This “I Remember Rippey” is excerpts used with permission of Lester Zanotti, when he gave these remarks at the 60th anniversary of the class of 1954 at the Rippey Alumni Banquet in 2014.
Those of us who grew up in Rippey during the 40’s and 50’s really got Rippey at her best. People took pride in living here. There weren’t any fancy beautiful homes, but what people had, they kept up—houses painted, lawns mowed, and there was no junk lying around. This was their town!!
And how about downtown? At one time, we had three grocery stores, Senter, Thornburgh, and Ed Galivan. Also two car dealerships. Jiggs Fry Chevrolet, and I.J.Burk, Ford. Two banks managed by Dwight Crumley and Clark Bardole. Thornburgh café, Library—LeRoy Overman barbershop and his wife, Eloise had a beauty salon across the street. We had a lumberyard. Jay States had the drugstore. You can see I am working my way down Main Street. Across the street was Killam’s Hardware. Irwin Correy had the tavern until he was injured. We had a shoe repair shop run by a guy named Beanie. Back across the street, we had a pool hall run by Wes Rittgers. Down across the highway Leck High had a Mobile Station. Then, up the road Errol Wilson had the Phillips station. We were blessed to have Dr. Chase. Orrie Stevens had a great Sales Barn operation, which burned down, but afterwards he had one of the largest farm machinery sales businesses in the Midwest.
By today’s standards, most of us were living in poverty conditions. No one complained because everyone was in the same boat. If you were fortunate enough to have a basement, you could have a coal stoker, which would heat your home around the clock and also give you hot water.
The rest of us had a coal or wood burning stove for cooking and warmth and cold water faucet. NO other inside plumbing. It wasn’t that people couldn’t afford anything else; it was just nothing else was available.
It wasn’t until the late 40’s when natural gas came to Rippey. I can remember when we got a gas stove for heat and indoor plumbing with a flush stool and hot water! Talk about home improvements.
Our Class Motto was, “Build for character, not for fame”. None of my class became famous, but on the character issue, I believe that all of us who experienced growing up here had a very good foundation on which to build for who we are today.