CITY'S HANGOUTS CHANGE THROUGH 20TH CENTURY

Through the decades of the 20th century, young people in Cape Girardeau have hung out at places with colorful names: Wimpy's, the Rainbow Room, The Palms, the Blue Hole.

The number of hangouts has diminished with the years until, at the dawn of 1995, the most popular meeting place has become the climate-controlled, security-patrolled city of shops called the West Park Mall.

Ironically, Cape Girardeau was once that self-contained, a town where people walking to the movies or a drug store soda fountain created their own little sidewalk traffic jams on a pleasant night in the spring, summer or fall.

But from the days of Model T's to '90s nights of window-rattling rap, one youthful constant has remained: Every generation in Cape Girardeau has hung out by cruising Broadway.

Paula Kempe, who graduated from Central High School in 1925, doesn't remember that many choices of hangouts. "What entertainment we had you made yourself," she said.

Kempe, who played in the orchestra at the Orpheum Theatre, says cars already were important to people back then. "For entertainment we would take rides in a car at night. We'd make the loop and always end up at I. Ben Miller's and get an ice cream soda."

I. Ben Miller's ice cream was much-loved by Cape Girardeans in the first part of the century. The shop was in the 400 block of Broadway.

In Kempe's cruising days, Broadway ended at Capaha Park and the loop included South Sprigg Street to the quarry, where everyone at some time stopped for a barbecue at the Blue Hole restaurant.

Ice cream parlors must have been popular hangouts in the 1920s. Dorothy Goodwin, a 1928 graduate of Central High, remembers the one in the building currently occupied by Howard's at the northwest corner of Broadway and Pacific.

"In the daytime, after school, we went to Clifton's," she said. "I lived on Ellis Street and we'd go down there."

Goodwin's friend Mildred Vogelsang often was the driver on their teen-age excursions. "We always had a car and I never minded chasing around," she says.

The cruising often resembled a popular children's game. "You'd see boys you knew and you'd try to get away from them. It was a case of tag," she said. "I don't think our parents would have been very approving."

Vogelsang recalls that Clifton's at some point became Mickey's. "You went there and had a Coke when you had a date," she said. "It was one of the primary teen-age spots."

The '30s

New hangouts arrived in the 1930s. A particularly popular one was Haman's Sandwich Shop, which opened in 1935 at the northeast corner of Kingshighway and Cape Rock Drive.

Morris Haman grew up helping his parents, Albert and Kate, in the shop, which provided curb service and had a jukebox and dance floor. Both high school and college students were attracted to the atmosphere.

Mickey's, the confectionery, became The Ritz, which gained a reputation for fighting. Some of those scraps, one patron suggests, might have had something to do with the college's insistence at the time that all freshmen had to wear beanies.

Another hangout was the Shady Grove on South Sprigg. Though actually a nightclub that served barbecue, teen-agers hung out there, too. "They weren't too strict back in those days," Haman said.

One of Cape Girardeau's best-loved hangouts during this era was Jos. L. Jones, in the 700 block of Broadway on the south side. The restaurant was enclosed on only three sides and the floor was covered with peanut shells.

Customers of all ages came for the cold beer and root beer in frosted mugs, the free popcorn in coffee cans on the tables and in the booths, and "the best chili in town," according to one patron.

Jones's restaurant closed every year when the weather turned cold and closed for good sometime after World War II, reportedly with the health inspector's blessing.

A number of these establishments doubtless were off-limits to black Cape Girardeans for at least the first half of the 20th century and in some cases beyond. But young black adults found their own places to hang out.

One was the Black Masonic Lodge at 17 N. Sprigg St. Dating back at least to the 1930s, the lodge offered after-school shuffleboard, checkers, dominoes, hamburgers, hotdogs and a jukebox for dances. The lodge also had a stage where vaudeville performers did their act, and a boxing ring in the basement. The lodge closed the building in the 1960s.

Fred Lee, the lodge's secretary, said the Cobb School at Merriwether and Ellis was another source of entertainment for many years, sponsoring fairs and sock hops on Friday nights.

Lee said the Esquire, Broadway and Rialto theaters did not allow blacks in until ordered to do so by the courts in the 1960s.

Some nightspot hangouts for blacks old enough to drink were Porter's in Smelterville, the Blue Front on Good Hope and Charlie Young's on Water Street.

Hangouts were known as "jelly joints" in the 1930s, according to Wilver Wessel, retired Cape Girardeau postmaster. One of the most popular in his day was Dormeyer's, a drug store at the current site of the Playdium on Broadway.

Many high school students in the 1930s and '40s made Dormeyer's soda fountain their after-school destination. If they weren't there in the booths listening to the jukebox they could be found sitting on the wall across the street.

Later on, Dormeyer's opened a downstairs area for dancing.

Charles Brune remembers Dormeyer's as a cheap date. "You could go there and have a date on a dime. Cokes were a nickel," he recalled.

Kilgore's, another drug store next door in the current Pagliai's building, also had a soda fountain frequented by high school students.

Another popular hangout in the 1930s was the Rainbow Room, which attracted a somewhat older crowd to the Hotel Idan-Ha at the southwest corner of Broadway and Fountain.

The Colonial Tavern and the Alvarado opened at the western end of Broadway, selling both food and gas.

The '40s

At the Palms in the 1940s, the Mills Brothers could be heard singing "Up the Lazy River" on the jukebox. The nightspot was on the west side of Kingshighway near the entrance to Arena Park.

The Rainbow Room also continued to be a hotspot, especially with the pilots-in-training at Harris Field during the war. One resident said the soldiers used to hang around the store counters downtown hoping to entice young saleswomen into dancing with them at the Rainbow Room.

Dormeyer's and Kilgore's were still after-school stop-offs and the Blue Hole remained a popular destination, especially for a barbecue and chocolate milk after a movie date.

Two other eateries that continued to develop loyal followings were the Colonial Tavern and the Alvarado, a restaurant housed in a Spanish-style building at the northeast corner of Broadway and Kingshighway.

A little round drive-in called the Park 'N' Eat that opened along the western end of Broadway eventually became Pfister's. Pfister's remained popular into the '50s, '60s and '70s, and may have been the first Cape Girardeau drive-in to install an electronic ordering system.

Across the river, the Purple Crackle beckoned with dancing, beer and back-room gambling. One patron remembers getting his license at 16 and almost immediately driving across the bridge for beer.

The Colony Club was an East Cape Girardeau attraction as well. Both the Purple Crackle and Colony Club booked big-name dance bands.

Wimpy's, another hangout established in the '40s, remains a Cape Girardeau institution today.

TUESDAY: Let's go to Wimpy's.