The Casper Journal :: Casper's Community Newspaper

Recently I received correspondence announcing Natrona County High School's graduating Class of 1957 will celebrate its 50-year class reunion this August. Wow, how did half a century slip by without me noticing ... and who is that grey-haired old guy I see in the mirror every morning?

Anyway, as soon as the shock wore off, nostalgia set in. I went to the garage, dug out the 1957 Mustang and began leafing through it. Some of the folks pictured therein I still see occasionally. They are as grizzled and grumpy as me.

The majority, however, I've not seen since the spring of 1957. Consequently, in my mind, they look exactly as they did when their yearbook pictures were taken. They won't change until I see them again in August.

The converse is also true. These folks will come back to Casper with a mental picture of how people and things looked when they left. This point was driven home as I turned to the advertisers section in the back of the yearbook. Various businesses had purchased space in which to tout their wares, and it struck me that a great many of them were no longer around.

Since many of these advertisers were clustered along Center Street or Second Street (which pretty much defined the business district in 1957), I tallied them up on Center from Sixth to A Street and along Second from David to Lincoln. The total came to 44.

Some of these ads are great. I particularly liked the one for A.E. Chandler's Service Station (607 E. Second). It shows the proprietor checking the tire pressure on a customer's car. How long has it been since you've seen something like that?

The Kistler Sporting Goods (245 S. Center) ad had Donna Swisher checking out "a beautiful array of Pendleton clothing." I had forgotten how pretty she was, and that I once had a crush on her (another in a long line of unrequited loves).

Charles E. Wells Music Company (121 E. Second) ran an advertisement featuring the future wife of Vice President Dick Cheney searching for the "tops in pops."

Kal's (500 S. Center) was "Casper's Most Complete Food Store," Harry Yesness (139 S. Center) was "Wyoming's Most Complete Men's Store" and Wolford's (117 E. Second) was "Casper's Largest Family Shoe Store."

However, the most striking thing about these 44 advertisers is that most of them no longer exist. In point of fact, only two, the Rialto Theater and Wolford's, are still doing business from the same physical location in which they resided in 1957.

An additional five of these establishments remain in business but have moved. Both Sears and J.C. Penney moved their operations from downtown to the Eastridge Mall. The Clare Agency moved from 162 S. Center to 290 Valley Drive.

The Casper Tribune-Herald morphed into the Casper Star-Tribune and moved from 216 E. Second to 170 Star Lane. Ayres Jewelry has moved about 50 feet, from 124 East Second to 118 E. Second).

The remaining 37 establishments, 84 percent of the 1957 advertisers, are apparently no longer in business.

That is a pretty steep rate of loss. Hopefully the Class of '57 has not suffered anything even close to such a mortality rate!

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