North Side Stories Hillyard’s Heyday, Natatorium Park And Simple Pleasures Helped Make Some Cherished Memories For North Side Residents Who Grew Up During A Time Of Relative Peace And Safety

No strip malls or fast food joints. The North Division Y was in the boondocks. Cars were bumper-to-bumper only in parking lots.

Growing up on Spokane’s North Side during the last 60 years was like living in a quiet fun park, say three who spent their childhoods there. Life was simple and happy.

There was always something to do. South Hill was sleepy residential; the North Side was the place for disco dances and slab dances, drive-ins and speakeasies.

Crime, fear and the hot issues of the day passed like summer clouds. Walking a mile home at midnight was taken for granted. The Depression, World War II and hippie protests were seen through a fish tank; the world was happening on the other side, but rarely did it spend much time on the North Side.

Virginia Hansen was raised in Hillyard during the booming railroad years. From her childhood home on East Sanson, she saw the 1920s and ‘30s roaring by with elegant high school dances at the Davenport Hotel and dates who stopped at speakeasies for bottles of bathtub gin.

In the 1950s, Fred Wanless was an aspiring jazz musician who listened to hepcats like Harry James and Maynard Ferguson at the Nat Park auditorium. Cruising was hip, and so were grey flannel suits.

The ‘60s hit Shelly Clarry a few years after the Summer of Love, just in time for her graduation in 1970 from Shadle Park High School. Her boyfriend had long hair, her friends wore flowers painted on their cheeks.

Hansen, Wanless and Clarry grew up on the North Side and love it enough to stay.

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