Pancho
While I and my brothers Mike and Jim lived in the apartment above dad's Kraher's meat market on Main Street in Kasson, MN in the 1950's we got a mixed breed dog we named Pancho. "Pancho" was the name of the sidekick of the then popular comics, radio, TV, and movie character "The Cisco Kid" who operated in the Texas-Mexico border country. I remember brother Mike getting the dog from a litter. Mike's friend Gary also got a dog from the same litter which he named (of course) Cisco. The photo shows Pancho in the living room of our apartment sometime early in 1958 . I think this was about the only trick he knew. He would soon be going to "The Farm" as our family would be moving to Rochester, MN before September 1958. (The photo is dated June 1959 because that is likely when the film was developed after we had moved to Rochester.)
To the left of Pancho an upright steam-heat radiator and small portion of a living room window can be seen. The outside of the apartment is shown below in a photo from 1980.
1980 View of Our Apartment on Main Street Kasson, MN
In the 1950's the Apartment was above Dad's "Kraher's Meat Market"
There are two vertical windows shown on the left in the photo of the apartment. These were the living room windows. On Saturday evenings, the stores were open on Main Street till about 9 pm. This was the only day they were open at night. The town was very crowded as local Farmers came to town to do their shopping and also to enjoy an evening out. Their cars were parked up and down the street while they shopped. The 1956 photo of Kasson Main Street below shows how "down town"would have looked.
Saturday evenings afforded we three brothers the opportunity to open the living room windows just a bit, stick our pea shooters out and aim at cars and shoppers!! I think we were able to buy the pea shooters in the local drug store. They were drinking straw-like devices but with a larger diameter and about 12 inches long. They may have been constructed out of metal or wood. One could place dried peas, small navy beans, or small wads of paper in one end and blow the projectile out the other end. With practice our aim could be quite good and unsuspecting shoppers wondered what had "stung" them. We got in trouble several times when we were discovered to be the "pea shooters." We had some degree of protection from the angry shoppers as we were in an upstairs apartment building, but mom and dad soon enough heard about their boy's activity and we had to pay the consequences.
Kasson, MN Main Street 1956
[Note: Permission for "Minnesota Media Use" of Photo
Granted by the Minnesota Historical Society, Order No. 80758
(Business Section Kasson, Loc # MD4.9 KA p9)]
Saturday evenings afforded we three brothers the opportunity to open the living room windows just a bit, stick our pea shooters out and aim at cars and shoppers!! I think we were able to buy the pea shooters in the local drug store. They were drinking straw-like devices but with a larger diameter and about 12 inches long. They may have been constructed out of metal or wood. One could place dried peas, small navy beans, or small wads of paper in one end and blow the projectile out the other end. With practice our aim could be quite good and unsuspecting shoppers wondered what had "stung" them. We got in trouble several times when we were discovered to be the "pea shooters." We had some degree of protection from the angry shoppers as we were in an upstairs apartment building, but mom and dad soon enough heard about their boy's activity and we had to pay the consequences.
