The Blissful World of a '50s Teen
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(News-Gazette article January 17, 1993 written by R. Stan Marsh)
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Nearly every day I pass the remains of a place
that represented a time when life seemed a
simpler, livelier existence.
And despite the changes in name and decor over the
years while it still stood, the memories
remain.
The summer of 1991 saw a brief revival of that
place and time for the Champaign High School
class of 1956. For one more evening, it became the
inveterate Lendale's, rivaled in popularity as a
teen hangout only by Urbana High's Tiger's
Den.
Lendale's, subsequently redecorated and renamed
the Red Wheel at the corner of Prospect and
Springfield, is gone now, the victim of a fire
later that summer. And upon reading in The
News-Gazette recently that the owners will not be
replacing the building, I realized how fateful it
was that our class officers had decided after 35
years to bring the old hangout back to life just
once more.
It was quite a gathering. Not only the class of
'56, but the classes of many before and after
happily jammed the place and joined in the
celebration of its memory.
Vintage cars from a local club filled the parking
spaces; class members chided each other's
relaxed middles and lost hair and passed around
aging yearbooks for all to see how much better
looking everyone had grown. Hair graced my head
then - lots of it. I had forgotten just how
much, even after my parents shamed me into cutting
off my D.A. before having my class picture
taken. A lot of combing and Butch Wax pampered
that hair. That's probably why it's all gone
now.
The guy responsible for the Lendale's revival, Bob
Kennedy, has lived in Boston now for many
years. It was fitting that he should be the
instigator, inasmuch as it was he, along with
friend Gene O'Neill, who probably most used the
place as a launching pad for the devilment
restless kids could get into in those days. Bob
was there, the rascal in him tempered with the
years, but still evident in his smile and the
glint in his eyes.
As Bob and I talked of times past, I had to
chuckle at the mention of his "heap." It was a '51
Ford from which he had removed most of the chrome
and had leaded in the holes to give its lines
a smooth, unencumbered look. And it had been
adorned with half-moon head lamps, glass-packs
and full disk aluminum hubs (SEE PICTURE). Pretty
cool, I used to think, though modest compared to
what some of the other guys had done to their
cars. And it was his. I admired that. He could
tool off any time he wanted - true independence -
every teen's dream.
But as the evening and conversations wore on, it
occurred to me that most of my generation was
nothing short of anachronistic. We were white,
middle-class kids whose parents had survived the
traumas of a depression, two terrible wars and a
crazy senator who was bent on evangelizing
anti-communism. They wanted better for us and were
determined to provide it through education
and material things, and did.
Meanwhile, along came the likes of Elvis and every
cool guy's hero, James Dean. To the chagrin
of our justly worried parents, these miscreants
directed our lives in a largely confused patchwork
of giddiness. Our lives were sadly lacking in any
real sense of responsibility for, attachment to,
or recognition of the forces of political and
social change that were sweeping our lives into
the troubled times ahead.
We were wonderfully spoiled, relatively without
care or worry, unpressured to mark today's
personal progress for the sake of tomorrow's
success. We were only marginally aware of the
racial, social and global strife that was all
around us, strife that would engulf us and another
generation throughout the turbulent sixties and
seventies.
We deal with the consequences still. Yet those
days of the fifties, selfish as they were, are
remembered fondly. It will perhaps be one of the
few times a majority of people within a
generation can honestly say, for better or worse,
we pretty much had it all.
(THANKS, STAN, FOR SHARING THE PICTURE AND ARTICLE)
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Len...LENDALE'S LUNCHEONETTE...Dale
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Menu favorites were some of the following:
Cherry Cokes---.10, French Fries---.18, Milk Shakes---.23, Hamburger---.25
(Maybe this is what people mean by "the good old days")
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