AFTER THE RALLY chapter 35

Saturday nights often meant heading up to Betty’s house or maybe Kathy’s house or even Al’s house after the YFC Rally. I looked forward to this time of fun and just being with my friends. People brought snacks or ran to get something because you can’t have the gang without food. Popcorn was big. I wonder how many gallons, or maybe tons we went through.

If we went to Betty’s, the living room was always dark for the 10:15 start of syndicated horror movies presented by local actor Gregg Dunn as Gregore. The shows began September of 1958 on KMTV channel 3 in Omaha, NB. That means it would have only been for our last two years of high school. The first film was Frankenstien. I don’t know if we saw that one, in fact, I can’t remember the names of any of the movies. I do remember actors Boris Karloff, Vincent Price, Bella Lugosi, Lon Chaney and John Barrymore. I doubt the real point of Gregore was to watch the movie. It was more likely that the point was to try and scare others in the room. Someone might make a door squeak, or make a quiet but spooky noise or waiting for just the right moment a frightening scream or a touch to a girls arm or shoulder. Even if we weren’t paying attending to the movie for most of it, we were all focused as the horror parts approached.

The point of being together was to talk, laugh and play some parlor games. Most of those games would seem peculiar to kids today, but we loved them. Games like: Crossed or Uncrossed, Murder (a winking game), Rhythm (sore fingers and legs), Hot or Cold, Charades, Four on a Couch and too many more to repeat. Some would bring a new game or we would revert to one of our old favorites. Every one of these games produced laughter. We had fun and not one got drunk.

I loved those Saturday nights because of the gang. Christian kids having a great time drew me into who they were and the God they loved.  It was a place to fit, a place to belong.

Tepeeing was huge and Kathy’s house was a primary target. There were two big beautiful trees just dying to have toilet paper hanging from their branches. Those white rolls of paper blowing in the wind and glowing in the moonlight ere a wonder to behold. It was easy to clean up if you got to it before the morning dew soaked the paper and it stuck to the leaves. Katy’s wide, flat front yard was always a challenge to get in, get the job done and get away without being seen. I suspect she always knew who did it, but if not, this is a confession that I was one of them.

Thos was only part of the grand adventures. There was also drive-in movies, drive-in burger joints (think Happy Days). We enjoyed miniature golf, trampolines, Playland Park and some of the area lakes, but I’ll get to those later.