The Country Boys That Went To Town

When I was a boy and we lived at the Farley house, we were exactly three miles east of the West Plains city limits. It might as well been thirty.

I was "country-fied" to the core and to be called a cityslicker would have been more of an insult than I could've endured. The city did have its allure though.

There was the Dairy Princess Drive-in, Mo's Drive-in and Kinder's Burger Inn for starters. For things non-food there was Western Auto, Otasco, Firestone, Sterlings and... Aid Hardware. And there was another draw toward the big city, Momo and Popo's house on West Main!

My big brother Ralph and I had been asking Dad and begging Mom to let us "ride our bikes to town". There was and still is a wanderlust in both of us and to hit the open road on our bikes was just the height of adventure. Dad wasn't hard to convince (we get our wanderlust from him I suppose.) But convincing Mom? This was a tad more difficult and just like most things in life, required compromise.

We were prepared to take the paved county road west to U.S. Highway160 and follow this highway right into town, thru town and finally wind up at my Grandma and Grandpa Riggs' house on West Main... Take the High Road so to speak.

When this plan was broached to Mom, she immediately saw us splattered out on the highway by a speeding semi truck... Adolescent road-kill that would have to be scraped up off the pavement, placed in a closed casket and properly mourned and buried.

So... We compromised...

Dad and Mom mapped us out a route that would require us to ride a minimal amount of time on the highway and would take us down less traveled, lonely back roads. Please note that in that day and time (early 70's) no consideration was given to the possibility of being abducted by some crazed, deviate person along our "road less traveled by."

We were to take the paved county road, west to Highway 160, Ride-Down-The-Right-Of-Way...Not-On-The-Pavement, to the gravel crossroad. Go south on this gravel road to the first gravel road to the west. Go west to the first gravel road south and take this road south 'til it turned west and then just follow it west toward town. Once we were on East Olden Street, by the High School, we were to go to the intersection and turn south on Howell Street and follow it straight to Grace Avenue (This was before the Broadway extension made a bend in Howell Avenue.) When we got to Grace Avenue, we were to turn west and go to Walnut Street, go south to Leyda Street and follow it west, over the big hill and down to Arkansas Street, go north on Arkansas to Garrett Street and then west to Harlin Drive. Once we were on Harlin, we could ride north a block to West Main and then we were in sight of Momo and Popo's house! (You can see the map of our journey here )

We sallied forth, fairly early in the day... "Don and Sancho" on our "Rocinate's", ready for the open road!   I had a single speed "Moto-cross" bicycle and Ralph had a three-speed with curled racing handlebars. We followed the pre-planned route and just took our time. It was a pretty uneventful trip and for some reason, the only part that I really remember is the leg of the journey that took us down Grace Avenue. We made it to Momo's kitchen in time for lunch and then out the door to ride bikes with some of the kids on West Main.

Inevitably, our play soon turned into full scale bike racing. The "Country" vs. the "City". I didn't fair so well but Ralph pretty well whupped everybody on the street, even the ten-speed racers! This continued until it was time for supper and all the neighbor kids had to go home.

Our plans were to spend the night with our grandparents, so Mom and Dad were going to bring our "overnight things" later that evening. After supper, while there was still daylight, we decided to go visiting.

We jumped on our bikes and rode up Garrett Street west, to the top of the hill, turned south down Pine Street and went to the house on the west side of the street, at K highway. This was where my Uncle Marion and Aunt Janice Riggs lived. Again, for some reason this part of our adventure just sticks out in my mind. We stayed long enough to get a drink, visit a few minutes and then back down the hill to Momo and Popo's house.

We spent the night, (loudly entertained by Popo's snoring) and woke up the next morning, ready to go home. We didn't make the return trip on our bikes though. Dad came by, picked us (and our bikes) up and we traveled home in style...already planning our next traveling adventure!