Kokomo
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About this ebook
Kokomo, Indiana: Then and Now takes the reader back to a simpler time in Kokomo history. Using historic images paired with contemporary photos, authors Thomas D. and Barbara Hamilton have created a charming view of the area's history and evolution.
Thomas D. Hamilton
Thomas D. Hamilton is a long-time resident of Kokomo and a feature writer for The Kokomo Perspective. His love and appreciation for his hometown is evident through each and every page of this tribute to Kokomo.
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Kokomo - Thomas D. Hamilton
Indiana.
Introduction
We move out of the past and into the present. The 1940s and 50s were a time that will never pass this way again. This book will take you back in time, to explore what it was like in small-town America.
I was born in Kokomo, Indiana in the year 1933. I had a very happy childhood. I write for the Kokomo Perspective in Kokomo, where I show pictures and tell stories of my youth. A few years ago, I had a wonderful dream come true. Arcadia Publishing notified me that they would publish my book Kokomo, Indiana in their Images of America series. I was overwhelmed at how well the book was accepted in Kokomo and other parts of the country. Everywhere I went people would say, Tom, are you doing book number two? If you are, then I want one.
So I decided to do a then-and-now-style book. I called the people of Arcadia and they said "Tom, we have a Then and Now series." That was all I needed to hear.
Can you remember when you were young and foolish? We lived in a magic wonderland of make believe. We had the world on a string, sitting on a rainbow. We never dreamed that things would ever change. How can we ever forget Hoppy, Gene, and Roy? When we were young kids, we took our cap guns to the movies. We wanted to help them out when they had a shoot-out with the bad guys. When we were fifteen, we found out about puppy love, and oh, how it could break our young hearts.
Remember how we would take our sweetheart to the small uptown drugstore? We sat in a booth, and a very strange thing happened. Her foot would touch your foot. This is what we called playing footsie
under the table. Then a sensation or chill would go from your foot and up your whole body. You became numb all over, and entered another dimension, a place where time didn’t exist. But the midnight hour struck, and gone are the theaters, department stores, and drugstores.
This is what the book is about. We will show you what is there today. It may bring a tear to your eye, but also a smile, as you take a trip from the past into the present.
–Tom Hamilton
FOX THEATER. The Fox Theater and the other movie houses were the places to be on Saturday afternoon. The Fox was located at 110 West Mulberry. At one time it was called the Paramount. The Fox showed mostly cowboy movies on the weekends. When Hoppy, Gene and Roy played, the kids were loud with their fake guns, yelling go get the bad guys.
The Fox closed their doors in 1955.
Chapter 1
DOWNTOWN
HUMPHREY PRINTING. The Humphrey’s family business began in the 1870s when William Humphrey opened a livery stable on Union Street, where the City Building is located today. William died in 1897. In 1931, Kenneth Humphrey and his son Russell opened their print shop on West Taylor Street. The shop relocated to 315 North Main Street during the 1940s. Russell’s son