Metaline memories: Part 1

In response to our call for “Superman” memories, Gene Adams of Metaline , not Metaline Falls, Wash. , e-mailed us a commentary that he titled “Superman in Perspective.” It came in too late to be included in today’s story, so I’ve decided to post it here in two parts.

Following is the first half:

The late ’30s and most of the ’40s – that’s in the first half of the last century, in case you need a time frame – were the acme and epitome of the comic-book era . There were other delights, but none better than to have just traded for 10 comic books; 10 comic books and none that you had read. Make that a trade on a long winter night in Old Metaline, when not all of the houses had converted to electricity and everyone heated with wood. Simple life, simple pleasures.

The reason I write this is it strokes my pleasure center to think on that time when comic books proliferated, and it took so little to make kids happy. For 10 cents, one thin dime, you got a half hour of exciting entertainment. (More than a few grownups enjoyed reading a comic book, too!) When darkness and the hour forced all the boys and girls inside from whatever was going on outside, a comic book finished off the evening. Comic books were our television.

I have to digress and mention Tuesdays. Tuesday was radio comedy night, and we all gathered around the radio and tuned in KHQ out of Spokane. “Fibber McGee and Molly,” Jack Benny, Bob Hope , Red Skelton, Burns and Allen, “I Love a Mystery” with Jack, Doc and Reggie; a late show that left you with goose bumps at bed time. Half-hour segments of fun that came Bang! Bang! Bang! A round of applause, please, for those who wrote for radio.

Wednesdays at school, we would all be repeating the best lines from the night before. Especially, Red Skelton’s “Mean Widdle Kid,” whose great line was, “If I dood it I get a whipping.” Poignant pause – then, “I dood it!”

Comedy night for the ears and comic books for the eyes filled the void of living without television.

I should throw in caveat. As I remember, girls seemed to have small interest in comic books. I never traded a single comic book with a girl, and when I think of the format of the comics, they were geared to a boy’s psyche. The “Archie” series of comic books were probably written specifically for girls, although the boys read them along with the rest of the comics. Perhaps some girls read them, too.