Chester Chatter: Days of duckpin bowling, skating

By Ruthie Douglas
©2020 Telegraph Publishing LLC

With school out for the summer, my sister and I were not often bored. There was much we could do.

The Community House across from the Post Office in downtown Springfield offered lots to do.

They held a record hop on many Friday nights. There was duckpin bowling. And on Saturdays there was my favorite, rollerskating, held both in the afternoons and evenings.

Up the street at the movie theater, double features were also offered on Saturdays. We used the swimming pool at Riverside almost every day.

With the Covid-19 virus, our children cannot enjoy any of these activities. Let’s hope that they and their families are creative and come up with fun things to do. Not every child has a computer and not every child has a sibling to play with.

Let’s hope we can be back to the good times once again, when doctors, researchers and scientists determine that we can once again go about our lives safely.

News and notes from here and there

Sally White Bratton and Sylvia Clark Griggs called to say they had been classmates of Warren Mackensen and remember the game room in the basement of the Fullerton Inn, which Warren’s parents owned.

Good times were had with the jukebox, the dart board and pool table.

My heart goes out to Lisa Farley on the loss of her son Michael, who was just 39. Michael, his brother Kevin and father Peter were my landscapers for many years. Their work caused many a driver to stop their cars to look at their work and offer high praise for it.

The Easter Bunny found many ways to visit Chester this year, even though group gatherings were not allowed.