When gas was 33 cents a gallon

By V.J. Smith (2/6/00)

"Boots" never taught us how to do U-turns, even though they were an important part of our Friday and Saturday night drives through downtown Eureka. "Boots," of course, was Clifford Berreth, driver's education instructor and typewriter man at EHS. If he wasn't busy showing us those terrific films about what might happen if we had too much to drink at the prom, he was teaching us how to use White Out.

There was a common path we followed during our nightly prowls and it had two U-turns. One was up by the cheese factory. We headed north on Main Street, passing Tom's Place, K&A Implement, the old Pepsi Distributing Company on the left, took a right at the corner and then the big sweep. It was time for another entrance down Main Street.

There was never much action on Main Street but we needed to drive that way just in case there was a chance meeting with somebody, anybody. If we did see someone, we would sound our horns like we hadn't seen those people for months.

Slim Roggenkamp, Eureka's night cop, was usually camped on the middle of the street between the City Building and the old Coast-to-Coast. He would just sit and stare as we drove by.

We always knew what time it was going down Main Street. The clock on the Eureka State Bank would turn slowly but just fast enough to remind us that time was not on our side.

Then it was past the center of our universe, the Silver Keg. It wasn't cool to go through the front door of the Keg. It was always best to drive through the alley in back, park the car, and then use the back door which had an old screen door just like the one at your grandmother's house. It had just enough weight on the closing gizmo so it would slam shut behind you, alerting everyone of your entrance.

Customers would look up to see who was coming and people would call out your name. The Keg was our version of the bar made famous in the television sitcom "Cheers." At the Keg everybody knew your name.

Clarence Wald, better knon as Stumpy, was always wearing a white short-sleeved shirt, and had a towel draped over his shoulder, and he would greet us with a smile. There was always a great smelling hamburger on the grill. So thick was the air of cooking hamburgers that oftentimes you would "wear" that smell home at night.

After our fill of the Keg we would jump back into our cars and head south on Main Street. At the corner of Main Street and Highway 10 sat Kary's Service Station. Now, most of my memories of life on the streets in Eureka are from the year 1973. Coincidentally, that was the last year Kary's Service Station saw a paint brush. The house directly across the street from Kary's was still painted white. Today you can't see that house any more as it is painted camouflage. The people inside want the house to be invisible so you don't notice them.

A right turn onto Highway 10 presented the opportunity to talk for the next few minutes as there was nothing to see but houses and churches. Many a joke was told on that stretch of road. The punch line of these jokes usually ended by the time you reached the summit of Highway 10, right in front of the Willis Mehlhaff home.

It was at this point, just before you drove down the hill with the Drive Inn to your left and the beach to your right, that Kim Gross and Wayne Frey invented a new sport. On one of those evenings when there was nothing to do but be creative, those two guys decided to find out how far a bowling ball would travel if you chucked it out the window at the top of the hill going 60 mph.

The two erstwhile scientists determined it could go a long way. They also found out that a 60-mph bowling ball could knock out a cement block on the Drive Inn's retaining wall, which is exactly what it did.

Ah, the Drive Inn. Many a summer night was spent sitting in the parking lot watching who was driving up and down Highway 10. Horns would sound to greet the people driving by.

In big towns they have drive-by shootings. In Eureka, we had drive-by flirtings. If you were beeped at by someone sitting in the parking lot of the Drive Inn, you would drive down to the other U-turn, the intersection of Highways 10 and 47, make the big sweep, and head back to the Drive Inn.

From there you would decide where to spend the rest of your evening. Maybe back to the Silver Keg, perhaps a keg party at the sand pits, or maybe you would decide to take your sweetie up to see the Tank for a little parking time.

We weren't bored growing up in Eureka. We were just looking for something to do.

(V.J. Smith graduated from EHS in 1973 and today lives in Brookings, S.D., where he is director of alumni at SDSU. You can email him at [email protected])