Our Message Board
updated May 5, 2001
Posted by Bob Cleveland (69.3.221.51) on April 16, 2004 at 22:02:27:
Glad you have that photo on the site. 1956 is the year I graduated from BRHS.
I think I might be able to add a pop-up. On Broad Ripple Ave .. Near side ... across the side-street from Broad Ripple Lumber Co ... is a gas station on the SW corner Winthrop & BR Ave ... That was Gene's Cities Service. I remember it as he had a "Cities Service green" Chevrolet pickup .. 6 cyl ( they used the 235 CID engine in pickups as opposed to the normal passenger car's 216..) and it has a split manifold and a set of chrome stacks on it. It sounded GORGEOUS. During my senior year he took off the stacks and ran the pipes .. sans mufflers but with a crossover pipe .. clear out back through the diamond-tread bumper.
Loved that truck.
Just to the right of Mustard Hall ... NW corner of Guilford and BR Ave .. was Maplehurst Ice Cream store. A girl - friend that worked there in 1957 used to make me hot fudge sundaes using strawberry ice cream. Across Guilford was a drug store .. I cannot recall if it was Hook's or (I think..) Haag's. Bought my first Road and Track and Hot Rod magazines there. In 1953.
I worked for Northside Chevrolet for a few months. They had Indiana Dealer Tag 00001 back then. I seem to recall the 1st fall semester of 1953, having a locker mate whose dad owned the place. I think that may have been before Bill Kuhn bought it. I will look at my sophomore Riparian to see if he signed it. I think he did. That'll be easier than remembering...
Incidentally we used to have a way of sticking a penny in the latch mechanism so the handle would work normally but the combination lock wouldn't lock. Did that for 3 years and nothing was ever missing.
Incidentally #2: Some people kid me about "Broad Ripple High School". I respond by telling them my freshman year was spent at Thornton Fractional Township High School (Calumet City, IL). That usually stops the wise cracks about where the BRHS name came from.
Incidentally #3 there is a photo showing "Broad Ripple Avenue East of Carrollton". The young lady is standing in front of Vonnegut's Hardware Store. Apparently eating an ice cream cone while she and all the others were bundled up against the cold.
Nice memories.