does not appear to be listed in anyone's archive. This clip may be its first airing since being broadcast live in 1967.
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03-29-2010
( Reply#: 5194 ) |
BobK |
Since Shep was 10 years old and lived in Hessville, was Morton a High School then?
Bob
[img]http://home.comcast.net/~rkekeis/Bob1.jpg[/img] |
03-29-2010
( Reply#: 5195 ) |
wvcogs |
Morton was not a four year high school until the fall of 1953. It went through the tenth grade from when the building opened in 1937 until 1953. The Morton building would not have been built when Shep was ten years old.
Ken |
03-29-2010
( Reply#: 5196 ) |
BobK |
OK, I got it to download and listened to it.
I think it's just a story he told on the radio program.
Like I said from where he lived in Hessville I doubt that they rode their bikes at the age of 10 years to Hammond High. They may have done it at a more local school that was not really a high school. He says the next day there were notices posted at school about it. I don't believe Shep was going to Hammond High at the age of 10.
Bob
[img]http://home.comcast.net/~rkekeis/Bob1.jpg[/img] |
03-29-2010
( Reply#: 5197 ) |
john~k |
It could be a yarn. Then again his stories are seldom this specific. For example, he mentions the size as being 40 feet by 50 feet, and the color. Is there such a walkway in front of Hammond High, or any other local school that existed in the early thirties? |
03-30-2010
( Reply#: 5213 ) |
nitti |
[quote]Originally posted by john~k
It could be a yarn. Then again his stories are seldom this specific. For example, he mentions the size as being 40 feet by 50 feet, and the color. Is there such a walkway in front of Hammond High, or any other local school that existed in the early thirties?
Went to Doug's for a haircut today and for the heck of it circled the block around the empty lot on Parrish where original Harding stood and the same around original Morton. Sidewalks are "new" around both. If either were the site, nothing to find now.
The old Morton "clone" ("edison ?)on Calumet could be a possibility - but that's also a long bike ride from Hessville for 10 year olds. |
03-30-2010
( Reply#: 5214 ) |
wvcogs |
Shep graduated from Hammond High in 1939, I believe. That means he was ten years old in 1931, five years before construction began on both Morton and Edison Schools. All the old pictures of the wooden Harding show the building was close to the sidewalks with no room for a 40 feet x 50 feet slab of concrete. And, I doubt if three ten year old kids would ride their bikes to Calumet Avenue from Cleveland Street in Hessville after dark. So, if it was not Hammond High where he wrote his initials in the sidewalk, I vote for it being a yarn.
Ken |
04-01-2010
( Reply#: 5232 ) |
john~k |
Thanks, all, for your feedback. Especially nitti for taking a look around.
Came across some hi-res photos someone posted of downtown Hammond back in the 1950s. Was wondering if anyone had ever put together a "walking tour" video of Hammond from Jean Shepherd's perspective?
Hammond Photos:
http://www.hhs59.com/hohman50s.htm |
