Story of Grandma, Part 4

Our class rented a bus and went to Lincoln for Sneak Day.  We toured the Capitol Building but only to the second floor as the building was under construction.  Capitol Beach was a pleasure park.  We tried several of the rides.  In the evening we went to a movie "The Golden Calf".  A manufacturer of ladies hosery set up a standard for the perfect calf and offered quite a prize.  His "mousie" secretary had the perfect calf.  I got sick during the movie and went to the nurses's station.  Some years later the movie came to Winside and I found out how the secretary wowed her boss.  We got back to Winside at 5:00 a.m. and graduation was that night!  I was valedictorian and Marvin Trautwein was salutatorian.  Our superintendent said, "No notes!"  I followed orders and stumbled several times but Marvin took his notes along anyway.

Several summers during my high school years I worked in the drug store.  Other summers I was a "hired girl".

I went to Wayne State College and stayed with Uncle Chris and his second wife Mildred.  Mildred's mother was an invalid -- paralyzed from the waist down.  I think she must have been some character for I seem to remember she and her boyfriend had a disagreement -- he shot her in the back and so she was paralyzed.  I didn't pay board or room for I was to be there with her whenever Uncle Chris and Mildred wanted to go places. 

At that time one year of college provided you with a certificate good for three years teaching a country school.  My first school was Dist. 86 a few miles north of Hoskins.  I boarded with Casper Walkers.  There were four young people there.  The oldest girl Evelyn was my age.  Then there was Myron or Mike as he was called, Mildred and Bud.  I can't remember Bud's name.  They were active in their church and I went to the young peoples' meetings with them.  I stayed there two years and the 3rd year I was at Dist. 86 I boarded with Albert Behmers.  The first year I taught I received $70 a month for nine months.  Then with bad times it was $50 a month and I paid $10 a month for board and room.

I looked it up and Grandma was clear and correct -- the Capitol Building was under construction in 1930 and was not finished until 1932.  I, being used to the capitol building always being already built, thought maybe she meant it was being remodeled or worked on in that way.  Nope.  It was still under construction when she was there.

Capitol Beach to me has meant a housing development, but I did know that it was once an amusement park.  I found this information online: 

Salt first made the area famous. By the early 1860s, several companies were

extracting salt. When that industry declined, the water attracted people in the

late 1880s who felt it had curative benefits.

It was a time when the area was a showcase -- Lincoln's Coney Island,

some called it. William McKinley made a presidential campaign speech there in

1896. Steamboat rides carried as many as 50 people. The area provided

several decades worth of entertainment. Carnival rides, a saltwater swimming

area, a park, a ballroom, a wooden roller coaster, a fun house and electric

bumper cars all had their heyday at one time or another in the lake's history.

It sounds like the park was there for quite awhile and the lake was drained in 1950, so the above description probably is somewhat accurate as to what Grandma experienced there.  I don't have dates for the postcard photos but thought they might be of interest anyway.