Smith Valley

Over at GH's blog, Flygirl mentioned how lucky those of us that lived in Smith Valley were to live there.
I won't argue.

I vividly remember when they built the Smith Valley Shopping Center and opened up Walden's Drug store, Baker's 5&10, the IGA, and Jack Dempsey's Hardware. Other shops came and went, but those lasted a while. On Sundays, the parking lot was a great place for kids to gather on their bikes and have a bicycle rodeo!

Fish fries at the Smith Valley Community Center were a festival.
For years, folks would come and set up booths like you could find at a carnival.......throw darts at balloons, try to knock down bottles with a softball, a dunk-tank.......all to the sounds of live Country music being played in the dining tent. Everyone for miles around would turn out......a great place just to walk around and see-and-be-seen.
The baseball diamond was also a great gathering place on hot summer nights!

The Volunteer Fire Department started out at the Community Center, then moved over to new digs on Runyon Road. For a couple years during the summer months, the firemen would show a movie on a set evening.
Folding chairs for 30 or so were set up in the lot behind the building facing the screen....movie projector in the back door. They sold snacks.....popcorn, candy, soda pop, to help raise funds for the department. My memory is that most times there would be a good crowd, but I don't remember watching the movie very often.....again, it was more a see/be seen affair......kids running wild, doin' what kids do.
What a great memory!

Then there was The Beehive!
Mr. Clements called it "The Greasy Spoon", and that was an apt description.
If you stayed in the Beehive for more than a few seconds, everyone could tell you had been there.....the smell of old grease in the deep fat fryer permeated your clothes with a VERY distinctive odor!
I worked there our Sophomore year........15 years old.
The owner would come in for half an hour as I started my shift, then he would head home to watch TV, leaving me alone there until near closing time. He'd come back to grab the cash drawer and lock up as I headed down the hill to my home.

Those of you that ever spent time at the Beehive will remember the booths. I wish I had taken pictures of all those booths! The table tops of the booths had the names/initials of all the "In crowd" carved in them.
Some of the patrons I remember.......
GH and Ferdy.
Vicky and Joe V.
Dickie Bird.
Lila S. and Harry L.
TPO
Hawkeye
Ron S.
So many.......I can't possibly remember them all.

I've blogged before about how great it was to grow up in that time/place.
I know the B-Ville crowd probably had similar, but different experiences.
Smith Valley was my "Walton's Mountain".
It was family.......truly a place where "Everybody Knows Your Name"!