The 1950’s in Bandera had a little bit of everything for everyone. Mansfield Park and The Cabaret Club provided dances for adult entertainment. The Mansfield Park was more family oriented allowing the kids to join in. That tradition was carried on later by The Mayan Dude Ranch dance nights at the Wranglers Roost. The Stompede Days offered mostly adult entertainment and little for the kids other than the parade.
The teens of that era had Teen Retreat dances, the Bantex theater and the Trail Drive-in. Of course the river activities were popular too but the drought of the 50’s put a damper on that for quite a spell. I believe it was late in the fifties decade that dragging Main became popular and just maybe it was because of that limited river access.
I don’t recall ever seeing many people dragging Main on horseback in earlier times like they sometimes do now. The trailriders from the Mayan Ranch stuck to the backstreets and the river trails.
I became a teen in 1960 and dragging Main was already going on then and I’m pretty sure my twin sisters who were freshmen in high school at the time first got our family started in the tradition. Also, it was pretty common at the time to see unlicensed teens driving on the backstreets of town while running errands.
Another tradition from the 50’s era that carried on through the 60’s and beyond was the Halloween night egg fights. Epic doesn’t come close to describing it. Anyone who participated will have stories that they have shared over and over through the years. It was the one weekday night when kids who lived outside of town came to join in. Old ranch trucks with wooden sideboards loaded with kids and cases of eggs were doing battle from one end of town to the other. There were a couple chicken farms around the area at the time and they sold out of eggs days in advance.
For me and my friends the earliest years of the 50’s decade revolved around riding our bikes and playing baseball. I also stayed busy trying to protect my bag of marbles as the “keepsies” marble wars were in full swing. All those activities took place close to our home in Polander Town and around the grounds of St. Joseph Catholic School. We also enjoyed days on the river, but they were very limited due to the drought. The threats of contracting polio streaming non-stop from my mom still ring clearly in my head.
It would have been nice if she had warned me about the danger of playing marbles with Angel Martinez on the caliche playground by the old cemetery instead. Seems she was more concerned about me wearing holes in the knees of my pants than losing those marbles that were costing me ten cents a bag down at Fitzgerald’s Store. Looking back, I keep wondering what he did with all those marbles. A five-gallon bucket full would be a conservative estimate of my losses to him.
Now let me introduce you to modern day Bandera. No theater or drive-in. Lord forbid anyone would throw eggs on Halloween. Probably would be a felony in this day and time. And sadly the current drought has river activities limited once again.
No one is dragging Main Street in these current Growing Up In Bandera times. I doubt seriously it has to do with high gas prices since I’ve seen the vehicles teens drive these days. I don’t even think it’s those traffic jam creating lights we have been blessed with in our town. No, I think all the teens are content to sit at home and play video games and stare at their phones all night.
What if we had a new movie theater in Bandera instead of another bar, church, real estate office or dollar store? What if? That’s all I’m sayin’!
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