Always Inn

Back in the 1930s Buddy Baker and his best friend Homer Cline would ride their bicycles 11 miles west of Warrensburg down the two-lane winding 50 Hiway.  They were going to see Big Fat Auntie (Neomia Baker Kinder) and spend the night with her.  They would swim in her pond, help her in the garden, and run in the woods.

Her house was right beside the Always Inn and she worked there part time as a waitress (a welcome job during the depression).

Since neither of the boys had any money they would rarely step inside the roadside restaurant, but Buddy remembers the occasions when they did.

One side was a restaurant with a booth or two and some stools at a counter.  The other was a little country store witth quite a bit of stuff - kind of a general store. It had one gas pump out in front.

Unfortunately, he doesn't remember the name of the owner.

 It says Wakeman's Always Inn on the sign.

According to this extra piece of information dated Sept. 1948, submitted by Bruce Uhler, Always Inn changed hands several times.  So we don't know if we have a picture of Mr. Wakeman, Mr. Terry or the fellow who bought the business from the Terrys.

A little additional information from Neomia May Baker Taraba (named after Anna Neomia Baker Kinder): Always Inn had a few cabins to rent out to travelers.  They also were a bus stop. We'd ride the bus out of Warrensburg and stop at Always Inn to go see Aunt Neomia.  She lived beside there and she cooked for Toni.

Me:  Who's Toni.

May May: She's the woman who ran Always Inn.  I don't know her last name.

Me:  Did you ever call Aunt Neomia 'Big Fat Auntie?'

May May: NO! The boys did.  Did you Buddy?

Buddy: No. Never!

Oh, The Horror of It All

The photographer(s) at Simmons Studio apparently got called out a lot to photograph accident damage to cars.  These bright, shiny vehicles would be worth a lot today if they weren't smashed - but they're smashed.  Look at all of these lost opportunities.

Here's a '36 Plymouth.

 Here's a different car but it looks like another Plymouth from about the same time.

A '36 Plymoth coupe today goes for around $35,000

This looks like a '41 Chrysler Royal sitting in front of the old post office on College Street.

They're asking around $10,000 for a Chrystler Royal on the Internet

I'm relying on Buddy Baker to tell me what type of cars these are.  This one is too smashed up to identify.

 

Buddy Baker (upon being asked to identify this car): "Oh, forever more."

This is an old International grain truck.  International Harvester made farm equipment.  They made pick-ups and big trucks both that they sold as Internationals

Same truck, bottom view.

Tracks at the edge of the road

If anyone has any more information about these vehicles or these accidents, please leave a comment.

More Pain and Misery

Stored with the many happy portraits in the Simmons Studio collection are pictures of people who have been injured and are hoping to get compensation from insurance companies.

This poor lady certainly looks like she's in pain.

My knees hurt just looking at this guy.

Our photographer wasn't asked to record only human suffering.  The next few images are graphic, gruesome, and will be hard for historic automobile lovers to view.

I warned you.

If anyone knows the people or the cars and can tell the story about these pictures please leave a note in the comment section.

OUCH!

Not everyone who went to Simmons Studio did so to record a happy event.  This man came to document injuries he suffered.  These photographs were filed under Medical Insurance.  I hope he got something for his time and misery.

Pants that button instead of zip and a thin waist.  This was obviously taken before McDonalds and other fast food restaurants came to town.

As usual, if anyone knows this poor fellow and the story behind these pictures, please leave a comment.

It Was Diemer! Thanks MG

My last post was about a cornerstone-laying ceremony that took place back in 1947.

http://accidentalhistory.blogspot.com/2016/02/masonic-cornerstone-ceremony-1947.html.

In that post, I asked if anyone knew where this took place.  One reader posted:

MGFebruary 19, 2016 at 1:20 PM

I believe this may the laying of the cornerstone for Diemer Hall on the UCM campus. I have seen some of these photos in the UCM Archives, and I believe they are the same.

So I went to Diemer and took a look.  Here's the very same stone that was featured in the last blog.

The Simmons Studio collection of negatives also shows Diemer Hall as it looked when it was completed in 1947.

Students parked their cars out on Maquire Street.

They don't do that anymore.

Masonic Cornerstone Ceremony 1947

I really miss Lisa.  She could have found an article or booklet about this ceremony in the bat of an eye.  Me? I spent an hour looking through the Masonic Organizations files with no luck at all.  I have no idea where this took place.  Maybe it wasn't even in this county.

I need a lot of help from you guys.  Does anyone know where this ceremony happened?

Before anyone else arrives on the scene, an old woman pauses to look up at the camera while a technician gets the sound system ready.

The stone is ready to be lifted into place.

Waiting for the crowd to gather.

The celebration starts with a parade.

Dignitaries introduce other dignitaries as the stone begins to rise

Dignitaries make speeches.

A detail from the above picture.

Dignitaries make presentations.

A detail from the above picture.

A few words over the stone.

Masons admit they know nothing about masonry.  Hire real masons to place the cornerstone. (Note worker under the stone.)

I added closeup pictures of the kids who attended the ceremony because they are the most likely to be alive after nearly 70 years.  Maybe you were one of those kids and know something more about this day.  Here is another details from a picture that I didn't use.

Combat Patches

I've called this piece, "Combat Patches," because once you've been to a war zone, you're entitled to wear the patch of the unit you served with on your right shoulder.  The patch of your current unit goes on your left shoulder.  In all of these pictures, the soldiers have turned there right sleeves to the camera to show that they are combat veterans.

The fact that the uniforms don't have name tapes on them tells me that this is pre- 1955.  These pictures could have been taken during the Korean War, but I suspect that most of these men saw action during WWII.

These pictures were filed in a box under, "military recruiters."  Just the fact that they were part of the Simmons Studio collection of negatives makes me think that they are photographs of local men, but I don't recognize any of the people or the building and only one of the patches.

This old soldier is a bird colonel in an infantry unit.  I can't see the combat patch on his right shoulder very well. I stopped in at the local National Guard armory and they couldn't help me.

If he were in an infantry unit in the MO Army National Guard, then he would, more than likely, have been member of the 35th Infantry Division which saw action in Europe during WWII.  Here's the combat patch he would have been wearing. 

This next fellow is easier to figure out:

His easy-to-identify 7th Army patch tells me that he served with General George Patton across North Africa and then pushed into Sicily and finally forced marched across France to meet the enemy and push him back into Germany. 

Here's the same two men with some other combat veterans.

They might all be part of the recruiting staff. They seem to be standing in a military facility.  The only facility of that type in Warrensburg would be the local National Guard building, but it doesn't have a balcony.  Maybe this is an inside view of Warrensburg's National Guard building that burned down in the early 50s.

Here's our 7th Army vet welcoming new members into the unit:

Finally, here's a line of recruits who haven't received their uniforms yet.  Although they are in civilian clothing, some of them may have already served in the active military and are coming back in as National Guard members.

If anyone recognizes the people or the building in any of these photos, please let me know.  Also, if you have any more information about the history of the patches or of the units depicted here, please leave a comment.